2 Years of entrepreneurship : lessons learned

Wow, it’s been 2 years.

2 years of ups and downs. 2 years I finished school. 2 years of doing amazing diverse things : Working at Prêt a Manger, meeting the Aromates team, learning code at Le Wagon, building Newsly, being a freelance, and even delivering food these last days !

As most of of you know, building Newsly was the common denominator of all these things. With one unachieved vision : transforming information we consume everyday on the web, into searchable & accessible knowledge.

Apparently we didn’t bring the right solution to the market. I believe it’s still a crucial transition for our century : leaving the information society to reach a knowledge society. With technologies as a bridge.

During this journey I learned a few important things that I’ll remember for sure. I am happy to share some with you, at least 8 of them :

1. I learned that we, as human beings, strangely over-value ideas. Instead, execution is key. An idea has 0$ value until it works and people want your product. (Hey Lean Startup)
2. I learned that entrepreneurship is “All In” or go home. You don’t build a startup if you are looking for some cool time or a no-boss policy. (Hey Dustin)
3. I learned that your solution is not, actually, people’s (fucking) problem (Hey Dave). If you don’t solve people’s problems, they’ll have no time for an unuseful product. Even your friends & family.
4. I learned that attention is the game. (Hey Gary) It’s the most valuable — and hard — thing to obtain from anyone : Users ; Customers ; Partners ; Investors. Bring value before asking for anything, to anyone.
5. I learned that if you don’t try anything you’ll get absolutely nothing. Anything you earn is provoked on a certain level, even if its just by your thoughts. Mindset is contagious.
6. I learned that startups stories are much more complicated than what they look like in the Press. Media like to tell nice stories because people like to listen to nice stories.
7. I learned that it’s not the smarter guy who wins at this game, but just the one who learns fast enough to improve constantly and maintain growth. (Hey Paul)
8. I learned that entrepreneurship is a survival game. Your only goal is to be alive the next month (Hey Airbnb) and grow. Because after a couple of years, the market has always the last word. Except if you are Elon Musk. Then, you have a decade 🙂

Even if things didn’t work out as expected, I learned how exciting was to build a software solution ; Feeling that (you might be) useful to people is deeply awesome.

NEXT

From monday 2nd of November I’ll start working at Brief.me focusing on growth and user acquisition. I am very happy about it : it’s in the news industry and for a product I use everyday since January. I am excited to learn with new goals and join a new team.

I’ll also give some lectures about startups in my old University : Pôle Léonard de Vinci. I can’t wait to be in a class where I wished I had been as a student 2 years ago.

Before leaving the entrepreneurship world I just wanted to wish good luck to all the friends & people I have meet on this road. I know the ups and downs : you have my full support.

I’ll continue to write about technologies and startups here on my website and on Medium. Stay tuned.

Previous essay : Trouver une idée de startup ou un problème qui compte.