{"id":42951,"date":"2023-10-20T15:25:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/six-lessons-for-entrepreneurs-from-startups-co-founder-wil-schroter\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:25:00","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:25:00","slug":"six-lessons-for-entrepreneurs-from-startups-co-founder-wil-schroter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/six-lessons-for-entrepreneurs-from-startups-co-founder-wil-schroter\/","title":{"rendered":"Six lessons for entrepreneurs from startups.co founder Wil Schroter"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Startups.co<\/div>\n

<\/b>Startup founders should embrace risk in the early days and don\u2019t need to be setting out to create the next unicorn, startups.co<\/span> founder and global tech pioneer Will Schroter says.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gathered at a cafe outside Melbourne-co-working space Inspire9, Schroter, Investors Org founder and angel investor Adrian Stone and Avalanche Technology Group CEO Peter Cameron reflected on the lessons they\u2019ve learnt across more than 60 years of combined entrepreneurial experience.<\/span><\/p>\n

The trio could agree on one thing: You have to start small.<\/span><\/p>\n

They offered advice to founders on how they can better their success and what the community as a whole can do to support the ecosystem\u2019s overall growth.<\/span><\/p>\n

1. Try things when you can<\/span><\/h3>\n

Schroter says the fact that young people launching a startup often start with very little can turn out to be a superpower.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI learned there is a point in your life where you actually have nothing to lose,\u201d Schroter tells StartupSmart.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a fact most people never come to appreciate when they have it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

After being rejected from every college he applied to, Schroter went on to build a $700 million dollar web development company, leading him on a successful journey of starting and launching new businesses.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn retrospect, this worked my way,\u201d he says.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI just went and did it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In these earlier times, Schroter says he literally walked down the street and around campus selling his service to potential customers.<\/span><\/p>\n

2. You don\u2019t have to wait for a \u2018unicorn idea\u2019<\/span><\/h3>\n

To start a business and excel, Schroter says you don\u2019t need to come up with something that has never been done before, you just have to develop a solution that\u2019s better than what\u2019s currently out there.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are so hung up on this myth that I have to invent this miraculous thing that\u2019s never been done before and if I don\u2019t come up with this, I shouldn\u2019t even bother,\u201d he says.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cameron says some of the world\u2019s most successful startups were not built on ideas that had never been heard of before.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cGoogle wasn\u2019t first, Facebook wasn\u2019t first, Salesforce wasn\u2019t first,\u201d Cameron tells StartupSmart<\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re all taking existing business models and making them better.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Ultimately, Schroter says he wants to invest in founders that are so angry about the problem they\u2019re solving that they don\u2019t even want to get paid for solving it.<\/span><\/p>\n

3. Have purpose<\/span><\/h3>\n

\u201cI look for a founder that has a very personal attachment to the problem,\u201d Schroter says.<\/span><\/p>\n

While this may not always be easy particularly for startups in areas like SaaS, Schroter says he is drawn to founders who are inherently involved with the problem they’re solving whether it\u2019s something that really upsets them or where it has affected them directly.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI ask founders what their timeline for success is,\u201d he says.<\/span><\/p>\n

And Schroter is often surprised by the response.<\/span><\/p>\n

In many cases, he finds founders will present a plan to make a lot of money and exit quickly which means if they don\u2019t reach a certain target in three to five years they have failed.<\/span><\/p>\n

Stone says this is quite unrealistic given leading startups and businesses have achieved success through longer-term vision, growth and planning.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI never had an exit strategy for my business, I had a growth strategy,\u201d Stone says.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cameron adds that ideas should also be scalable.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the missionary versus the mercenary,\u201d says Cameron.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIs there a real problem and is the solution scalable \u2013 I want to solve big problems.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

4. Create a connected ecosystem<\/span><\/h3>\n

Schroter, who is based in one of the world\u2019s most active startup communities in San Francisco, says the core elements of a strong ecosystem are connecting, celebrating success, decoding failure and knowing how to pitch.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMost communities are disconnected and that breeds a lot of problems,\u201d he says.<\/span><\/p>\n

He says it\u2019s crucial that founders connect with people and seek out advice whenever they can, whether it\u2019s at a networking night, a live panel talk, open office hours or through an online community.<\/span><\/p>\n

If it\u2019s customer acquisition a founder is learning about, he recommends connecting with every person possible who knows about this.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI want every startup to have that 20 minutes with somebody – when I was 19 I would\u2019ve killed for that,\u201d he says.<\/span><\/p>\n

5. Discuss failure<\/span><\/h3>\n

When a startup fails, instead of internalising the pain and shame, Schroter suggests founders meet regularly over drinks and candidly discuss their mistakes and the lessons learnt.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat the hell happened, why did it turn into this ugly piece of shit?\u201d he says.<\/span><\/p>\n

That way they can identify the issue, make changes for next time and help each other reduce their fear of failure.<\/span><\/p>\n

6. Pitch perfect<\/span><\/h3>\n

Stone says founders must learn how to pitch their ventures effectively so they can communicate a compelling case for their business.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWho teaches people how to pitch?\u201d he says.<\/span><\/p>\n

At his Melbourne accelerator Angel Cube, Stone says there is a huge focus on getting founders to regularly practice this and iterate the process.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was talking to the guys at 500 Startups and they spend so much time pitching their businesses to get it pitch perfect for the demo day that they ignore their businesses for the last program,\u201d he says.<\/span><\/p>\n

Follow StartupSmart on<\/em> Facebook,<\/em> Twitter,<\/em> LinkedIn<\/em> and<\/em> SoundCloud.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Startup founders should embrace risk in the early days and don\u2019t need to be setting out to create the next<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60050,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,12,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42951"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42951\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}