The One Thing Successful Startup Founders Never Discuss
Learn to talk about the right things or risk wasting your time
Nearly every day since I started teaching entrepreneurship at Duke, I’ve gotten some version of the following question:
“Can we meet to discuss my idea?”
I get it in-person. I get it via email. I get it via Twitter. It comes from founders, from students, from friends who know I do “entrepreneur-y” things, from entrepreneurs who randomly find me online, and dozens of other places. Every time I see the question, I shake my head and sigh.
Don’t misunderstand me. I love talking with entrepreneurs about their businesses. If I could clone myself a thousand times, I’d be thrilled to have all thousand of my clones meeting with entrepreneurs and doling out entrepreneurial advice all day. But I wouldn’t allow a single one of those clones to discuss someone’s “idea.”
That’s because, in the world of startups, the most important types of people you’ll talk with — advisors, investors, and customers — don’t need to hear about your idea. For them (and you!), discussing ideas is a waste of time.
