Dear SaaStr: What thoughts do truly successful entrepreneurs have?
What successful entrepreneurs know:
- It will work. Maybe we’ll fail, maybe we won’t be the ultimate winners or the ones that bring it to market. But the idea? It will work.
- They can recruit the team. It takes an amazing team to build anything and we know how to recruit the team, especially the few amazing folks we need in the beginning to get it off the ground.
- They’re not just going to quit. Yes, it may take a lot longer to get the first customers, the first $1m in ARR, etc. Yes the 1.0 version of our product may not exactly be what the market needs. But we’re not going to quit.
- They’ll get the money. The may mean angels or VCs. It may mean working with almost nothing for 24 months. It may mean bootstrapping. But we’ll get the minimum capital we need to get it off the ground.
- The risk isn’t that huge and it’s worth it. This is a subtle point, but because the best entrepreneurs know (1) it will work, (2) they can recruit the team, (3) they won’t quit and (4) they’ll get the capital they need, at least barely enough … they then (5) know it’s not that risky. This crazy idea and venture isn’t that risky. Many entrepreneurs don’t see themselves as taking nearly as much risk as outsiders do.
A classic example from 2006:
https://www.tesla.com/blog/secret-tesla-motors-master-plan-just-between-you-and-me
And one of our favorite SaaStr sessions showing all 5 points here, from Therese Tucker, founder and CEO of Blackline:
