I very much like the comparison Mike McDerment, CEO of FreshBooks, made recently between entrepreneurs and artists.
As a fan of Romantic Realism, a term that usually refers to a type of art that deals with the themes of volition and value while also acknowledging objective reality and the importance of technique, to me, Mike’s is an very fitting comparison.
An entrepreneur, like an artist, must:
- Choose to shape/reshape/create something new he thinks will be of value to the market based on, hopefully, objective information he has gathered; and
- Produce something that:
- Works for the customer and meets their needs (Technology – 10% of the failure of early-stage companies);
- Satisfies a market need, is accessible to the market (they understand it!) and acts according to the realities of the market (Market – 30% of the reason for failure of early stage companies); and
- His/her team’s personal competencies can deliver (Team – 60% of the reason for failure of early stage companies).
The comparison could continue but I think Mike did a great job of it!
I would say one thing, in addition to Mike’s comments, about starving artists: Entrepreneurs, like artists, 
must produce something of value to their customers.
If an artist or entrepreneur engages in an exercise that only focuses on the product and not ensuring it garners traction in the marketplace they deserve to starve if, after labouring for years they find out that the market doesn’t have a use for it. Someone paying for your art/product is the true litmus test of your art/product’s worth, not to mention your company’s worth when trying to find investors!
Starvation may mean two things:
- The market signalling that your product is not relevant to it, that it is not understood, that it is priced outside what the market will bear, or that you are doing something else wrong in conveying it’s value;
- That you are making the conscious choice to ‘starve’ and push all profits back into the venture to grow it.
Entrepreneurs in the latter category, Angels are waiting to hear from you!
On another note much delayed note, I would like to add Freshbooks to the Tech Tools section of my blog. They have created an amazing suite of tools that I use to keep my invoicing and books clean! An example, perhaps, of a company providing a much needed product to their market? Absolutly!
