Richard Goosen: What advice do you have for entrepreneurs looking at Web 2.0 opportunities?
Mike Sikorsky: The first piece of advice I give to anyone I ever meet is to "just do it and shut up." Thunder in the mouth and lightning in the hand--stop talking. No matter how many books you read, no matter how much stuff you're going to think about, if you don't decide to do it, you're already dead anyway. Action is much better. If you act, you're good.
Second, do not work on things that no one wants. I know that sounds so stupid, but the number of companies I know that build inventory no one wants to buy is so high it's phenomenal. That is why the crowd part to me is so powerful. If you can't get a crowd around your idea, how else are going to get traction around your idea? I think if you just do it and not focus on building inventory, you're probably okay.
Third, you are probably going to screw up once to twice anyways, so you might as well start screwing up or blowing up whatever it is right now. I am not trying evangelize this idea of not being prepared and nor reading, but I also don't want to evangelize this idea of people who go away for 10 years before they want to start their company. It's like saving sex for old age. No matter how smart your team is, no matter how smart anything is, if you don't have a product that people want, you're going to have to dump whatever you're on and get that anyway. If you get those two things right and you're doing something that people like, the rest will work itself out.
Entrepreneurs are always worried that someone is going to steal their idea. Or they're worried they're structuring their capital deals wrong. I tell them, "what are you worried about?"
Of course you want to plan, of course you want to think, of course you want to read, of course, you want to do every possible thing that you can imagine to take the risk out of your company. But don't over-plan.
Paul Graham says, "my opinion is always best." So I always send anyone on coaching or trying to help out to
www.paulgraham.com and make them read his essays because he takes you through all these same points, but much better than I do.