Our 10 favorite pieces of advice from Austin entrepreneurs in 2016

by Kelly O'Halloran
December 27, 2016

Austin tech leaders shared some great advice throughout the year, shedding light on many of the lessons they learned when growing a business. With that in mind, we highlighted 10 of the best tips we heard as a guide for emerging entrepreneurs with big New Year's resolutions for 2017. 

 

"The main lesson for any entrepreneur I think is to make sure you hire the right people," said Bjorn Zellweger, CEO of MVF's U.S. operations, in our piece about how Austin tech leaders inspire and hire. "When you start out you have to be very careful to get the right people on the bus and choose colleagues with the right values to fit your culture."

 

“Do as much yourself as possible,” said Chris Gulczynsk, Bumble's CPO and Tinder's co-founder, in our piece on Bumble's product team. Then, as soon as you can, reach out to good designers and say, ‘We don’t have any money. Would you just look at this and give us some pointers?’ Maybe you can’t hire them right away, but start building that relationship. People in the design community are usually willing to help.”
 

 

"You have to have a viable idea," said SchooLinks founder Katie Fang when we talked with her about what it's like to launch a company. "Ideas are very cheap. The execution part of it is very, very difficult. You don’t need a fancy business plan, or to write out all the pros and cons. Honestly, calculate your gut feelings — you just got to go for it."

 

"Learn the dynamics of a board's role and what each board member cares individually about," said Vast CEO John Price when we asked him what he wish someone would've told him about building a company. "It doesn’t make the boards bad, they’re just different companies with their own investment funds and firms."

 

"Being an entrepreneur isn’t about being a billionaire," said William Worley, founder of Symbiot, Chaotic Moon, and Honest Dollar when he was featured in our Serial Entrepreneur Series. "Being an entrepreneur isn’t about being judged by money or success. Being an entrepreneur is about the entrepreneurial credo and being able to live that. Being able to incorporate stress into your lifestyle that’s not emotionally or physically damaging. Being able to be objective and work with the facts, not emotion."

 

"If you are going to start a company with other people make sure you really know your partners," said Invodo founder Gard Mayer in an October piece that highlighted advice for new founders. "Starting a company is like getting married. It can be beautiful if everything works as planned, but it can get really ugly if it doesn't. You need to know how your partners will act in stressful situations? Are they accountable? Can they be trusted? Do you share the same values? Do you actually like them and most of all do you like hanging out with them because you're going to have to spend a lot of time together."
 
 
"Create a culture where it's not 'Us vs. Them', but it's 'Us vs. The World,'" said Jay Manickam, founder of uShip and Everfest when he was featured in our Entrepreneurial Journey series. "Management and employees need to be really aligned — especially early on — about what the mission is and what type of culture your building and why you’re building it. You can’t have a lot of folks who aren’t on board because too many things can go wrong at an early stage company. Find the right folks who understand the sacrifices you’re going to make to build something special."
 
 
“You need to throw out everything you learned at the last company you built," said Spredfast CEO Rod Favaron when we asked him about his current company's hypergrowth. "Look at the business you’re growing now through completely fresh eyes. I think it’s too easy to rely on a historical experience.”
 

"Make sure you have a customer before you have a product," said Matt Altschul, founder of CM4, in a profile on how he saved his failing startup. "It’s very rare you should make the product before you ensure you have a customer. Unless you’re a visionary like Apple making a super secret product that will change the market."
 
 
 
 
"[Entrepreneurship] is not a get rich quick scheme — it’s really, really difficult," said TrustRadius founder and CEO Vinay Bhagat in our Entrepreneurial Journey series. "You will have massive ups and downs and you will need to be able to lead through challenges. If you can be successful, it’s extremely gratifying."
 
 
 
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