Entrepreneurship is intellectually stimulating, financially rewarding and challenging experience. To see your idea come to fruition and take shape is definitely a lifetime experience. However the road to startup your company is a very difficult one and more failures are encountered than success. The key to success however is passion, determinism and belief in what you are doing.
I have been involved with a few startups and in 2000 co-founded my own startup company VoiceCore Technolgies Inc. We raised $500,000 from angel investors and went into product development. With the downturn in economy in 2001, and the tremendous loss in the Telecom sector, finding investment capital and generating revenues became tough challenges. But we were able to sell the IP to BellSouth.
In 2013, I have started another company known as DCL Health. It is a wireless health tech startup.
Over the years I have developed contacts with various angel and venture funding groups such as Pasadena Angeles, Tech Coast Angels and the LAVA group.
For interesting readings about startups and venture capital activities follow the links below:
The Road to Venture Financing: Guidelines for Entrepreneurs
by Michael Henos
Crossing the Chasm, by Geoffrey Moore.
A problem that you want to have… what happens when you expand beyond a highly-technical niche and begin selling to John Q. Public? Everything about your business changes. If you do some things right up front, you can lessen the pain later on.
Geoff’s other books, Inside the Tornado and The Gorilla Game are also well worth reading. Everyone uses the terms from these books. Have you read them?
Start-Up, by Jerry Kaplan.
An insider’s look at a high-flying Silicon Valley startup; from the first inspiration through the heady product introduction bashes to the auctioning off of the office furniture. Read it as a novel or as a cautionary tale; lots to chew on either way.