On this episode of the Tandem Talks Podcast, Carrie and Craig speak with Steven S. Hoffman, serial entrepreneur, venture investor, author of several award-winning books, and Captain & CEO of Founders Space. Especially today, side hustles have the potential to become incredibly successful main gigs. Steven discusses the factors you need to consider before taking the plunge into launching your business full-time and how his incubator works to do just that. He explains what an entrepreneur is and isn't, especially when it comes to hunting for demand to keep your business running and leading your own team. Aside from having a dedicated team which has ownership over the brand, Steven also shares some golden tips on how to approach venture capitalists, get them interested, and ultimately secure the funding you need to scale like never before.
HIGHLIGHTS
02:40 Creating the number 1 incubator for startups
05:34 Deciding when your side hustle is good enough to go full-time
10:10 Hunting for demand and finding the best people
15:05 Ask, don't tell: A winning culture on empowering your team
21:08 How to secure venture capital and close deals
32:08 The real work after securing funding: Hire the best and don't be cheap
38:54 Connect with Steven
QUOTES
06:36 "What are their problems? What's keeping them up at night? What are their dreams? What are their goals? Do you align with these? If you don't align with the top three priorities of your potential customers, you're off their radar."
08:20 "I always say the entrepreneur's job, and especially when you're doing a side hustle, is really to gather as much information as possible information. Information. Data about the real world. What's really going on, where the market is. That will inform you."
19:02 "A lot of entrepreneurs think it's their job to have all the ideas, to figure out the whole plan to do everything. It's not your job. Your job is to go to your employees and get them doing that, getting them to think, and then really supporting them."
22:15 "(Venture capital) are really good at giving you money to acquire more customers, basically like to grow that business, to grab more customers and then to meet the need by hiring more people. Like that's what the venture money is for. It's not to figure it out."
28:10 "The thing that makes investors close more than anything is one thing. It's fear, but it's also greed, right? You need to make the investor more afraid of losing the deal than they are afraid of losing their money. So it's this balance."
You can find out more about Steven in the links below:
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