What excites you about entrepreneurship?
The most challenging problem for a startup is: we don’t know what we don’t know. That is also the most exciting part: going through the process from “unknown unknown” to “known unknown” and then to “known known”.
What do you think are the most common mistakes novice entrepreneurs make? How can they avoid making them?
1) Defocus: working on more things than what the resources allow for;
2) Blind on “assumptions”. Sometimes, it is not that hard solving known problems; yet it could be a fatal failure to define problems based on “assumptions” or something one feels more confident about.
What outside resources were helpful for you? Business incubators, SCORE, etc.?
- Incubators
- Mentorship
- Connections
- Mouth-to-Mouth Introductions
- Headhunters specialized in related areas
What have you learned about leadership, entrepreneurship and mentoring others?
Leadership is more about making hard decisions at difficult times; Entrepreneurship is more about perseverance while walking in darkness; Mentoring is more about sharing experience and lessens.
What specific advice would you have for young women who would like to become entrepreneurs?
Take easy on negative biases, yet take the advantages of the positive ones, such as kind help from experienced people.