The New Entrepreneur

Last night, I came across a really great quote from a familiar name, Bill Reichert:

If you examine the DNA of the New Entrepreneur, you will see many traits that characterize the earlier versions: the desire to do something different, the boldness to follow a different path, and the persistence to follow through in spite of extraordinary obstacles. And you will also see some new traits: The New Entrepreneurs are more battle scarred, less innocent, more realistic, less delusional, more bootstrap-oriented, less dependent on traditional venture capital, more operational, and less IPO-focused. They are less naive and have more business discipline and savvy. This business savvy comes not from getting an M.B.A., but rather from living through the last 10 years and trying to launch new businesses during the dramatic rollercoaster we experienced. The entrepreneurs we see today are, frankly, more capable than they were in the 80s and 90s-and they have to be.

The New Entrepreneur reflects the new requirements for success in the new environment in which companies are being created and grown. First of all, there is no such thing as a lone entrepreneur in a successful high-tech startup. Although individuals become the icons for companies and entrepreneurship, the real story is that every successful company is truly built by a team. This has always been true: Packard had his Hewlett, Gates had his Allen, Jobs had his Wozniak, Yang had his Filo. Today, it is even more true and more necessary.

Source: Larta.org, "The New Entrepreneur" via Business Opportunities Weblog

I first met Bill at one of the now infamous Garage.com Bootcamps many years back. That was when the DotBomb landgrab was still very much alive and inexperienced me wanted to learn about the process. More recently, however, I had the pleasure of working with Bill during the Art of the Start Conference - the first event we recorded Sparkcasts for.

The big difference was about the 6 years in between those meetings. It's a difference Bill quite succinctly characterized above. I've had to express this many times recently as I've been recruiting my team. One thing I've mentioned is that now feels like the first time I have all my ducks in a row. Perhaps most telling is that this education didn't come cheaply. Roughly speaking, I've spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to learn what I know. Though there's almost always more failure to talk about than success, I wouldn't change a thing. The VCs weren't the only ones to lose their shirts.

Are you a new entrepreneur or just an old one with new clothes? Your answer might surprise you.