On being a Wantrepreneur

This text from Danielle Morrill’s blog last week hit home:

Last night I asked Chris Pirillo how he got started streaming video, and he said “I just did it”. I nodded, and felt a little sheepish for asking a question with such an obvious answer. Tonight, Brad Feld of TechStars sent the same message in his talk about entrepreneurship – a war cry, and call to action, to JUST DO IT.

Given my own unplanned state of unemployment, I’ve had a lot of free time to read, talk to people in a range of jobs, and try to answer the ultimate question of “what next?” The options really boil down to full-time gig for someone else, part-time + side projects, or go for broke and try to get something entirely new going.

On that last one, I’m not lacking in ideas, and perhaps one or two are even halfway decent. But as the saying goes, “ideas are like a**holes.” It only matters if you have the drive, dedication, and talent to turn those ideas into reality and, perhaps, viable businesses.

So along with the job search and ongoing conversations about freelancing, I’ve been doing a crash course on the local Seattle early/seed-stage venture community, with a particular fascination on the bios of founders from startups who recently got funding: where did they work before? What skill sets did each member of the founding team bring to the table? How did they make the transition (bootstrap while working elsewhere, dive right in, etc.)? How did they meet and how strong of a relationship did they have going in? Investors tend to say they make be attracted to the idea, but they invest because of the team, which is why the particular dynamics of founding team’s are so fascinating to me right now.

Also, what were the initial funders looking for beyond the team, especially now in the midst of economic apocalypse – markets to be addressed, existence of proven revenue revenue streams, and so on? I love this post from Founder’s Co-Op’s Chris DeVore on his take, for example.

If I’m serious, there are many discussions to be had, people to meet, and whiteboarding to be done to see what’s viable and more importantly, with whom. In the end though, I suspect it will boil down to the advice Danielle received – at some point you’ve to make the leap and just do it. We’ll see.