Welcome to the first edition of the ISEF newsletter,
If you’re new here, we’re ISEF- a student-run, non-profit initiative which provides a platform for student entrepreneurs in Ireland to launch and grow their businesses.
Each week, we’ll be sharing actionable insights for student entrepreneurs. Last week, we shared the founders bible. This week, we interviewed Gary Fox to tease out his hard-earned wisdom for people taking their first steps on their entrepreneurial journey.
Gary is a seasoned entrepreneur with some landmark successes - most recently with Hostbutlers- as well as a burgeoning Podcast, 'The Entrepreneur Experiment', with 6k monthly downloads at last count. He’s also experienced a handful of failures, which we explore in the episode, and moonlights as a lecturer in some of Ireland’s finest universities. This depth and breadth of experience gives Gary a unique insight into student entrepreneurship. In this conversation, we discuss the common pitfalls faced by first-time founders, how to validate startup ideas, and the common traits of successful entrepreneurs- among other things.
Some Highlights 📝
The Shared Traits of Successful Founders 👩💻
“A bias towards action. They'll start… it won't be perfect. It won't maybe even be the thing they’ll end up doing, but they'll start something and just get going. That's the biggest thing. They’re all biased towards action and they’re problem solvers. If I was going to pick two traits, that'd be the two”
The Most Common Pitfalls for First-time Founders ⚠️
Overthinking
Seeking external validation
Falling prey to vanity metrics like fundraising instead of focusing on delighting customers.
Going From Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur 🏔
“We all have ideas… But we put ourselves off saying, “but I'm not an expert”. If there’s one idea you just keep coming back to, just test it. There's always a simple way of testing it. Make a minimum viable product, put it up for sale and see if it works. If it doesn't, don't get disheartened, just tweak it and put it up for for sale again. Eventually it might look nothing like the idea you originally had, but all the lessons you've learned in the last six months, 12 months, 18 months, whatever it is, will suddenly have made you an entrepreneur. You can only learn so much by reading- the only way to really learn is by having skin in the game.”
Books, Blog Posts and Resources Mentioned 📚
‘Atomic Habits’ by James Clear
‘Skin in The Game’ by Nassim Taleb
Thanks for reading this week’s post! If you want to enter the contest, you can do so here. If you’d like to support the initiative- get in touch at info@isef.ie.