Advice from the Young Entrepreneurs of Tech

They are Young. They are Smart. And they are Passionate about their work.

Read through the special report on young technology entrepreneurs covered by Businessweek, and you’ll get a dose of motivation, street smart learning and innovative ideas all rolled into a single capsule.

They know what it takes to build a successful tech firm, and there is lot to learn from them.

Lets hear to what they have to say …

1. Raise more money than you think you’ll need early in your company’s life. It will get you through unforeseen rough patches in the early research and development phase. Be extremely careful with every hire and remember that the personalities will filter into every aspect of the company.

2. It’s really a patience game, and you need investors who share a vision. Everything else comes from there. If you have investors looking for a quick turnaround, 99% of your problems are going to come from that.

3. Surround yourself with really, really smart people and don’t be afraid to give them equity, because it’s all about the team.

4. It’s not about how much you can make. You have to be focused on building something greater than yourself.

5. Just jump into the deep end of the pool. Smart, motivated people will pick things up quickly and you’ll get further faster than taking the safe route through Corporate America.

6. Speak to as many successful people as you can. You’ll get lots of advice, much of it contradictory, but your job as the entrepreneur is to figure out how it all applies to you and your business.

7. Choose something you love and be O.K. with uncertainty. Find good mentors. When you’re starting out, you have a lot more to learn from other people than they have to learn from you.

8. Build and get to market as fast as possible. He adds that successful products speak louder than business plans and happy customers are better at marketing than you are.

9. Don’t look at what the industry is doing. Look at what they’re not doing and focus on that. That’s where the real disruptive technology comes from.

10. If you are going after a new market, know nothing or everything there is to know about that market. If you know only something, you might be afraid to get started.

[tags]businessweek, entrepreneurs, ideas, advise for start ups, tech entrepreneurs[/tags]