Today I had a PR person ask me some questions for a press release. Thought I’d share the questions and answer here for posterity.
Q: What capabilities does a student entrepreneur need?
A: Curiosity, grit, high tolerance for risk, hustle, an open mind, an ability to formulate and articulate clear plans to build alignment between stakeholders both internal and external
Q: What are your thoughts on Brisbane’s entrepreneurship ecosystem?
A: It's small and inexperienced, but passionate and engaged. Rich ground for great experimentation and, eventually, a growing number of big success stories.
Q: Is entrepreneurship important as businesses face disruption? If so, why?
A: It's essential. The disruption is coming from entrepreneurs and from tools, technologies, and attitudes that build on each other at ever-increasing speeds. As the rate of change accelerates in the world, large companies and slow, organic execution are too slow to catch up or keep up with the problems and opportunities in the world.
Q: Who is it you turn to for advice? And what advice do you offer, given your time at Uber?
A: I look for those more experienced than me - ideally, those who have tried and failed and learned their lessons well. Even better if they have then turned around and succeeded in the end.
My advice coming out of Silicon Valley and Uber is: Go faster, ship more, and get more users. Stop worrying about external validation from the media, government, and academia. The only validation that matters is user growth and then revenue growth.
Q: A report by the Foundation for Young Australians indicates a young person will have five career changes and an average of 17 jobs in their lifetime – do you have any thoughts regarding that?
A: Careers are an anachronistic construct. We are all free-agents. We live, we learn, we identify bigger and more complex problems we can help with, and we help. When we solve real problems people pay us for our contribution. Rinse and repeat.
Q: What’s the best job you’ve ever had?
A: My current job. Advising startups so they can avoid the key mistakes and fast forward to the best answers as fast as possible. Nothing beats seeing the eyes of an entrepreneur light up when you help them avoid a mistake or expand their thinking.