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November 03, 2004
Media Watch: A new kind of entrepreneur?
by Doug Millison for SiliconValleyWatcher.com
Is a new kind of entrepreneur taking over in Silicon Valley?
In an essay called "The New Entrepreneur, " William Reichert of Garage Technology Ventures argues yes:
The entrepreneurs starting companies today are not like the ones we saw, and now ridicule, in the late 90s. But they are also not like the ones we saw in the 80s and early 90s. We are not going back to an earlier breed of entrepreneur. If you are an investor looking for the kind of entrepreneur who built companies in the "good old days," you are making a mistake. The innovators who are creating companies today represent a new breed of entrepreneur, a species that can trace its lineage back through each of the species that went before, but which is very different nonetheless.....The New Entrepreneurs are more battle scarred, less innocent, more realistic, less delusional, more bootstrap oriented, less dependent on traditional venture capital, more operational, and less IPO focused. They are less naive and have more business discipline and savvy. This business savvy comes not from getting an M.B.A., but rather from living through the last 10 years and trying to launch new businesses during the dramatic rollercoaster we experienced. The entrepreneurs we see today are, frankly, more capable than they were in the 80s and 90s—and they have to be.
Reichert says the new entrepreneurial teams have broader, and deeper experience in all core competency areas, include more women and multinational talent, reflect a better understanding of global markets, and "embody deeper science."
The new entrepreneur doesn't necessarily live in Silicon Valley, either. "Today, the infrastructure for starting a company and making an investment in Southern California is as robust as it is in Silicon Valley," writes Reichert. "The same story applies in Seattle, Salt Lake City, and Phoenix, and increasingly in Cambridge, Singapore, Shanghai, and elsewhere in the world."
Links:
The New Entrepreneur by William Reichert, 3 November 2004
Affiliate link:
OnlineJournalist.org, edited by Doug Millison: "on a need to know basis"
November 3, 2004 07:55 AM
