Regardless of sector, an entrepreneur is always an entrepreneur

While my career on the surface has revolved around building financial asset management businesses, I have never focused my sole attention on finance.  I helped my family set up a medical practice in a different city, advised a friend on her entertainment venture strategy, and supported another friend with his revolutionary energy-focused project.  At times when I had little time to work on a start-up in an industry other than finance, I stayed current by reading about and observing the growth of start-ups in other areas from software to real estate.  It has been particularly helpful to be surrounded by a network of friends and family with diverse interests and experiences.  I was able to gain a fuller perspective on what is out there beyond financial asset management.  Over a decade, it has therefore not been difficult to develop my own framework around what drives successful businesses.

In hindsight, my extensive work with financial start-ups has actually given me an advantage in working with other sector start-ups.   Clearly, studying business management twice (BBA and MBA) was instrumental in the way I think about start-ups and connect with people around me.  Taking coursework in areas such as operations management or tech marketing has allowed me build solid businesses that are viable and sustainable.  What has been even more crucial, moreover, was the hands-on work experience at financial start-ups:  I had the opportunity to work closely with fourteen teams in a dynamic and new sector (alternative investing), building firms without guidance from any sector textbooks.  I saw several times how a business can grow in three months and fail just as quickly.  I observed how people's reactions change drastically from good to bad times.  And I saw the impact of media on the progress of these firms.  All of that have made me appreciate how important it is to not get blindsided by success and save for a rainy day and strive harder to stay on course.

Regardless of industry, my takeaway is that every start-up needs to raise the capital to hire the best team that can develop its products and business, put in place the most suitable strategic partnerships, and most importantly, have that team execute as efficiently and effectively as possible.  Without a group of hard working entrepreneurs who think big, it is tough/impossible for any start-up to generate great long-term momentum and results.

Unsurprisingly, music technology is no exception.  My start-up experience from the finance world was fully and immediately transferrable, despite a new set of products.  About a year ago, I started working part-time with a tech developer team, initially launching a corporate structure around their basic concept and letting them manage product development with the right funds to operate.  I had full faith in this team's ability to handle every project without micro-management.   By the Fall of 2010, I became fully engaged to build the actual business.  Here, my experience with other start-ups (from legal to operations) played a key role in executing quickly:  Within a month of my involvement, I negotiated three major music licensing and partner contracts, guaranteeing our preferred start-up rates to give our company some additional support during the initial months.  The team and I also connected with several industry experts to design and execute the best business development strategy, including marketing.   

Before the first product hit the market, we had already heard from a number of strategic partners and industry experts (even press) that our new solution for music fans could actually be the long-term winner--with almost everyone giving us thumbs up on the progress we made in a short time.   Not bad for a tiny and young start-up in technology!   However, none of this has made me super-excited about this company's potential to survive.  I know the survival odds are no different than in any other start-up venture.  My whole team and I are still working diligently to make this company stay on its course and prosper in the long run.

So what is so different between financial start-ups and any other start-up?  Not much beyond the product line... Whoever launches the best financial company and acquires most of the customers tends to succeed, earning a lot in the process.  No different than Steve Jobs & team at Apple, or Pfizer with a drug like Viagra.  And whenever a start-up fails, everyone goes down with it.  No milestone is a guarantee of future success.  

Taking all that into consideration, I can confirm that the finance sector did not stifle my entrepreneurial nature or ability to start a new venture in a different sector, even while working full-time on financial ventures.  I happened to choose one sector and tried to make the most of it.  And now I can apply all those skills to new sectors more efficiently.  An entrepreneur is always an entrepreneur, and will always find the highest growth path wherever s/he is.