This was my first opportunity to talk to an entrepreneur who has built and sold three businesses and then transitioned into giving back to the field. Clint has written several books and I found it very interesting that there are tools and processes within entrepreneurship from a perspective of academia. I personally have several degrees, but neither of them is in the study of entrepreneurship. I have gathered my experience through life experience only, which is simply a different path to the same destination.
It’s cool to see the evolution of entrepreneurial studies at a collegiate level! I love it. If this were available when I was in school, I would have majored in entrepreneurial studies without hesitation. I would love to teach on this very subject someday, so this explains my comment about me being Clint in 20 or 30 years.
Conversational Notes from this Episode
For those of you reading this who are launching startups, do yourself a favor and check out Clint’s website. I plan on buying his book, “Understanding the Lean Startup” but for now, here are a few tips and highlights that you can expect from this show:
- It’s much better to bootstrap than to borrow in startup funding
- It’s much easier to start a service based business as opposed to a product based business, as these are easier to start and sustain
- Doubling your chances of new venture success requires that you validate your idea. Go to your end user before you spend any money or scale it, get them to help you validate your idea so that you know it is needed, solves a problem or it’s in demand. And once you know that, they can even refine the proposition for you.
- Everyone has a desire for freedom and excess cash to be able to afford something better in life – be it your passion for travel, a nicer home or a college education for your kids – and entrepreneurship makes that happen.
- The startup challenge? Finding something that will hold your interest over the long haul so you can be persistent. You have to have a passion about something.
- Opportunity recognition + the willingness to take risks = The Entrepreneurial Mindset
- There are no overnight successes but you just have to be doing something that you thoroughly enjoy … that you want to do every day and stick with it.
- Don’t be afraid to fail. Fail fast, fail often. Only by failing, can you correct your course. Many successful entrepreneurs have pivoted.
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About Clinton
Clint Day is an adjunct entrepreneurship professor who serves as Entrepreneur-in-Residence at State College of Florida. He is a serial entrepreneur who founded three insurance entities in Florida and Georgia and began teaching/mentoring after selling his last business. Professionally qualified by the AACSB business school association, Clint earned a MBA in entrepreneurship and has been certified by the Babson SEE, Kauffman Ice House, Lean Launch Pad, UF Experiential Classroom, and Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship courses. He is the author of the Bar Charts entrepreneurship study guide, “Set Your Own Salary” how-to entrepreneurship book, and the anthology on evidence-based entrepreneurship, “Understanding Lean Startup”. Clint is a member of the NACCE and USASBE entrepreneurship organizations, and participates in veterans entrepreneurship training as a Vietnam vet.
Click here to see Clint’s author profile on Amazon.
Click here to see his publications.
Click here for a Media Kit for Set Your Own Salary.
Click here for a Media Kit on Understanding Lean Startup.