5 Masterminds That Have Redefined Startup Life
Posted: 22 Apr 2010 02:30 PM PDT
Here are five investors, developers and entrepreneurs who have changed startup life as we know it.
1. Paul Graham
Founder of the iconic Y Combinator startup accelerator and related aggregator Hacker News, Graham is a hero to masses of would-be startup gods. He’s helped launch more than 150 startups throughout his career, and he’s done so with a lot less cold, hard capital than you’d imagine. As he told the Harvard Computer Society in 2005, “You need three things to create a successful startup: to start with good people, to make something customers actually want, and to spend as little money as possible. Most startups that fail do it because they fail at one of these. A startup that does all three will probably succeed.”
Y Combinator gathers large groups of startup teams — generally a young, developer-heavy crowd — and infuses them with advice, training and small amounts of seed capital, which let founders keep ramen on the table and prove their passion for the work over the course of a few months.
This program has spawned dozens of spin-offs around the country. More than an incubator and more than a VC fund, Y Combinator has changed how we think about timelines, road maps, the importance of mentorship, and what it means to be a lean startup. The program has also created an elite crew of alumni who still dine out once a week and secure funding for later projects based on their former Y Combinator successes.
2. Jason Calacanis
A survivor (barely) of the 1990s dotcom boom, Calacanis is now known as one of the most outspoken, enigmatic figures in the modern startup community. As the quintessential modern investor and the fearless leader of L.A.-based Mahalo, he continues to lead by example, even as he speaks, blogs, judges and podcasts his way through the current tech scene.
Calacanis is no stranger to controversy and is usually willing to ruffle a few feathers for a good cause. Lately, he has taken a stand against what he feels are exploitative investment practices, particularly groups of angel investors who charge startups for the privilege of pitching them. What we’ve learned from Calacanis is that passion and conviction trump comfortable complacence every time. “I try to scare people in the interview,” he once said to reporters. “I tell them this is going to be hard. You’re going to suffer, but we’re going to make great stuff.”
3. Gary Vaynerchuk
Vaynerchuk’s evangelizing these days makes ample use of the phrase “cash in on your passion.” This wine-loving dynamo created a presence — and a viable business and huge cult following — for himself on the web through Wine Library TV. He’s a well-known speaker at tech and business conferences, and he’s even got himself a book deal.
Vaynerchuk may not have been the first non-technical tech startup founder, but he’s inspired, nay, driven countless others to follow in his footsteps through impassioned, expletive-laced speeches, and no-nonsense advice on how to get business done on the Internet. Vaynerchuk strips away the mystery of startup life by insisting that audi
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Jim Donaldson | Webmastergymmyd@gmail.com gymd@ymail.comCell# 404.216.1571Atlanta, GA 30168
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