5 Tips for Young Entrepreneurs

Brian is the founder of kiip (pronounced “keep”), a stealth startup focused on mobile in-game advertising, backed by True Ventures. Very recently, Techcrunch and the Wall Street Journal called him the “youngest person to ever receive funding by a venture capital firm”. Last year, at only 18-years-old, he was an early graduate from the University of British Columbia, after skipping four grades in elementary and high school.

Before starting kiip, Brian was responsible for key publisher and tech partnerships at the social news website Digg.com. He also launched the Digg Android mobile app, adding to the company’s rising mobile presence.

While I definitely don’t feel as qualified as many others to write a few tips on being an entrepreneur, I figured I could share a few of things that I’ve learned over the last few years while building a company, raising money, and working with many other fine folks across industries in learning as well as growing as an individual, as a person under age 20. While it definitely isn’t easy to be be young while tackling some of the challenges that come with trying to redefine an industry, there are certainly many things you can do to make the process more fruitful and enlightening. There are many life-”hacks” that I’ve had to design because of my circumstance and my environment, in order to progress at the speed that I am the most comfortable with.

First of all, I’d like to say that I have laid out these five tidbits for someone young who is either “aspiring” or starting to kick into full gear as an entrepreneur; someone who is starting a company from scratch and building value out of thin air. This is the true magic of entrepreneurship and I admire those who start young and jump into unknown territory head first without looking back. As I like to say, it’s like jumping off a cliff and growing wings while you’re falling.

1. You are the most powerful force in your life.

Through mental barriers and past experiences, many of us tend to forget that we are truly the most powerful forces in our own lives. I’m a big believer in the true internal locus of control – being the master of your own destiny. Beyond the broad, all encompassing forces that you control (like your path to success, the passions you pursue, etc), it all comes down to the things you do every day. Who do you reach out to? Who do you go and meet? What do you build to show what you can do? What do you write to spread the word? How can you build your foundation first? No one will know how to help you unless you ask them. They won’t know either unless they know what you’re capable of. More often than not, this is the true epitome of action over talk and we forget sometimes that we can make a difference for ourselves much faster than anyone else can make for us.

2. Stand up for yourself: trust your gut.

There is a lot of research around frontal lobe, rational thinking versus reptilian and instinct-based nature vs. nurture thinking. Because entrepreneurship is inherently instinctual, as you are devoting your life to something unknown and ambiguous, your decisions and your “strategy” are most often a result of a culmination of your basic instincts and some very parallel but not directly relevant data. You’ll learn through many decisions to listen to your gut. It’s an experience that results from your internal dialogue. It’s a very subtle feeling that can be mistaken for many other things but if you can learn to focus on it, you may find your decisions will not only be the best for you, but they will also be consistent and wired to your thinking. Because, at the end of the day, it is your thinking that shapes the vision and culture of the organization you are trying to build. Any deviation can cause internal unrest for you, but also external unrest among your stakeholders.

3. Think big.

Because we’re young, we have an excuse to think big. I’ve observed that our expected ability to think big is inversely correlated to our age. Unfortunately, big ideas can get beaten to a pulp for anyone older simply because of the enhanced perception and awareness of risk. Therefore, when you are young, do not be afraid to think and do things in a big way.

In addition, we often quickly realize that this mis-perception of risk, along with a potential reward, enables a quickly scaling business idea that depends on an ideal mixture of capital, knowledge, and growing markets. Everyday, without knowing it, our minds expand along with the potential of the ideas that we come up with. It’s almost like a mental exercise to think big. The final piece of the puzzle, of course, is to figure out how to act on it, fast enough. Go back to Tip #1.

4. Use your youth.

Being young isn’t all about age. It’s about curiosity, capacity, and ultimately limits. Test your own limits. I found university to be the perfect structured environment to allow me to do this. This is one of the main reasons why I am supportive of utilizing academia as a sandbox of structured and unstructured acquisition of knowledge and relationships. The limits that we can learn from our internal stress tests can give us a very clear picture of what we’re truly capable of. I don’t think there will ever be another period of time in your life where you can stretch your mind and your physical capabilities to their maximums with so little consequence, as when in a university setting. As a result, you can leapfrog others in progress, build amazing products, live life to its fullest while bringing others along with you on the journey.

5. Build relationships, don’t acquire them.

There is a lot of focus in the entrepreneurial world around meeting and networking with people. It’s great to acquire contacts, but I think its even more valuable to build relationships. Can you step away from the transactional model of meeting people and move towards a relationship model? A relationship needs to be mutual to be fruitful and healthy. As a result, the context in which you acquire a new relationship may actually affect the way you build that relationship. I like to spend more one-on-one time during lunches and breakfasts without stretching my social capital with too many casual get-togethers. It’s great to be around a lot of people who may help to open a new door, but you may find that there are certain people who become like a relational “node” or “hub”, who can help you navigate a more relevant relationship tree and point you to others who share your passion and can truly help you grow.

This post was written by Brian Wong, founder of kiip, a True Ventures Portfolio Company.