Do you believe that Venture Capital is the holy grail of entrepreneurship? If you do, you may be an entrepreneur for all the wrong reasons. Venture Capital is an enabler for different aspects to a business such as growth but at the end of the day, your product or service should be more important than landing venture capital.

The reason why I’m writing this post is that I meet with many entrepreneurs who are under the spell that raising venture capital automatically validates your business and almost guarantees that you will succeed. If you raise $10M in venture capital, it gives $10M reasons why you will not succeed; the odds are against you. The stakes are higher, every decision becomes riskier. You have $10M to spend and we all know how easy it is to spend money.

Venture capital is sexy. It’s like being able to drive a Ferrari. Being a member of FerrariChat.com, and actively involved in exotic car events around Westchester County, I can tell you that there are many owners of these cars who have no business driving them. It takes a certain type of person to be able to control these exotic vehicles, just look at all the Ferrari Enzo crashes. People who have $1M to spend on these gorgeous cars get behind the wheel, have no business driving them, and crash them within 36 hours of owning them. However, it is sexy to drive these cars…

Venture capital is much the same. Your goal as an entrepreneur is not to raise venture capital, but to build a sustainable business around a product and/or service. If you can do that without raising venture capital, all the power to you. Why give up equity when you do not have to? I’ve personally been on both sides of the fence and have had positive and negative experiences. It takes a gifted leader to balance a board of venture capitalists and ultimately, generating enough of a business to substantiate venture investment.

To all the burgeoning entrepreneurs out there, don’t think that raising capital is the end-all and be-all. If you can do it yourself, go right ahead. If you need to raise capital, be cautious and make sure you’re ready. Build traction and focus. Raising capital gives you minor validation to your business (someone believes in you to invest) but doesn’t guarantee success and should not be the holy grail of entrepreneurship.

I’d like to round up a great group of entrepreneurs and media folks and get together one last time for 2006. Ideally, the group will be a round table to discuss what are the trends going into 2007 and WHY. We all can forecast trends (pull things out of thin air), but I’d like to talk about WHY we expect these trends to occur.

I’d personally like to host this at Le Pain Quotidien on 77th between 2 & 3rd Ave (Subway: 6) on Wednesday, December 27 at 3:30pm EST. The get-together will have 1 hour of formal discussion and then a schmooze fest. Feel free to spread the word but please RSVP by leaving a comment on this blog. Since I’ll be hosting (coffees, teas, pastries), I’d like to know how many folks will be coming… also, no egos please as ideally there will be serial, parallel, and brand spankin new entrepreneurs and I’d like there to be a level playing field for all to participate. Online folks and offline folks welcome!

Again, please leave a comment on this blog if you plan on attending…

So it’s official! I received word from the editors over at BusinessWeek that I made the top 5 entrepreneurs in the world under 25 years old. There will be much PR around this from BusinessWeek in the coming days so I’ll probably be popping up around the Internet again, the same as a few weeks ago.

Links to my page on BusinessWeek.com - click here and here

Entrepreneurship to me is more than business - it’s an art. As entrepreneurs, we do not claim to know everything about business… but the one thing we do claim is how to be creative, select a market niche, and get a company off the ground. With that comes execution and persistence. As a serial entrepreneur, I think I’ve crafted a model that works (can always use a bit of refining) and I’m honored to be recognized for it.

This art takes up most of my life - the majority of my time is spent with my company or different startups and I’ve got little time for most other things. Most of my friends have no idea what I actually do, but have stuck with me through everything, even though I’ve had very little time for them at some points. You know you have an amazing group of friends when they never give up on you (I’ve used every excuse in the book while working on my startups). A huge shoutout to Drillings, Jote, Bake (hello Africa!), Kirk, Robo, Josh, Brian “BK”, Angela, Morf, Jeramie, Tim, the folks at FerrariChat.com, and last but not least, my brother Kenny (my biggest critic), my amazing girlfriend Sherri, and my extremely loving parents. To Mike W (Mr. Soda) - one day I’ll catch up, but your guidance and mentorship is amazing and I value it incredibly.
What’s next for me? IGA Worldwide Inc. We’re doing some amazing things that have yet to be released and I think we’re really going to shake up the digital world. I’m concentrating on making things happen within the company and we’ve got tons of traction in the marketplace. In my spare time (nights/weekends), I’m advising a few companies (see the list here) and consulting with others… I’m always looking to speak to any entrepreneur or startup to hear their story and see where I can be of assistance. Feel free to contact me!
It’s only fitting if I end this with a quote from the Dave Matthews Band:
Would you not like to be,
Sitting on top of the world with,
Your legs hanging free - DMB (Lie In Our Graves)