My Personal Transformation: 6 Life Lessons From 6 Years of Blogging
I launched erica.biz on December 4, 2007. This week, I’m celebrating 6 years of blogging here. Wow! It’s been just over 6 years since I sold my last company, as well, and I’m amazed at how much I’ve grown. This week, I figured I’d do something special, and share some of the deep, heartfelt lessons I’ve learned in the past 6 years. Some of these were tough for me to grok. All of them have changed me as a person. This may be a tough read for some of you…but I hope these lessons will have as…
Dear Investors, My Company Failed and We Lost All Your Money. Here’s What Happened.
Something wasn’t right, and I couldn’t put my finger on exactly what it was. On the surface, it seemed like I had the best life. A popular blog with millions of readers. The perfect relationship with Brian, the most adoring fiance in the universe. A great set of supportive friends and a nice social standing in Austin, TX. And, last but not least, an awesome company, making marketing software, with a great team, that was making money and (finally!) shipping products. Yet something lurked just beneath the …
My Experience at YC Hacks (Y Combinator’s First Hackathon)
I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. At 33 years old, I knew I’d probably be older than the vast majority of the 400+ people attending Y Combinator’s first YC Hacks hackathon. But other than that, I didn’t have many expectations. YC Hacks was my first real hackathon. Many years ago, I went to the first SuperHappyDevHouse (and then 19 out of the first 20 of them), but I never had built and launched a web app in a weekend. Even though I’ve held down full-time jobs as a developer, I…
“What Kind of Business Should I Start?” A Surprising Answer from A Successful Entrepreneur
I often get asked what you might think is a simple question: “What kind of business should I start?” For the first time in many years, I find myself in the same boat as the folks who ask me that question. I (surprisingly) don’t have a concrete answer to this question for myself right now–but, as I’ll show you in this post, I have a way to figure it out. After I sold my software company last year, I did a ton of soul-searching. I coached other successful entrepreneurs, and ended 2014 by taking a 3-month, part-time marketing consulting gig for Help.com, a funded software startup. I’m helping them…
Week 2: “How Do I Start A Business When I Don’t Have Any Time?”
It’s week 2 of my adventure in 2015 to start a business. I started out last week not knowing what kind of business I wanted to start. This week, I’m taking an introspective look at another common issue people have when they want to start a business–and one that plagues me as well! It’s all about the feeling of not having enough time to start a business. Technically, I work part-time right now; I’m wrapping up a 3-month consulting gig with Help.com, building their launch plan, website copy, …
Week 5: What Do You Really Want to Do With Your Life?
I haven’t posted in a few weeks, though, as you’re about to find out, I have a really good reason for that! Also in this post, I share with you a (somewhat embarrassing) story about how I figured out what I really wanted to do most in my life. My boyfriend, John, owns a retail store called 1Up Repairs. He fixes cell phones, Xboxes, PS3s, and computers for a living. I’ve been helping him out with it for the…
The Real Reason Why 80{0e584ec94eaa64d073763ee1dc286a1f4d0f941424b1448bbfd01af7d90f9475}+ of Funded Startups Fail
A friend confessed to me the other night that his funded startup had failed. “It was growing,” he said. “We were getting customers. We just weren’t getting them fast enough to continue getting funding.” This is a familiar refrain with startup founders, and I personally know several founders whose businesses fit this bill (including my last funded company.) They have a business that works, with customers. It just doesn’t fit the ridiculous growth profile that most VC’s (venture capitalists) expect. That’s the untold story…
Are You an Entrepreneur–Or a “Wantrepreneur”? Find Out…
There are a lot of people running around these days calling themselves “entrepreneurs”. However, I’ve discovered a few fool-proof ways to quickly see the differences between successful entrepreneurs and wantrepreneurs–or people who want to start a business, but who actually aren’t going to take action and create a real business. Here are five traits I’ve noticed in startup founders and entrepreneurs that don’t exist in “wantrepreneurs”: 1. A willingness to learn…