Starting a company in Abdijan (a yearly destination of mine) is a far cry from doing so in Barcelona (my home city) or San Francisco. It sounds obvious…and it is! I’ve identified four major reasons for this: Talent Talent is unevenly distributed geographically. There are clusters of entrepreneurship and innovation that are more attractive than […]
What Mistakes Are Killing Your Startup? #1 Single Founder
Recently, I posted the infographic below on my LinkedIn profile. It generated thousands of shares and hundreds of comments, which proves there is an interested community who are actively seeking information on the topic. To follow-on on this, my next few posts will go into more detail why those 18 mistakes are so deadly for startups. Mistake #1: Single […]
Entrepreneurs on Hostile Ground: 5 Lessons from Eastern Europe
The fall of the Berlin Wall, which happened exactly 25 years ago, marked the dawn of a very complex transitional period for Eastern European countries. Yet even amid the tough environment, some entrepreneurs were able to overcome all the barriers and start businesses, some of which have since become thriving multinationals. At that time, entrepreneurs […]
Five Entrepreneurship Urban Legends that We Need to Let Go Of
I’ve been working with entrepreneurs in Europe for the last 10 years and I have heard time and time again a series of “facts” about European entrepreneurship that are closer to myth than anything else. Mostly they are urban legends. An urban legend is a form of modern folklore consisting of stories that may or may […]
Business Plans Should Move to the Back Seat
Entrepreneurship, at least from the perspective of teaching and competitions, is all about business plans. This, however, is the wrong focus. New ventures, whether a new startup or a new idea in an established company, are about discovery. The more an entrepreneur wants to build a new market or change the parameters of an existing […]