Over the last three years, I've learned that I'm a startup girl. I love the chaotic, exciting, difficult life of a startup. Honestly, it surprised me. I'm not sure why - I've always loved working in small, hard-working groups. My university had 18,000 undergrads and yet I ended up in a program where I knew almost everyone in my 60-person (hey that was a decently small size!) classes.
Jeff Bussgang, entrepreneur turned venture capitalist, wrote a great article recently called "Should I Become an Entrepreneur?" Some of the thoughts were not new to me, while there was one that really struck a chord and got me thinking...
Jeff starts off by naming some of the clear reasons why you might start your own company:
1.) Passion. Many entrepreneurs - at least founders - that I've met or read about, had a real passion for an industry or solving a particular need. This makes you so excited to work on your idea that no nay-sayers can convince you out of it and no lack of cash, or really any obstacle, can stop you from plowing through to achieve your goal.
2.) Fun. There is truly a different culture and lifestyle of working at a startup versus a larger company. It may be tough, but it's a lot of fun and it's incredibly exciting how fast things move and grow. My first three months at HubSpot felt like a year, and now three and half years later, I feel like it's been 10. There's a lot of experience I've been able to pack into that time, which is why it feels like such a long time. You get to learn so much, and you get to work closely with a hopefully equally passionate group of people that make you excited to come to work every day and work as hard as you need to in order to make your venture successful.
Now came the surprising one:
3.) Values. Jeff doesn't actually phrase it in this way, but I'll explain why I do. He talks about things like being able and excited to work in the "jungle" or even "dirt road" that is startup life. It's true that, in a startup, nothing is clear cut. There is no clear path to success and you're frequently trying to figure out things that you feel you have zero qualifications to do. So anyone who wants more of a clear-cut direction and role will likely not enjoy being part of a startup. And so he poses the question about how one's environment - whether it be parents, schools, political ecosystem - can foster entrepreneurship. When I think about my own upbringing, it suddenly clicks that it actually may have played a role in my love of startup life. My family emigrated from the former Soviet Union when I was two years old. This had a couple impacts on my life, in particular in regards to my values:
i) For one, emigration (in any which way it happens) is a story of dedication and a willingness to leave behind what is comfortable but broken for a chance at something greater. It opens up your mind to new possibilities and an ability - a requirement - to think beyond your limited world as you know it. These qualities are incredibly important in having an undefined job where you must imagine your own possibilities and be dedicated enough to push through the uncertain times to achieve your goals.
ii) There's something funny (ok, not great) that I learned about Russian schools as compared to American ones. It's definitely not the case everywhere, but Russian schools seem to teach, more than American schools, that there is no one right answer or one right way to determine the answer to a math problem. Rather, mathematical principles are the foundation to solving problems. In my public school, I would be taught to solve a math problem in a particular way and would have to show that I derived at the right answer in that particular way. When my parents would teach me an alternative way to solve the problem, some of my teachers would reject it. How did I get at the right answer in a different way? It didn't make sense. The reason I bring this is up is because startups don't have a formula. You need to have your principles and some creativity in applying different ideas to solve your problems.
iii) The other value I inherited from my family - and this one really makes me smile - is the importance of learning. And in a startup, you are always learning. This might have been the very first thing that drew me to the startup world - the opportunity to learn so much more in three months than I would in a year in a big company job starting off at the bottom of a boring corporate ladder. Startups keep you on your toes at all times because they are constantly changing and posing new challenges that seem bigger and scarier than the last. It's incredible.
If you think about your own environment - your friends, family, experiences - have they steered you toward or away from being an entrepreneur? They can have a surprisingly large effect on your entrepreneurial inclination.
Flickr photo by Walt Jabsco
