Tom Byers, professor at Stanford University and founder and a faculty director of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP), stresses that "Entrepreneurs are not born, they are made". He discusses a framework that elaborates the difference between an idea and an opportunity.
Course
Difference Between an Idea and an Opportunity
9 Lectures
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Byers strongly believes that entrepreneurs have to evolve with their organization. He uses a metaphor to compare entrepreneurs to three kinds of dogs: retriever, bloodhound, and husky, as they evole into the role of CEOs.
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Byers believes there are various events that are not within the control of a management team. Good entrepreneurs are those who find a way to navigate and deal with this 'context,' he adds.
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Byers believes that the impact of marketing is often underestimated by companies. He talks about how partnering is one of the keys to crossing the chasm between the early market and the mainstream market.
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Byers talks about how a great business plan can be developed. He uses Sahlman's alignment model to explain that an opportunity has to be in alignment with resources, people and context for deals to get completed.
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Byers explains that smaller companies need to pay extra attention on how they spend their cash because if they run out of cash, it is game over for them. Byers uses the example of Palm Inc. to show how well the company managed their cash flow.
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Byers goes over the essentials of a venture finance process: angel investors, corporate venture capital, boot strapping and the public. He also discusses the pros and cons of each of these pieces in this process.
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Along with being audacious, courageous, patient, and adaptive, Byers believes that entrepreneurs should be exceptionally good at sales.
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Byers gives his perspective on how ethics played a role in high-tech entrepreneurship in the late 90's. He strongly believes that it is okay to fail but at the end of the day, it is character that matters.