How Adeo Ressi Empowered 2,700+ People To Become Startup Founders
Over the summer we sat down with Adeo Ressi, the CEO of the Founder Institute, a startup accelerator program that operates in nearly 200 cities worldwide.
Adeo Ressi
Over the summer we sat down with Adeo Ressi, the CEO of the Founder Institute, a startup accelerator program that operates in nearly 200 cities worldwide. Throughout his time as a founder, Adeo has pioneered innovations in the protection of founder rights, the raising of early-stage capital and the scaling of new businesses.
Previous to the Founder Institute, Adeo has helped to create nearly $2 billion in shareholder value by founding or running nine businesses, including TheFunded, Game Trust, Xceed and Total New York. Adeo previously served on the Board of the X Prize Foundation to pursue his interests in space exploration and techniques to motivate human achievement. Throughout this episode it is clear that Adeo is passionate about mentoring Founders, space exploration, inspiring people to achieve their greatness, and more which includes:
The personality traits of the best founders
How The Funded improved transparency in the VC industry
The role fluid intelligence plays in entrepreneurs
How Adeo helped 2,700 plus founders grow through the Founder Institute
Managing your investors and protecting your equity
How to build startup ecosystems
Why maintaining focus and avoiding distractions is mission critical
How do you give meaning to your life's work
Ambition Today Question of the Day™:
"What is the end game? Where do you see Founder Institute and all your life’s work going?"
Quote Of The Episode:
"There are a lot of shiny things in the sand, that look very appealing to you and may be a cause for you to think about pivoting or adjusting the business model. I can tell you that most of the shiny things in the sand are not diamonds, they are knives waiting to kill you. You have to be very, very, very diligent to remain focused on your core mission"
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2016 Startup Funding Trends With Adeo Ressi
In 2015 it was all the rage to be a "unicorn", a startup company with a billion dollar valuation. Since then the supposed "startup and tech bubble" has popped and the gold rush is over. But what is really happening with the markets?
Adeo Ressi at Valley in Berlin 2016
In 2015 it was all the rage to be a "unicorn", a startup company with a billion dollar valuation. Since then the supposed "startup and tech bubble" has popped and the gold rush is over. But what is really happening with the markets?
Alex Konrad recently gave us some insight on Ambition Today and now today we have a more in-depth explanation of what is happening from Adeo Ressi, the founder of the Founder Institute. Last month Adeo was in Germany for the "Valley in Berlin Summit" and keynoted a talk around the 2016 Startup Funding Trends we are currently seeing. If you are thinking about fundraising, have a startup, or plan on starting your own company you are going to want to watch the keynote below.
What Makes a Successful Entrepreneur? Circumstance, Genetics, and Perseverance
Recently Adeo Ressi, Founder of the Founder Institute, was asked, “what does it take to be a successful entrepreneur?”. In Adeo’s opinion, his answer was successful entrepreneurship is a combination of three things: Genetics, Circumstance & Perseverance.
Steve Jobs
Recently Adeo Ressi, Founder of the Founder Institute, was asked, “what does it take to be a successful entrepreneur?”.
In Adeo’s opinion, his answer was successful entrepreneurship is a combination of three things: Genetics, Circumstance & Perseverance.
Let’s go through all three.
Adeo Ressi
1. Genetics
The Founder Institute has completed social science testing on over ten thousand prospective entrepreneurs, measuring things like “Big 5 Personality Traits”, Fluid Intelligence, IQ, and more. The Institute then watched who became successful, and correlated back the measured traits that best predicted success, in a scientific process.
The traits that best predict entrepreneurial success are genetic, such as Fluid Intelligence and Openness. BUT, just because you have traits that MAY make you successful as an entrepreneur, does not mean that you WILL be successful. Similarly, just because you are tall does not mean that you are good basketball player.
In other words, you need the raw materials, but you also need other things.
2. Circumstance
Being in the proverbial “right place at the right time” matters a lot towards your ultimate success as an entrepreneur.
Timing is everything (..almost).
For example, Michael Diamant started iClips, a site exactly like YouTube, a few years before YouTube launched. iClips was a truly well-executed business, but the necessary bandwidth, camera penetration, and streaming technology adoption did not yet exist for it to gain massive traction. He was simply too early for the market.
Circumstances are not all market-specific, either. You can have perfect market-timing, but your personal circumstances might not be optimal. For example, you could have the best idea and timing while you are a high school student, and start to execute on that idea to the the best of your ability — but then a veteran entrepreneur does the same business with millions in venture capital and captures the whole market.
Some circumstances are in your control, and some are simply outside of your control, but most successful entrepreneurs will concede that some of their success is attributable to circumstance.
3. Perservance
You only fail in your business when you actually give up, so, in fact, no business would ever fail if people persevered.
When you look at the Founders of some of the most successful technology companies in the world, and there almost always were (and still are) times when the Founders simply refused to give up despite unbelievable problems, stress, and negative signaling
“Entrepreneurship is like eating glass and walking on hot coals at the same time” — Elon Musk
Elon Musk
An entrepreneur faces all of the debilitating problems of their own life, coupled with all of the personal problems of their team, as well as hostile operating environments, limited capital, stretched resources, no time, regulatory burdens, changing technology… the list is endless.
The loneliness and darkness of entrepreneurship is not discussed very often, but it is very, very real.
Those that persevere succeed. Those that do not, do not.