If you want to learn how to start a company I recommend you start with starting a company.

Very simple.

It doesn’t have to be grandiose or super techy, it doesn’t even have to be real.

But start with an idea and figure it out.

• Product Development
• Costs
• Revenue
• Sales
• Cash flow
• Marketing
• Growth
• Recruiting

It really is just one big story.

Start there.

I want to sell “Astrotarantulas” (your product/service here) because the world needs a new way to “explore space with spiders in order to colonize a new planet” (your mission/why statement here).

“Spiders create webs and by sending spiders we will criss Cross the galaxy and a massive web of information to help us find a new planet to colonize in the next 50 years” (how it works – be specific).

To build my first Astrotarantula it will cost “200 hours of engineering” at a cost of “$45,000”. (First guess – take number, multiply by 100, if you are luck you will be in a remote ballpark of actual). Ok, probably 5,000 hours and $500k. Whatever.

My sales will come from market x, y, and Elon Musk specifically.

I will market them directly to the aerospace market (and Elon Musk specifically) in publications x,y, and z at a cost of “2,000,000” (remember sales and marketing = 4-5x product development costs).

In 5 years I would like to have 50 spiders in the galaxy and have 100 employees and help us find a new planet but right now I need to sell people on my idea.

I can build a prototype with my buddy Alex in 4 weeks and a pitch deck for seed stage funding in 2 more.

Boom. Business story (plan).

Of course it gets much bigger, but start small and expand from there.

Yes, you can go to a business school, and yes they have value, but the good ones are going to, somewhere along the way, tell you to start a company. Entrepreneurship cannot really be taught, it has to be learned.

So challenge yourself to start one (real or fictional) and present it to someone that will give you some honest feedback.

And iterate.

Half of life is showing up.

Check out our session at Minnebar.