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In Dot-Calm Era, Conference Examines Options for Entrepreneurs
Is the bloom off the entrepreneurial rose? Do B2B and B2C mean "Back to Banking" and "Back to Consulting," as the current joke would have it? Where are the opportunities for those who still believe starting their own business is the way to go? The 2000 HBS Entrepreneurship Conference, titled "Build to Lead" and sponsored by the student-run Entrepreneurship Club, offered a fresh look at today's changing entrepreneurial environment.
Guy Kawasaki, founder and CEO of the venture-capital investment bank Garage.com, kicked off the October conference with the first of his three keynote presentations. Kawasaki's wry observations of the current business scene were relayed with self-deprecating humor and great panache. His list of the "Top Ten Lies of Entrepreneurs" included: In year three, we're going to do $75 million ("No one ever believes that"); Amazon.com is about to sign our contract; We have first-mover advantage ("If you have a great idea, assume that ten companies are doing it"); and Oracle/Microsoft/IBM is too slow to be a threat ("They're not so stupid; they're not so slow").
On a more serious note, in his opening remarks, HBS professor Joseph B. Lassiter told the audience that entrepreneurs must not surrender to feelings of hopelessness. Stressing that starting any business is nothing less than a ten-year career commitment, he explained that those ten years may well be marked by two extremes: brilliant successes (that could come deceptively early) and perilous moments of near-failure.
Other keynotes included David P. Perry's "The Ups and Downs of the Modern Entrepreneur." Perry (MBA '97) is the founder of the B2B marketplace Chemdex (which recently closed its doors) and CEO of its parent company, Ventro Corporation. Peter W. Bell (MBA '93), cofounder and CEO of StorageNetworks, urged the audience not to let success go to their heads. "Egos kill companies because the companies get fat, dumb, and happy," Bell stated, reeling off the names of several now-defunct organizations whose outsized reputations may have held the seeds of their own destruction.
Attendees could choose from a series of panel discussions, including how to start up internationally and "Corporate Venturing: Entrepreneurship on the Inside." A panel on how to get a company off the ground included entrepreneurs Joel T. Bines (MBA '99) , cofounder and CEO of Peranet, Inc., and Adam J. Kanner (MBA '98), founder and CEO of edu.com. Another group, with panelist Malik Khan (MBA '82), founder and CEO of Sitara Networks, discussed "The Internet Infrastructure Conundrum."
In his concluding remarks, Garage.com's Kawasaki outlined a few lessons he'd learned, such as "consulting isn't doing," and "doing isn't leading." Asserting that the math skills needed to build a company are simple, he said, "If you buy something for a dollar and sell it for five dollars, you will be rich. The key is OB, social psychology, and leading. This is where the money is made."
This article was compiled from reports on HBS Working Knowledge. For more coverage of the Entrepreneurship Conference, visit hbsworkingknowledge.hbs.edu.
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