Five Entrepreneurial Myths

Paris FailConSeptember 22, 2011

Bruno Vanryb: an entrepreneur

Clearly an autodidact

Co-founder, Chairman and CEO of Avanquest Software - Since May 1984

President of the Software Developers’ Committee at Syntec numerique – Since July 2010

Member of the CNN (Government Advisory Council for digitally related topics) – Since April 2011

Board Member of NYSE Euronext (since 2007), MCI Group (since 2006) and The Creative Factory (since 2003)

President of Croissance Plus (1998 – 2000), a well known French association whose aim is to raise awareness and support young growth companies

President of MiddleNext (2002 – 2005), a professional association comprising of more than 150 mid cap companies listed on the French stock exchange

Freelance journalist for the French computer press (1983 – 1986)

Co-writer of 12 popular books on micro-computing (1983 – 1986) published by Editions Eyrolles in Paris

Sound Engineer (1977 – 1983) recorded several very well-known French new wave, rock and variety music successes

Motorcycle enthusiast, travelling with his bike, collecting classic models and also took part in amateur races from 1997 to 2003

Modern art enthusiast, chaired a modern art lovers association called “Les Centaures” between 1993 and 2000

My parents kept saying:“You must pursue higher education”

Unfortunately I failed my first two years of medical school

Is it so alarming after all?

First myth: You need an array of qualifications to succeed

The number of self-taught entrepreneurs who have gone on

to succeed is significant

Amadeo Peter Giannini, multimillionaire founder of Bank of America. Dropped out of high school.Charles Culpeper, owner and CEO of Coca Cola. Dropped out of high school.Pete Cashmore, founded Mashable.com at the age of 19.Ray Kroc, founder of McDonald’s. Dropped out of high school.George Eastman, multimillionaire inventor and Kodak founder. Dropped out of high school.Henry Ford, billionaire founder of Ford Motor Company.  Did not attend college.Steve Wozniak, billionaire co-founder of Apple. Did not complete college.David Geffen, billionaire founder of Geffen Records and co-founder of DreamWorks. Dropped out of college after completing one year.Frederick Henry Royce, auto designer, multimillionaire and co-founder of Rolls-Royce. Dropped out of elementary school.Ingvar Kamprad, one of the richest people in the world and founder of IKEA. Dyslexic.Jack Crawford Taylor, founder of enterprise Rent-a-Car. Dropped out of college to become a WWII fighter pilot in the Navy.Larry Ellison, billionaire co-founder of Oracle software company. Dropped out of two different colleges.Michael Dell, billionaire founder of Dell Computers, which he started out of his college dorm room. Dropped out of college.Richard Branson, billionaire founder of Virgin Records, Virgin Atlantic Airways, Virgin Mobile, and more. Dropped out of high school at 16.Tom Anderson, co-founder and “friend” of MySpace. Dropped out of high school.Kevin Rose, founder of Digg.com. Dropped out of college during his second year.

Just to name a few:

Among the most famous…

In France, similar trends can be found and 2 out of every 3 entrepreneurs are self-taught

François Pinault Dropped out of high school

at 16 without his degree

Xavier Niel Dropped out before the end of his maths

college degree

Martin Bouygues Dropped out after

one year in Dauphine

Second myth: To dare to embark on an

entrepreneurial venture,

you need to take huge risks

Second myth: To dare to embark on an entrepreneurial venture, you need to take huge risks

The above statement is incorrect

Most entrepreneurs: started ‘small’ in a garage with a teammate - A great way to

motivate each other and share both ideas, risks and the initial funding

United we stand, divided we fall,

strength through unity

A variation of this myth: entrepreneurs have a serious taste for dangerAlso very wrong: risks are always calculated

The key skill is not the ability to take risks but

those of vision, courage and perseverance

In 1989, Matra Communications – a 34% shareholder of Avanquest – told me that going international was a huge risk for a small company.

We lost their support but actually, we would have failed, should we have listened to them.

If we are still around, it’s because we decided to go global.

Third myth: Export is expensive, long and dangerous

Third myth: Export is expensive, long and dangerous

The above statement is wrong

One proven way: Start small with partners Understand the market first Open your local office second Put in place Open your Local trustworthy management

Everything is possible: you can even sell ice cream to Eskimos

We did it, in a way

In 1993, 80% of our business was fax-software. At that time, all analysts were planning for the end of fax before 1996.So in a nutshell, we were doomed to fail. Now the reality: in 2006, fax was still selling enough to represent 20% of our business

Four

th M

yth

“You should listen to the market, trends and others’ advice”

Yes, but within reason: listen to your gut feeling

Market changes are faster in

the media than in business

reality Market studies are as reliable

as a weather forecast

Four

th M

yth:

Yo

u sh

ould

liste

n to

the

mar

ket,

trend

s and

oth

ers’

advic

e

My $1 million mistake:In 1999, Avanquest proudly launched Internet Family, the first Internet portal for the family, or in other words, a family intranet. We sold virtually nothing of this innovative platform while all studies were claiming that families would need connection between their PCs. This actually happened about 10 years later and social networks have surpassed the mere family circle.

Fifth myth: It is vital to have a major innovation to embark on an entrepreneurial venture

Of course it helps, but genius is rare and yet there are still many successful entrepreneurs

Innovation alone is risky and challenging: You have to create a customer need from scratch You have to present solutions without evidence they will work

A safer method is to improve an existing product and/or situation, taking into account previous unavoidable mistakes so as to not reproduce them

Should there be tough competition in the business you’re interested in, don’t worry - it means there is a healthy market and money to make

Fifth myth: It is vital to have a major innovation to embark on an entrepreneurial venture

Think twice if your idea seems too new: you have to launch your value proposition at the right time when the market is ready:

The right product at the right time

One day or another, everyone fails The most important thing is to learn from our mistakes