Technology Entrepreneurship: Taking Innovation to the Marketplace

Lechter.

1

Technology Entrepreneurs in the Global Economy

Abstract

Chapter 1 focuses on the many different kinds of opportunities that are emerging due to the rapid technological expansion found in todays world. These improvements in technology have resulted in a vast increase in technology entrepreneurship opportunities. The identification of an opportunity is but a single step in the creation of a successful business. An understanding of the purpose of business as well as the challenges faced by new ventures must be developed. The basic business concepts that technology entrepreneurs must utilize are made up of interlocking systems, providing the foundation of business itself. In order to recognize an opportunity for a scalable technology venture the entrepreneur must first be able to identify trends within the market. Once a trend has been found the technology entrepreneur can then determine if there is a possible future opportunity.

Keywords

Business model; disruptive innovation; effectual logic; effectuation; entrepreneurial expertise; innovation

Introduction

Welcome to the world of technology entrepreneurship. In fact, technology entrepreneurship truly is a global phenomenon as more and more countries and policy makers recognize the economic development power of entrepreneurship, and the transformative potential of technology entrepreneurship in particular. This book is designed to provide you with a comprehensive overview of approaches, tools, techniques, and strategies to succeed as a technology entrepreneur. It will also help you understand and come to terms with your unique potential to create value for others via technology ventures.

This chapter provides insights into trends, challenges, and opportunities for today’s technology entrepreneur. Much has changed since we wrote the first edition of this book back in 2009, and we are excited to write and reflect on these changes in this Third Edition. We think this revised and updated book provides useful, practical, and impactful tools to help today’s technology entrepreneurs turn their ideas into compelling new products.

Research into what is referred to as "entrepreneurial expertise has revealed that successful entrepreneurs launch new ventures only after taking thorough stock of the resources over which they have control. That is, seasoned entrepreneurs don’t sit around dreaming about or endlessly investigating what venture to start. Instead, they tend to ask questions like: With the resources I control, people that I know, and talents that I possess, what type of business venture might I be able to create? Or, recognizing a need, want, or problem in the marketplace, With the resources, and talents that I can invest (my own, or the resources and talents of others), what type of business venture might I create to fill that need or want, or solve that problem."

Successful entrepreneurs don’t overthink things. They realize that new ventures usually don’t fail for a lack of planning, they fail for a lack of customers. Seasoned entrepreneurs know they must become exceedingly familiar with their market and customers and to understand their wants and needs in their terms. In other words, smart entrepreneurs identify, study, and become deeply familiar with customer problems before designing and commercializing a solution. Eric Ries has written and consulted on this lean approach to product and venture development.¹ The mini-case in the following highlights what he refers to as The lean start-up.

Mini-case

The Lean Start-up

The lean start-up is an approach to venture development that emerged from the venture development experience of Eric Ries. Ries has captured this experience in his highly popular book that has been read and used by entrepreneurs around the world. Essentially, the lean start-up centers on an iterative product development and introduction process that is designed to help entrepreneurs avoid disasters associated with developing products that customers don’t want. The centerpiece of this approach is something called the build, measure, learn feedback loop. Ries developed this as a result of his experience with his software start-up. The company designed and developed an initial product that, to the founders’ horror, customers did not want. In the throes of this experience, and running out of cash, the Ries and his colleagues went back to the drawing board and rather than designing a new product in isolation, they developed a new approach where they released features to customers in an iterative manner. That is, they would release what they called a minimal viable product MVP and test it with real customers. Releasing MVPs in this iterative manner enabled the start-up to learn what customers wanted BEFORE they invested precious resources. In other words, they developed a strategy for starting ventures that mimics the lean approach to manufacturing perfected by Toyota. The approach is designed to minimize costs and maximize learning opportunities.

The recognition that entrepreneurs begin their quest to launch a new venture by taking stock of who they are, what they know, who they know, and the resources they control has been condensed into what is referred to as effectuation.² This term is not just another bit of academic jargon. In fact, it has a powerful and important operational sense that all aspiring and practicing entrepreneurs should understand. One of the more important discoveries made by effectuation researchers is the difference between "causal logic (selecting resources to achieve a predetermined goal) and effectual logic" (imagining a possible new end using a given set of resources). This difference is depicted in Exhibit 1.1.

Exhibit 1.1 Causal versus Effectual Logic.

Exhibit 1.1 illustrates how corporate managers and leaders differ in their approach to future value creation compared to expert entrepreneurs. Most corporate managers and leaders think in terms of causal logic. They focus on setting clear goals and then acquiring the resources necessary to pursue those goals, as illustrated on the left-hand side of Exhibit 1.1. Indeed, the mark of an expert corporate manager is usually synonymous with the ability to set goals, persuade the organization to allocate the necessary resources toward those goals, and then rally employees to pursue the goal with single-mindedness and determination.

In contrast, the expert entrepreneur is aware that building a new venture is fraught with uncertainty, ambiguity, and resource scarcity. As we mentioned earlier, the expert entrepreneur begins the venture building process by taking stock of the resources available and currently controlled. This is illustrated on the right-hand side of the diagram in Exhibit 1.1. Expert entrepreneurs focus on creating value for target customers with the resources available to them, and any one of a number of different and varied imagined ends could count as a successful outcome. Clearly, this effectual logic approach to future value creation differs radically from the corporate approach. The experienced entrepreneur knows that customers may react in unexpected and unpredictable ways to the products they bring to the market. As such, the entrepreneur must approach the market with an open mind, a willingness to listen, and an ability to pivot to new business models and/or offerings as warranted by market response.

A start-up venture is not merely a small version of a large company. The start-up is different from an established business in a number of important ways. For example, aspiring entrepreneurs often have only a vague vision of what they would like to offer the market. Thus, the start-up entrepreneur cannot simply begin executing on a business plan because customer expectations, needs, wants, and desires first must be thoroughly understood. The goals of a start-up are different from those of an established business. For example, the immediate goal of a start-up may be to become credible, show proof of customer demand, or market viability, as opposed to demonstrating sales and revenue.

The focus of the start-up entrepreneur should be to experiment with products, features, benefits, and a variety of potential customers to discover a scalable, repeatable business model.³ The mantra for entrepreneurs during this start-up phase is: Fail often, fail fast.⁴ In other words, the start-up entrepreneur must run experiments that expose products to the market, gather feedback from those experiments, and refine the offering based on that feedback until a viable product that the market wants has been developed. We will explore the process of experimenting to find a business model in greater detail in Chapter 2, Becoming an Entrepreneur.

Trends and Opportunities in Technology Entrepreneurship

Despite the fact that markets are dominated by big companies in many technology industries, we still believe that it’s a good time to be a technology entrepreneur. Disruptive innovations across the spectrum of technology industries are changing the way we interact with each other, shop, vacation, work, and play. Some of the more powerful transformative technology trends in recent years include:

• Cloud: So-called cloud computing is the longest-running of the trends cited here. The notion that the network is the computer was put forward by Sun Microsystems’s Scott McNealy as a founding motto of the company in 1985. Since then, cloud computing has become more real with increasing bandwidth, storage, and network speeds. Today, companies and consumers alike are comfortable with storing important information, pictures, and other digital content in the cloud. Start-ups such as Box.com and Dropbox are examples of companies that enable people to store digital assets in the cloud. Other cloud based companies, such as SalesForce and Atlassian offer software as a service (SaaS). That is, they provide users with Internet-based platforms of services that do not require customers to install and maintain the software on their internal servers.

• Cybersecurity: Opportunities for technology entrepreneurs abound in the fast-growing cybersecurity industry. This diverse industry has attracted entrepreneurs to start ventures that focus on training cybersecurity professionals (e.g., SecureSet Academy), preventing cyber invasions of corporate networks (e.g., Palo Alto Networks), training companies in the social aspects of cyber security (e.g., Red Team Security), and hardening corporate networks via friendly attempts to attack vulnerabilities using techniques common to unfriendly hackers (e.g., BlackHat).

• E-sports: E-sports has become a global phenomenon involving millions of participants and spectators and has been estimated to be a multi-billion-dollar industry. The industry involves online gaming between established experts whose exploits can be viewed in real time via Internet platforms such as Twitch.tv. This category includes opportunities to develop into a internationally recognized esports player, opportunities to organize and manage local, regional, national, and international games and events, and opportunities to develop online gaming and gambling platforms.

• Drones: Undoubtedly technologies centered on drones will continue to advance in the coming years. Already, companies such as Amazon, Alphabet, UPS, and FedEx are delivering goods using drones. There are a wide range of applications of drone technology beyond package delivery, including agriculture (e.g., AgEagle), personal transportation (e.g., EHang), military applications (e.g., General Atomics), photography (e.g., DroneGenuity), and others.

• Robotics and artificial intelligence: Robotic technologies have advanced dramatically over the last several decades. Aligned with advances in artificial intelligence (AI) robots have begun to be deployed in a wide range of industries. Personal care robots (e.g., Waypoint Robotics), delivery robots (e.g., Starship Robotics), security services (e.g., Knightscope), medical robots (e.g., Mazor Robotics), and many others.

• Alternative energy: The international community has been alerted to the potential dangers of a changing climate and many nations actively are searching for alternatives to reliance on fossil fuel energy sources. Entrepreneurs are finding vast opportunities in developing and delivering battery technologies (e.g., Tesla’s Megapack battery), installing and maintaining electric vehicle charging stations (e.g., Chargepoint), exploring and applying alternative fuels such as hydrogen (e.g., Hydrogenics), and technologies associated with the exploitation of natural energy sources such as wind and solar (e.g., Pattern Energy Group, and First Solar).

• Transportation: The nature of human transportation will be changing dramatically in the coming decades. Self-driving vehicles for personal and cargo transport already are being tested in various parts of the world. In the meantime, advances in intelligent/connected vehicle technologies have transformed personal transportation from the grind of the daily commute to the mundane trip to the grocery store.

• Internet of things: This category builds on some of the technologies listed earlier but is not necessarily human-centric. That is, the embedded sensors that enable us to keep track of home appliances, children, pets, and other things also enable nonsentient things to talk to and keep track of one another. For example, the coffee maker could tell the toaster when the coffee is ready so that the toaster warms up the breakfast roll. When appliances talk to one another, the homeowner doesn’t need to attempt to calibrate the timing on each appliance so that he or she can enjoy hot coffee and a warm roll at the same time. The Internet of things would manage that process without the homeowner needing to be involved. For example, SimpliSafe has built a platform that enables people to manage their home’s security via an easy to use app.

Of course, this is not an exhaustive list of the technology innovations that are proving disruptive to the status quo. There are important technological advances occurring beyond the realm of the Internet that will have profound implications for people around the world in the decades to come. Some of the more important of these innovations that are emerging as this chapter is being written include:

• Bitcoin and the invention and spread of new digital currencies

• E-medical records and the advent of major changes in health care provision

• Nanotechnology breakthroughs in medicine and other areas

• Health informatics and the ability to analyze massive amounts of health data

• Aging research that portends lengthened life spans with improved quality of life throughout

• Brain science advances that will alter mental health care

• Pharmaceutical and other medical advances that prolong life and increase its quality over the lifespan

Technology entrepreneurs will continue to drive the global economy and disrupt industries that are not evolving fast enough to serve changing markets. The role of innovation in technology entrepreneurship cannot be underestimated. Innovation is defined in this book as the transformation of new ideas, inventions, and processes into value for a specific market. As this definition makes clear, innovation is different from merely having an idea or creating an invention. Good ideas can come from anyone. You’ve probably had ideas that you believed were breakthrough and would be incredibly useful if they became reality. For example, it may be a good idea for electric vehicles to become more ubiquitous and affordable. However, as an idea there is no impact on society. It is the innovator who takes an idea and devises a way to create value with the idea via a product or service. The entrepreneur is the one who knows how to take the innovation to the marketplace. In graphic form, these distinctions are presented in Exhibit 1.2.

Exhibit 1.2 Distinguishing Ideas, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship.

As you can see, innovators take ideas and attempt to create value through product development, designing, iterating, and refining. Innovators often are also entrepreneurs; individuals who understand how to organize a start-up venture, develop a business model around the innovation, serve customers, and grow the venture. It’s not always the case that the innovator is also skilled as an entrepreneur, but innovation and entrepreneurship are inseparable. The entrepreneur without the innovator has no value to bring to the market, and the innovator without the entrepreneur has value but doesn’t possess the skills to serve markets and build a venture. The Entrepreneur’s perspective in the following highlights how Marc Benioff, early in his career as a software innovator got some key advice from the consummate entrepreneur, the late Steve Jobs.

Entrepreneur’s Perspective

Salesforce Benefits from Steve Jobs’ Advice

Marc Benioff, the CEO of the cloud salesforce automation software company SalesForce, was a 19-year-old intern at Apple when he first met Steve Jobs. Years later, when Benioff was struggling to grow SalesForce, he sought Jobs out for advice on how to grow the company. Benioff notes that Jobs told him If you want to be a great CEO, be mindful and project the future. While that bit of advice seemed odd to Benioff, he ruminated on it for a while and only later discovered its underlying truth. In reality, it means that no technology entrepreneur is working in a vacuum. In fact, most great ideas are being hatched simultaneously around the world. Innovation is ALWAYS built on the sweat and toil of hundreds and thousands of small breakthroughs and insights. Benioff noted, Building an ecosystem is about acknowledging that the next game-changing innovation may come from a brilliant technologist in based in Silicon Valley, or it may come from a novice programmer based halfway around the world.

Sources: Benioff, M. The Lesson I Learned from Steve Jobs. The Wall Street Journal, October 11, 2019; Benioff, M. and Langley, M. Trailblazer: The Power of Business as the Greatest Platform for Change. Currency, New York, 2019.

As you study the material in this book think about your own capacities as an idea person, an innovator, and as an entrepreneur. It’s possible that you possess all three skills. However, you may be more of an innovator than an entrepreneur, or vice versa. Knowing your own strengths and limitations is a key starting point in the effectual approach to entrepreneurship. After all, one of the key resources that you always possess is your own unique talents, experiences, and skill sets. Knowing your personal strengths and limitations enables you to focus on what you do best, and to find the talented people you need to compensate for any limitations. For example, if you are a strong innovator but a weak entrepreneur, then you will need to find someone who possesses the skills of the entrepreneur to help you commercialize your innovations. Likewise, skilled entrepreneurs who are not good innovators must find an innovation or an innovator around which to build a venture. By far the most likely scenario is that you’ll need to work with other talented people to realize your venture dreams. It is the rare person who has all the talents and resources necessary to launch, grow, and exit a venture alone. Entrepreneurship is truly a team sport that leverages the talents and contributions of multiple individuals striving together for the singular goal of venture success.

The Global Opportunity

All entrepreneurship today is global in nature. Innovation, competition, and disruptive technologies can emerge anywhere on the globe and rapidly diffuse to markets around the world. This is in part driven by the Internet which has not only enabled people easily to connect, but it has also enabled rapid dissemination of knowledge and information. It is exceedingly difficult for innovators to build something that is not also being built somewhere else in the world.

The pressure on entrepreneurs to move quickly from innovation to market development is greater than ever. Entrepreneurs must develop their markets while iterating through multiple releases of their products. Of course, while doing so their products are exposed to the global marketplace and the prying eyes of other ambitious entrepreneurs. That cannot be helped. Entrepreneurs cannot build their products in a vacuum but must be willing to iterate through multiple product releases in the interest of rapidly developing customers and markets. Sustainable advantage today goes to those companies that deliver the greatest value to customers right now, and who continue to innovate and improve over the long haul.

Of course, intellectual property plays a role in protecting the interests of technology entrepreneurs and their investors (see Chapter 6: Protecting Your Intellectual Property). One challenge entrepreneurs inevitably face is whether to spend more of their precious cash on intellectual property development, or on market development. Depending on the type of venture the solution to this problem will vary. For example, entrepreneurs pursuing some type of Internet venture will likely want to spend more on market development. On the other hand, an entrepreneur developing a medical device may want to spend more cash upfront on intellectual property development.

Despite the global potential of most technology ventures, it is important to recognize that all markets inevitably are local. That is to say, entrepreneurs who aspire to reach global markets with their products will need to take local customer needs and desires into consideration. Products that are created to serve markets in the United States, for example, may not be a good fit for markets in, say, India without significant modification. Entrepreneurs are right to want to expand the reach of their ventures into global markets, but they must also become cognizant of local markets and of the unique customer needs, wants, and fears in different parts of the world.

Workers, customers, companies, and entrepreneurs around the world have never been as interconnected as they are today, and this trend is likely to continue. The Internet and other technologies enable entrepreneurs to tap into this vast global network of talent, resources, and opportunities as never before. The mini-case in the following highlights the potential for creating global ventures based on today’s embedded technology infrastructure.

Mini-case

A Global Tech Company Launched from a Converted Bedroom

One of the authors of this book (TND) started a global technology company literally from a converted bedroom in his Houston home. The venture, today known as ansrsource, was the result of TND’s use of effectual logic. Coming out of a failed e-learning venture, TND had to do something to generate income for his family. Thinking about what to do he decided to leverage his core writing skills and acquired a contract to write a book on business process outsourcing. While conducting research for the book via Skype he came into contact with a seasoned entrepreneur in Bangalore, India. As they chatted and developed a long-distance friendship, they decided to start a business together. Wondering what type of business to launch, they fell upon an idea based on TND’s long experience in textbook publishing. The result was a venture that is now more than 16 years old and employs over 400 people in India and the United States. The venture provides services to major publishers, corporations, and universities around the world centered on learning content development, learning design, and learning accessibility.

Although he had never been to India, and had never conducted business with Indian companies, TND was able to cofound and grow an international company based on the Internet, Skype, and data transfer technologies. It is a near certainty that ambitious technology entrepreneurs today can leverage our interconnected world to build innovative new ventures from their converted bedrooms, garages, basements, or maybe even in traditional office buildings.

Intellectual Foundations

This book is written for anyone who aspires to take a technology from idea to the global market. We decided to write a practical guide for those intrepid souls who desire to be their own boss, build their own ventures, and create value for global customers through technology. As such, this book is not for the faint-of-heart. Building a venture from scratch, and for the first time, is daunting, stressful, physically and psychologically taxing—and perhaps the most exciting thing you’ll ever do in your life.

We have attempted to create a practical guide that any first-time entrepreneur will find useful and easy to read. At the same time, we think this book will also be helpful to serial technology entrepreneurs (those who may be on their second, third, or fourth venture). We have written this book with three primary objectives to guide us:

1. Rules and principles: We have attempted to incorporate the most important time-tested rules and principles for technology venture success. Even though no two ventures will be alike, there are rules and principles that apply across every venture and we’ve tried to highlight the important ones throughout this book. For example, no one would argue that a time-tested rule of success in entrepreneurship is cash is king. New ventures are often challenged by cash flow issues, and the savvy entrepreneur quickly learns to track and manage cash. As each of the three authors of this text are also successful entrepreneurs we will relate the rules and principles that we’ve followed in our own ventures.

2. Global focus: Our global economy is changing rapidly, and technology trends and opportunities are also changing. Any book is written and released at a single point in time. To avoid becoming obsolete before publication we have integrated discussions of emerging trends throughout this book. We believe that successful technology entrepreneurs follow the advice of hockey legend Wayne Gretzky and skate to where the puck is going, not to where it is. It is important for aspiring entrepreneurs to be in tune with the trends that are in place now so that they are able to seize the opportunities these trends will create in the future.

3. Research and theory: The word theory is anathema to many practicing entrepreneurs. That’s unfortunate because, in truth, we all operate in a world of theory all the time. That is, our theories about how the world works and our role in it define all of our actions and responses to the actions of others. We confine our discussions of theory to what we take to be the most important and revealing research that is emerging from top entrepreneurship scholars and practitioners. We have also been careful to translate theory to practical implications for practicing entrepreneurs.

The first section of this book is titled You Are Here: X. Literally, it means that you have to start your entrepreneurial journey where you are. We will refer you back to Exhibit 1.2 where we highlighted the distinction between causal logic and effectual logic. The expert entrepreneur doesn’t wait for all the necessary resources to be in place before creating the venture and pursuing economic opportunity. Instead, the expert entrepreneur starts right here at point X, and proceeds to create value with the resources at hand. This book is based on the model shown in Exhibit 1.3. This model mirrors the steps that technology entrepreneurs take to bring their products to the global marketplace.

Exhibit 1.3 The Structure of this Book

Chapter Summary

This chapter provided you with insights into the underlying philosophies of this book and a preliminary understanding of the challenges of building a successful venture. We introduced you to the concept of effectuation, and the notion that successful entrepreneurs begin their ventures by assessing the resources they currently control. Rather than waiting for all the appropriate pieces to come together—which may never happen—expert entrepreneurs push forward with the resources they control and attempt to create value for chosen markets.

We also reviewed some of the top trends emerging in technology entrepreneurship on a global scale. The trends we identified are evolving rapidly as this book goes to press and likely will continue to change and new trends will also emerge. The point is to alert aspiring entrepreneurs to the fluid nature of opportunity and the need to take effectual action as soon as possible and get to market quickly.

Global markets have become accessible to nearly anyone, anywhere on the planet. As such, the nature of competition has changed dramatically from just a quarter century ago. Global brands can emerge overnight on the Internet, and technology entrepreneurs must be alert to build unique advantages into their offerings. For example, it was highlighted that global brands can be beaten competitively by entrepreneurs who know the local market better than the global brand. Local nuances that are poorly served by a one-size-fits-all global brand can be a potent and sustainable form of competitive advantage to local firms that address those nuances.

Finally, we provided you with insight into the intellectual foundations of this book. This is a practical guide to technology entrepreneurship that draws inspiration from the personal experiences of the authors. We also draw from the global pool of successful entrepreneurs to build awareness of the many different ways entrepreneurs around the world are writing their own success stories. We also draw inspiration from the tremendous research that continues to discover new insights about what makes successful entrepreneurs tick and how they build successful companies.

In Chapter 2, Becoming an Entrepreneur, we will explore how to develop your personal entrepreneurial identity via what we call the five entrepreneurial virtues:

1. Create value for other people

2. Respect for the market’s judgment of value

3. Fidelity to promises and contract obligations

4. Resilience in the event of obstacles or failure

5. Resourcefulness and optimism

These five virtues are based on both the emerging research and on how successful entrepreneurs orient their lives and build their ventures

Key Takeaways

1. All entrepreneurship today is global. That is, entrepreneurs regardless of industry either compete with global competitors, source supply from global suppliers, sell to global customers, or finance their venture via global capital sources.

2. Effectual logic is central to entrepreneurial expertise. Differing from causal logic, where the individual sets a goal and then gathers the resources to achieve that goal, effectual logic begins with the resources currently controlled. The individual then deploys those resources to create unique value for customers, without knowing in advance exactly what type of venture will emerge.

3. There are unending opportunities for technology entrepreneurs to create new value for customers. We’ve highlighted some key technologies in this chapter, but that is hardly exhaustive of the possibilities. Creative entrepreneurs, innovators, and inventors are needed to solve problems that are constantly being engendered by the dynamics of human society. Importantly, entrepreneurship can emerge anywhere, anytime, and from nearly anyone depending on circumstances and the ability to seize economic opportunity.

Keyterms

Business model This is most easily defined as the way the business makes money. Of course, this is more complex than that simple statement, but every business must determine how it will price and position its products in a manner that enables it to earn revenues in excess of costs.

Causal logic This is the traditional business logic where a pre-determined goal is agreed upon, then the resources necessary to achieve that goal are aggregated. Success depends on achieveing that pre-determined goal.

Disruptive innovation Many industries around the world are characterized by long-standing structure and function. Companies that discover new, more effective ways of providing the same value are able to disrupt an industry by making the old ways of doing things seem obsolete.

Effectual logic Effectual logic is used by expert entrepreneurs. Effectual logic begins with the resources currently controlled, which are used to create value. In this approach, any one of a number of different outcomes could be considered a success.

Effectuation The application of effectual logic is referred to as effectuation.

Entrepreneurial expertise Generally, this term refers to the unique skills that evolve over multiple entrepreneurial ventures.

Innovation The novel bringing together of diverse ideas for some practical use.

Additional Reading

Hoffman, R., & Yeh, C. Blitzscaling: The Lightning-Fast Path to Building Massively Valuable Companies. New York: Currency. October, 2018.

Ries, E. The Lean Startup, New York: Currency. September, 2011.

Brad Feld and David Cohen. Do More Faster: TechStars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons, October 2010.

Endnotes

¹Ries, E. The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses. Currency, New York, 2011.

²Read, S. and Sarasvathy, S.D. Knowing What to Do and Doing What You Know: Effectuation as a Form of Entrepreneurial Expertise. Journal of Private Equity, 9(1): 45–62, 2005.

³Blank, S. and Dorf, B. The Startup Owner’s Manual: The Step-by-Step Guide for Building a Great Company. K&S Ranch Press, Pescadero, CA, 2012.

⁴Feld, B. and Cohen, D.G. Do More Faster. John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, NJ, 2019.

2

Becoming an Entrepreneur

Abstract

This chapter focuses on cutting-edge concepts associated with aspiring entrepreneurs. These concepts are vital in the development of an entrepreneurial identity as well as entrepreneurial persistence. One such concept is the idea of entrepreneurial virtues. These virtues consist of five practices that help to develop long term entrepreneurial persistence. Another concept of great importance to the development of an entrepreneurial identity are the problem and solution space. The problem space consists of all the customer needs that define the market, while the solution space is the space where all the designs, ideas, and actual products intended for the consumer are based. Once these concepts have become second nature the technology entrepreneur must deliberately practice these ideologies. This deliberate practice begins building the foundation for entrepreneurship eventually leading into further levels of entrepreneurial expertise.

Keywords

Solution space; entrepreneurial virtues; problem space; entrepreneurial persistence; entrepreneurial identity

Introduction

In Chapter 1, Technology Entrepreneurs in the Global Economy, we introduced you to the focus and purpose of this book and examined some of the leading trends and challenges for entrepreneurs in the modern global economy. We hope that your appetite is now whetted for a lifetime of entrepreneurship and that you are ready to begin learning some of the practical tools of entrepreneurial expertise. Before we begin to highlight the tools and techniques associated with entrepreneurial success, however, this chapter is dedicated to discussing the importance of developing your unique entrepreneurial