The Six Traits of a Fundable Entrepreneur
Yesterday afternoon in Waltham, Massachusetts, Intuit hosted on a mini-conference about the opportunities that cloud-computing offers start-ups. "Startups and the Cloud" proved to be an engaging event, packing a small auditorium on the campus of Bentley College. Sessions ranged from Longworth Venture Partners' Vishy Venugopalan's overview of the cloud computing marketplace to an open Q&A with Intuit founder Scott Cook to panel discussions with venture capitalists and CEOs about cloud computing and the changing economic environment for young companies.The venture capitalist panel featured a seasoned team of investors:
Jeff Bussgang from Flybridge Venture Partners
Jeffrey Beir from North Bridge Venture Partners
Todd Hixon from New Atlantic Ventures
Shawn Broderick fromTechStars
This group offered much wit and wisdom on a variety of topics. For now, I'll simply offer their composite profile of a fundable entrepreneur.In response to a question from the audience, the panel offered this list of traits that they look for in an entrepreneur:
- Passion
- Domain expertise (the entrepreneur knows his or her area thoroughly, and isn't just coming up with an idea in response to a news story, for example)
- Unfair advantage (something that gives this team of entrepreneurs a sustainable head-start in the market)
- Street smarts (knowing how to get things done in difficult situations)
- A whip-smart mind
- Salesmanship
And Shawn Broderick offered this observation, which deserves to be mounted on a plaque over every entrepreneur's desk: "Execution is insanely important."
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