Enterpeneur: Check Your Ego at the Front Door

Jonathan Hirshon, enterpeneur, consultant and venture capitalist, talked with Karen Klein of Business Week about traps for new businesses. Hirshon noted that passionate engineers may have great design skills but limited business savvy--unfortunately, many believe that they "know-it-all." He warns new business people not to commit too quickly to long-term deals and to look to professional managers instead of friends and family to operate the business. Other recommendations include making sure to protect ideas through intellectual property law, striving to get the first sale (or sales), even if at less than ideal terms, just to show potential investors that the product or idea is commercially viable and to being willing to give up some control to make sure that the company survives the dangerous early months and years.

Hirschon speaks with a large body of personal experience and potential entrepeneurs, particularly from technical backgrounds, owe it to themselves to listen and at least consider what he is saying.