Tim Chae: Making Up for the Lack of Experience

Being "green" to the startup scene as well as being a first-time entrepreneur, you have a lot more hurdles to overcome to succeed with your startup compared to the ones who have "been there done that".  Although it certainly is a bit more difficult to succeed due to the lack of an established network of being green and from the lack of prior experience of running a successful startup, it does not mean it is impossible!  There are additional works to be done and steps to be taken, but remember, all the successful entrepreneurs were once in your shoes too.

So what can you do to maximize the chances of your success and more importantly, what can you do to maximize your growth and learning as an entrepreneur?

1.      Know Your Weaknesses
If you have big dreams (which I hope you do since you are on Greenhorn), one of the best things to do for yourself and ultimately, your growth, is realizing what your weaknesses are.  Are you a CSS junkie? JS ninja? Can you develop cool web and mobile applications in your sleep?  Maybe you are a marketing guru, or maybe you can even sell oil to a whale.  There are a very few people in the world who are both excellent builders and sellers.  Once you realize where your weaknesses lie, you can find an amazing co-founder who will complement your skill set and thus making your team very effective.

2.      Read Books (and blogs)
Jason (@evanish) wrote a very great post about why all startup founders should read business books.  He says "especially for first time and young entrepreneurs, they're an essential stepping stone in knowledge growth" and I couldn't agree more.  As my nutty high school football coach told me, "You can't go to war without your rifle."   What I mean by this is that in anything you are trying to accomplish, you have to be well-prepared and well-equipped.  As a first time entrepreneur, you lack personal experience in running a startup.  By reading books  and blog posts by successful entrepreneurs, angels, and VCs such as Fred Wilson, Chris Dixon, Rob Go, Steve Blank, Dharmesh Shahamong many others, you can really minimize the knowledge gap between a complete first timer and a successful entrepreneur.

3.      Get Active!
The best thing you can do for yourself is to get active and plugged into the amazing startup scene that is around you!  Attend DartBostonevents such as Capitalize (where you get to see and hear a startup pitch to a VC), Pokin' Holes, and Family Dinners.  Watch Greenhorn's weekly videos about the best startup events that's happening that week.  The people that you meet at these events and the relationships that you forge with them during these events is priceless.  The startup ecosystem is a very welcoming environment.  Literally everyone is willing to go out of their way to help a fellow entrepreneur out.  I started getting plugged into the startup scene earlier this school year and even in this short amount of time, I was able to get to know great people like Jason Evanish, Jason Baptiste, Rob Go, Roy Rodenstein,Victoria Song, Michael Gaiss and many more.  Don't get stuck in a silo that is your college campus.  Try to expand your network and I promise you that only good will come out of it.  Just about everyone that I've met through going to events is very open to meeting and helping out first time entrepreneurs.

Tim Chae is the co-founder of Redeemr, student at Babson College studying Tech Entrepreneurship and Design, and now an Associate VC at Romulus Capital that focuses on funding Boston-area college entrepreneurs.  He blogs regularly about his experiences with startups on his personal page.  You can reach Tim at tim.chae [at] gmail.com or find him at many of Boston area's startup events.  Say hello or follow him on Twitter