The Problem: Entrepreneurs Make Similar Mistakes

Over the last years we started two companies ourselves and advised several first time entrepreneurs on becoming more successful. What we learned on that journey is that most (first time) entrepreneurs make similar mistakes which could be avoided.

Some common mistakes include:

- Not thinking customer centric

- Not focussing your efforts (aka following too many ideas)

- Not allocating capital efficiently

- Not thinking about corporate strategy (e.g. competitive advantages)

During the talks we learned that the knowledge exchange is existent between the more successful entrepreneurs, but not so much for first time entrepreneurs. Furthermore, we learned that acquiring the knowhow from books is very time consuming and often too theoretical.

The Solution: Learning From Leading Entrepreneurs

We think, the best way to become a great entrepreneur is by learning from leading entrepreneurs; entrepreneurs who have gone the way, made mistakes and learned from them.

Therefore, we will make a big Silicon Valley Interview Tour during September / October 2014, so you and thousands of other people can become a more efficient entrepreneur.

We will meet leading entrepreneurs and ask them about their personal background, why and how they started their companies, what challenges they overcame in which way, how their business model works, how they think about their corporate strategy, and most importantly what their major learnings and advice for first time entrepreneurs would be.

So far, we have confirmed 30+ interviews leading tech and healthcare entrepreneurs (from companies such as Branchout, Terrajoule, Skytree, Cloudera, Cooliris, InMobi, Xignite, Scribd) and venture capitalists (such as Highland Capital Partners, Blumberg Capital, and DFJ).

This 2014 Silicon Valley Tour will help you:

- Get insights into the life of leading entrepreneurs

- Understand how leading entrepreneurs think and grow their business

- Learn about how those entrepreneurs mastered their biggest challenges

- Get practical advice from leading entrepreneurs how you can become more efficient (specific things you need to do to start and grow a company)

Together (YOU & US), with this Silicon Valley Interview Tour we can make the world more entrepreneurial.

The Team: Anastasia & Martin

5 years ago we founded the Finance Club (a leading community for currently 500k finance professionals) and our most current venture Entrepreneurial Insights (an entrepreneur magazine focused on providing practical guides and interviews with leading entrepreneurs).

We have done several interviews already in Berlin, Madrid, Barcelona, & Amsterdam (our YouTube channel).

Now, we are looking forward to share learnings from Silicon Valley entrepreneurs.

Martin Luenendonk will be infront of the camera and ask questions in the interviews.

Anastasia Belyh will be behind the camera and make the post-production.

Perks & How We Will Those Funds

We have created a list of perks which give you the opportunity to be part of this project, so together we can make the world a little more entrepreneurial!

We will use the perks to partially cover our costs for the Silicon Valley Interview Tour:

- flights for two people (approx. $2,500)

- accomodation (approx. $1,500)

- mobility (car rental & gas) (approx. $1,200)

From our side we invest in time, equipment, production, post-production, and personal living costs because we want to make this world more entrepreneurial.

Other Ways You Can Support This Project