Jono Shuster, the ED of the Entrepreneurial Standards Forum (http://es2f.org) did a session on Entrepreneurs and Drupal. These are my notes from that session and the marginal video I took during the presentation.

Jono started his comments by making an observation about the Denver Boulder User Group (DBUG) - half of them are entrepreneurs. He made the connection that Drupal and entrepreneurship is a natural fit. That led him to propose this presentation.

For the last few years, the Forum has been collecting data through a survey with the idea that entrepreneurs face and environment of little hard data, tons of advice, and dynamic markets. While the economy is becoming more entrepreneurial, we as a society are never taught to be entrepreneurs.

Jono expressed that success lies on the bell curve - not at the bleeding edge of the curve. He defined success by results and those results were:

• revenue
• positive cash flow
• ROI

And this had to happen within three years.

The goal of the survey is to gain insights but not predict success of failure.

Jono has come to the conclusion that being unique in the market isn't that important. The data his company doesn't bear that out. For example Apple wasn't unique but has been successful--they didn't create the GUI desktop interface (XEROX did) but were still able to take that idea to market and dominate, at least until Windows came along.

You need to look at your target market - look at yourself and competitors - what are the sales like? How much of the market do you control?

Several times during the talk, Jono expressed that successful companies try to bootstrap themselves rather than taking investment dollars. The fewer investors you have, the better off your company will ultimately be.

He also went on to express that time and experience with product doesn't really matter - spending time with your customer is more important. Your sales are the most important thing on the planet. If you have a great product but have no ability to sell, the product is not going to be successful.

Experience in starting companies is helpful. If you have started between 2-4, you have likely learned enough to be successful.

When getting ready to take your product to market, it my be a good idea to start an Alpha program. Find the users that can create a "sweet spot" for you. This is known as the Farming Strategy. Service Providers are the often farmers.

Flexibility is important when starting a new company. You need to be ready to shift your focus. If you are spending 50%+ of your budget on product prior to letting a client see the product you may well have a problem. You need to have strong negotiation skills. If you don't have the sales or negotiation saavy, seriously consider hiring those with such skills. You might also consider creating an advisory board.

Other important skills include Profit/Loss and Operational Management Experience.

Common patterns amongst entrepreneurs that are not helpful in successfully shepherding a new company include all the following:

• High Product Experience
• Low Customer Experience
• Low Sales Experience

You need on your team the ability to sell. The ability to build is important, but not nearly as the ability to sell. If at all possible, bootstrap your project. You want as few investors/shareholders as possible.

Finally, Jono encouraged folks to take benchmark survey es2f.org