A graduate of MIT and Stanford, Rizwan Virk is an entrepreneur and investor, and is the founder of Play Labs @ MIT, and is the author of Startup Myths & Models: What You Won’t Learn in Business School, Zen Entrepreneurship, and the Simulation Hypothesis.
Entrepreneurial Role Models:
Alex Haro Cofounder of Life360 Inc
When business started difficulties overcame:
“when I started my very first business I was just out of school and we literally had no money. So, it wasn’t a case of well we got some money but we need it for the mortgage. We literally had no money, our pay check wasn’t enough to pay the rent, my roommate and I, and we had just started and so we did what I call zero budget marketing. I mean today I would hire a PR firm but back then I will just pick up the phone and call reporters”…[Listen for More]
Favourite Books:
Market Wizards: Interviews with Top Traders Book by Jack D. SchwagerFavourite Quote:
“This task was appointed to you, Frodo of the Shire. If you do not find a way, no one will.” Galadriel, The Lord of the Rings.
Recommended Online Resources:
- Hacker Noon is built for technologists to read, write, and publish. They are an open and international community of 12,000+ contributing writers publishing stories and expertise for 4,000,000+ curious and insightful monthly readers.
- Medium – where words matter. Medium deliver’s the best stories and ideas on the topics you care about most straight to your homepage, app, or inbox.
Best Advice to Other Entrepreneurs:
“it is an adventure and whether it succeeds financially or not like any adventure there is always treasure and you will never come out the same because the challenges that you face in the way that you learn to face those challenges and the way that you can learn to rise to those challenges. So have faith in yourself even when you are going through hard times. Every single big public company out there has gone through very similar challenges when they were small just like your start-up might be at one time. And they made it and you too can find the treasure, whatever that happens to be”…[Listen for More]
More About Rizwan Virk:
- Play Labs @ MIT
- Bay View Labs
- Zenentrepreneur
Neil’s Quote at the Beginning:
“Seventy percent of success in life is showing up.” Woody Allen
Other Quotes From the Chat with Rizwan Virk:
- “really understand how markets grow and what the stage of the market is because… Where is the market as a whole? And if you can figure that out you can make different decisions about whether to start a company… The cost of entering a mature market is very difficult. And that’s why you don’t want to go after a big market, you want to go after a very small market. But if you just go after a small market that’s contracting and that’s not good either… So, you want to find a really small market that is growing because if it grows and if you are in that stage of the market growing its like that old saying about the rising tide lifts all boats. So, you don’t have to do it all yourself, the market increases your valuation and gets you customers which is great, up to a point and so you need to know when to sell. So, if there was one thing that I would understand it’s how is the market as a whole evolved and make decisions about whether to enter a market or not based upon that not about just my specific idea or my specific customer ”
- “don’t rely on other people’s secrets to success. You don’t want to start their business; you want to start your business and the path that you need to take maybe different”
- “the myth called focus, focus, focus has a secret which is actually focus explore focus. Sometimes when you focus too much you can have tunnel vision and you can miss this adjacent thing which is where the real opportunity is… But if you are too focused you won’t know that”
- “there is a dollars and cents side to business but then there is a personal side that is much more about personal psychology and wants and needs”
- “the call to adventure for an entrepreneur. I am not going to start the same business that you are going to start. Why? Because it doesn’t call to me. So, I feel like when you’re called to really dedicate your life for a number of years to building something there must be a higher reason or a higher purpose for it. That is very much your adventure and it was appointed to you. Sometimes we think oh I wish I had a more experienced person doing X or Y. Well having a more experienced person may not be able to solve this particular challenge because the challenge is very unique to you and your skills that’s why you are the one that started this business and not somebody else”
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