The journey of an entrepreneur is not an easy one, and that's putting it in kind words. I mean, name one entrepreneur who said starting a company was easy. But wait. Let's have a second of honesty. We like the challenge, we like having to figure out a solution to all the problems that come with starting your own company. We like to create something, analyze it, fix the problems and then grow that experiment as big as we can make it. We are certainly not afraid of challenges, in fact, we welcome them.
Thankfully, this month, TechInMotion hosted Jon Kraft, CoFounder of Pandora and current CEO of Thrively, who gave us what he calls the 6 necessary traits needed for the journey of an entrepreneur.
1. Relentless optimism
When Jon and his cofounder first decided to start Pandora, they made a call to a possible investor. Within the first four minutes of deciding to start Pandora, someone had already offered to invest in them and their company. Four. Minutes. After this, they were turned down by investors after investors. He said that raising the rest of their round was "near impossible." Optimism drives you to continue on until success.
2. Creativity
Believe it or not, originally, a B2C model didn't work for Pandora. Kraft notes that you "have to be creative with projects, deals, ideas and directions, too." Because a ton of other people are doing what you're doing, it's about your product being better than theirs.
3. Perseverance
Pandora started in 1999. It didn't take off until 2007. Before their hockey stick growth, they had to keep raising money. Kraft mentioned that "maybe 1 in 20 people gave [them] money. Just enough to survive."
4. Intuition
Intuition isn't exactly something you can develop overnight. "You just have to have a vision, but trying to process those data points is very difficult. (…), it's not enough. You have to use your intuition."
5. Passion
Every entrepreneur knows that passion is a must. No passion. No product. Jon noted that "entrepreneurship is so hard that if it's not your passion, you're hitting your head against the wall."
6. Create value
What it all comes down to is creating value and your product. Jon deems it "an enormous driving force to people who start their own business." Even the VCs who didn't invest in Pandora originally, still used the product. Jon recalled that after he would shut off a VC's access to the demo, they would email or call him back and ask "what happened?" An astounding 70% of people asked why he turned off the Pandora demo. Although they did not invest, they created value for their users, value that was important to users.
Thankfully, this month, TechInMotion hosted Jon Kraft, CoFounder of Pandora and current CEO of Thrively, who gave us what he calls the 6 necessary traits needed for the journey of an entrepreneur.
1. Relentless optimism
When Jon and his cofounder first decided to start Pandora, they made a call to a possible investor. Within the first four minutes of deciding to start Pandora, someone had already offered to invest in them and their company. Four. Minutes. After this, they were turned down by investors after investors. He said that raising the rest of their round was "near impossible." Optimism drives you to continue on until success.
2. Creativity
Believe it or not, originally, a B2C model didn't work for Pandora. Kraft notes that you "have to be creative with projects, deals, ideas and directions, too." Because a ton of other people are doing what you're doing, it's about your product being better than theirs.
3. Perseverance
Pandora started in 1999. It didn't take off until 2007. Before their hockey stick growth, they had to keep raising money. Kraft mentioned that "maybe 1 in 20 people gave [them] money. Just enough to survive."
4. Intuition
Intuition isn't exactly something you can develop overnight. "You just have to have a vision, but trying to process those data points is very difficult. (…), it's not enough. You have to use your intuition."
5. Passion
Every entrepreneur knows that passion is a must. No passion. No product. Jon noted that "entrepreneurship is so hard that if it's not your passion, you're hitting your head against the wall."
6. Create value
What it all comes down to is creating value and your product. Jon deems it "an enormous driving force to people who start their own business." Even the VCs who didn't invest in Pandora originally, still used the product. Jon recalled that after he would shut off a VC's access to the demo, they would email or call him back and ask "what happened?" An astounding 70% of people asked why he turned off the Pandora demo. Although they did not invest, they created value for their users, value that was important to users.
Do you encompass these traits? What would you add? Comment below!
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