Handshake 2.0 launched three months ago today and I have been reflecting on what I have learned from the process. I have been in the fascinating position of being an entrepreneur in a high-tech business acceleration center, previously known as a high-tech start-up incubator, so I have had guidance from great minds and from great experience.
I started my start-up, however, before I entered the acceleration center. Let’s just say some legacy issues have been brought to my attention, now that I’ve been privy to the latest and greatest in entrepreneurship.
Although some pundits advise quitting a day job to devote oneself completely to one’s idea, others advise keeping a day job at least until one has customers for one’s products or services.
Uh, well, having already left my previous position, I pitched my idea, got it provisionally accepted on an experimental basis, i.e. no moolah, started a sole proprietorship and went chunk by chunk through my savings, converted that provisional accepter into a client, then realized my idea could be scaled up, so started an incorporated business and had beautiful business cards made and chunked a few more withdrawals and pitched my scaled up idea and got it provisionally accepted on an experimental basis, i.e. no moolah, and then I got a friends and family loan to cover my insufficient funds notice.
What would I do differently? Nothing.
I, like many entrepreneurs with start-ups, have unrelenting passion for my idea. If I had stayed in my previous position, done my idea piecemeal, slowly, slowly pitched it here and there, gotten a onesy-twosy customer thing going? Soul pain.
I thought my idea was good when it was small. Scaled up, it’s exquisite. I think it can be something that inspires and moves and lifts and reaches.
I must be an entrepreneur.
I’m crazier about my idea than I was when I started.
As it turns three months old, thank you with the deepest gratitude to readers, clients, partners, and friends of Handshake 2.0.
