5 Key Takeaways From Mentoring 12 Techstars Startup Founders In One Day.

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Yesterday was an intense and fun day mentoring 12 International Techstars founders in 15 min increments. It was humbling, exciting, and fulfilling. 

Being an entrepreneur is challenging and gratifying at the same time. The ups, the downs, the high from getting something off the ground – it’s a wild, crazy and fun ride. Do it right, and you can make a difference in the world and build the next BIG THING. Fail, and you get to deal not only with the internal feelings of guilt and shame disappointing yourself, family and friends, investors, team, not to talk about the financial risk involved. 

The pressure is f*cking real. 

Here’s what I wrote down throughout the day.  

Niching Down is Key. 

Just about everyone I spoke with had this problem. To be honest, I do too. 

Niching down is scary. You don’t want to pigeonhole yourself into one audience, product, or social media channel. You end up trying to do too much, be everywhere, and create something for everyone. Being too general dilutes your messaging, impact, and success rate. 

Niche down until you’re uncomfortable and then niche down some more. You have a better chance to get noticed sooner and make money faster.  

Build Without Burnout. 

Having too much to do leads to stress, overwhelm, and staying up till 3 am. It’s easy to get sucked into working 65+ hours/week. 

Two of the founders I spoke with are burnt out. One of them put himself in a hospital after surviving on Monster Energy drinks to deliver to his investors. He didn’t want to talk about his company. Instead, he wanted to talk about how to prevent burnout moving forward. When your business depends on you – your creativity, your health, your clarity, you need to do whatever it takes to avoid burnout. 

Otherwise, you’re looking at getting a 9 to 5 job to pay your mortgage. And who wants that?

Become stress-resilient and learn how to mentally detach from work and create relaxed success. 

Why you should work less and spend more time on hobbies

Create Human (not Hustle) Culture. 

Creating the right work culture from the start is essential – for you and the team you want to attract. 

It’s not just the amount of hours you work, but building a culture where people feel like they belong and have plenty of time for wellbeing, experiences, hobbies. Do you want to hang out with your team outside of work to go on ski trips and surf excursions? If you want your people to feel like they belong working remotely, the things you do together outside of work matter. Having friends at work directly impacts your bottom line. Gen Zers are changing how, where, and why works get done. Sure, they still want to go after their dream, but they want to do it while they’re having fun. 

Whether you believe in a 4-day work week, 6-hour workday, giving people autonomy to choose their days, or going on one week-long surf trip to Costa Rica, experiment to see what works for you. 

Productivity and outcomes are two different things. Focus on what matters. 

Clarity in Product & Message. 

Clarity ties back to #1, but it seems the common thread with most founders. 

Brand storytelling done right with clarity, creativity and simplicity can help people understand how you’re helping them and who precisely you are focusing on with your product/service. In a noisy marketplace, you have a short time to get noticed. If someone doesn’t understand your product or doesn’t think it’s made for them, they’ll keep scrolling. If you want to attract CEOs, but it’s HR people who buy your product, then you need to reevaluate who you’re talking to. 

Clarity keeps your team aligned and your message clear and consistent. Talk to more people until you gain the clarity you need. 

Courage To Stand Out.

If you want to disrupt a market, you need to be disruptive. 

You can’t just say you want to disrupt the market but do it with wishy-washy messages. Be bold. Be brave. Be Different. Create something unique and deal with the objections head-on. 

Do not, and you’ll end up in a sea of sameness. 

Create. Go. Build. Dream Big. Tap Into Your Full Human Potential. 

Remember to have a ton of fun along the way. Stay true to yourself, commit to your vision, be flexible, become unf*ckwithable, and have a legendary ride. 

Learn the principles of Unhustle and build relaxed success with more flow, fun and fulfillment. Book a free 20 min consultation here.

Rebel to work and live well.

As a thank you, will send you our ebook with real life stories of people and companies who have embraced the unhustle way of living and working and are no longer surviving but thriving.