Famous venture partner talks about entrepreneurship: Prepare for "march"

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A typical start-up: a simple office environment, cluttered computers, almost exclusively men's engineering team

The Anderson-Horowitz fund (Andreessen Horowitz Fund) has in recent years replaced Sequoia and Kleiner as a new generation of Silicon Valley's hottest venture capital companies. Scott Weiss, a partner of the company and co-founder of IronPort Bae, who was acquired by Cisco in 2007, recently described his experience as an entrepreneur and the things to be aware of in his venture.

The following is the full text of the article:

People often ask me how I can be a successful entrepreneur. Their questions include: Should I try to start a company now or go to graduate school? How about working in a big company for a few years?

I spent 5 years in big tech companies, 2 years in business school, and 2 years of consulting work before starting a business. Even with these experiences, I think I'm still too young to start a company. It's not that previous experiences are worthless, but the most valuable experience in running a start-up company is the involvement of a well-run start-up. I can even conclude that such a company should be in Silicon Valley and get venture capital.

Of course, you can start a business without experience, but if you already know the challenges that startups face: financing, aligning products, and nurturing culture, the chances of success are greater. These things cannot be learned from the workplace, and when you seek the support of friends and family to start the company, you have to hit it.

Why do startups have to invest in Silicon Valley? If you've just graduated from college, you may lack the experience and intuition to determine whether the company's team is good, whether the product is differentiated, and whether the market space is large enough. Although VCs are not perfect, they can do it for you after all, and their investment decisions also mean a rise in corporate fame and resources. In addition, no matter which technology field will require professionals, financial experts and functional departments (including legal, public relations, human resources, etc.). Silicon Valley has the largest ecosystem, with the most job opportunities and the biggest talent network.

So, what about grad school or going to a big company? This does not work very well. Responsibilities, roles, contacts, cause and consequences, culture, communication, risk, and intuition, these entrepreneurial capabilities must be developed in the start-up companies.

If you're trying to start a business, you can learn 5 to 10 times times more in a startup for 2-4 years than in a big company or school.

The next step is to find a suitable start-up company and join. In 1996, I came from Boston to Palo Alto, where I didn't have anyone's pulse and was saddled with more than 100,000 dollars in business school loans. But a few of the things I do are still significant:

Prepare for "March"

When most of your friends are looking for a job before they graduate, you need to be prepared for the lack of work. If you don't have enough money, you may want to take a part-time job while you're looking for work. If this step makes you feel anxious, then you need to reconsider whether to start a business.

Research

Download the latest 4 venture capital surveys from the San Jose Messenger website. These PDF documents summarize the investment ventures of VCs over the past year, including company name, financing amount, participating VCs and headquarters location. This will be an important list at the outset because these companies have recently been getting money and hiring. You can make a form, start a research, and arrange these companies according to your interests. You can also log on to VCs ' websites, see which companies are in their portfolio, and add some companies to your list if necessary.

On

The types of startups are diverse and the types of jobs in startups are diverse. If you can program, the job that suits you includes development engineers, sales engineers, and quality engineers. If you're not programmed, you need to find the best entry-level positions, perhaps customer support, product management, finance, internal sales, or business development. You also need to choose the type of startup, such as focus on the corporate market or the consumer market. The more you focus on the more you know, the more you will know about different positions and startups. You need to accumulate as much knowledge as you can before you build a network.

Make a list of goals

After the survey is completed, you need to reduce the target company to 20 to 30, and create a market map or network diagram that marks the potential stakeholders of a company, including investors, management teams, and PR companies. This may seem like an FBI investigation into a gang family, but it's not so scary. Your chances of getting an interview depend largely on whether or not you get referrals, such as some acquaintances can recommend you to the company they know. Continue to research companies, positions, competitors, and markets so that others may sound like you know a lot about what you're talking about.

Networking

I took out a list of Harvard Business School alumni, University of Florida alumni, and McKinsey colleagues. I emailed someone 15 years older than me and said, "Hey, Steve, I'm your graduate student at the University of Florida." Can we have a cup of coffee? I participated in all the 3-word "Stanford" parties. So I drank a cup and a cup of coffee. After a while, I started to ask some deeper questions and get more referrals.

I do not need to overemphasize the importance of preparation and adherence in this process. I spent 4 months preparing, researching, focusing, developing lists and networking. In August 1996, I received a passionate recommendation to join a start-up company called Hotmail, with only 12 employees. In the end, it became the most wonderful career experience of my life.

This paper is transferred from TechCrunch.