aaronepstein

Founders Are the New Rockstars

“OMG, you know the guy who started Reddit?!”

My sister-in-law — a freshman at the University of Maryland — was starstruck, and immediately took to Facebook to tell her friends she was in the same room with Alexis Ohanian. Her roommate responded right away “Where are you?? I’m coming NOW!”

Everywhere Alexis went last night on stop 29 of his 150-stop college book tour, students and fans of Reddit were clamoring to get their pictures taken with him so they could tell their friends they met the founder of Reddit, got their copy of his book signed, and drank beers with the guy behind their favorite site. True rockstar status.

Granted, Alexis is a special breed — touring the country in a massive tour bus like an actual rockstar — but the best startups being created today are touching lives much the same way that music does, and giving founders a celebrity status among the internet generation.

It’s now just as cool to start a startup as it is to be in a rock band. Just as cool to spend hours creating in front of a computer as it is to spend hours practicing guitar in your parents’ basement. Just as cool to reveal that app you’ve been working on to your friends as it is to release your band’s first demo.

Coding, designing, finding users, building a brand, and ultimately creating a company out of nothing is an art form. It starts with a blank canvas, makes people’s lives better when released to the world, and takes years of practice to become great at it. And pop culture is beginning to recognize and embrace the startup creators who pour their hearts and souls into their work to build a better future.

After he got off stage, the success of Alexis’ message hit home for me when my sister-in-law — an 18-year-old girl obsessed with fashion, parties, and Snapchat — said afterward that she wanted to learn how to code so she could have the power to be one of these creators.

Kids growing up today are already obsessed with technology, and all they need now are more positive founder role-models to focus their scattered energy and show them the way. So while we don’t all have to go on rockstar cross-country tours to do our part, we owe it to future generations to get involved at local schools, mentor passionate kids overflowing with ideas, and give back to the community that will ultimately change the world.

Startups Aren’t Risky

“Not everyone’s like you,” he said. “Startups are risky, so not everyone sees that as a viable career path.” But I disagreed - startups aren’t risky.

It wasn’t long ago that I was talking to an entrepreneurship professor at the University of Maryland about ways to get more students excited about joining the startup world and following their passions and dreams, rather than taking the traditional path through corporate America. And his response surprised me.

So when I got the chance to give feedback to some ambitious University of Maryland students at a speed pitch event this afternoon, I was struck by the contrast between the entrepreneurial students giving pitches in our classroom vs. the career fair going on just outside in the hallway.

It got me thinking about how these aspiring entrepreneurs had to literally walk through a sea of students in suits swarming the recruiting booths for Pepsico and other mega-corporations, to arrive in our classroom to get feedback on big businesses they had dreams of creating themselves.

These students weren’t looking to play the game to advance to the next stage in their lives or careers, as they’re expected to do by so many of their families and peers. Put on your best suit. Make your resume sound sharp. But keep it to a single page, because no one wants to read more than that. Make yourself stand out to the recruiters. Get their contact info and follow up. All for an opportunity to take the road most traveled, to live the life they’re expected to live.

It brought me back to when I was graduating from the UMD business school a decade ago, and all of my tech friends were jumping into government consulting jobs while I was the weird one into startups. And I get it: decent pay, 9-5 hours, short-term job security. But none of them were actually passionate about consulting. It was a job.

So why didn’t anyone see starting or joining a startup as a viable path? There are some myths out there that prevent a lot of really smart, passionate people from taking the plunge, the biggest of which is that startups are risky. And sure, most startups and small businesses fail. Chances are, if you start (or join) one, you will too. But that doesn’t make it risky.

Because when you build a startup, you get the most incredible experience across a huge spectrum of skills, and come out the other side (successful or not) with a significantly more employable skillset. By their very nature, startups take you out of your comfort zone, and force you to grow by putting you in situations you’ve never been in before. Pitching investors to raise money. Building a product where nothing existed before. Convincing other people to get behind your startup and join the team. Figuring out creative ways to tell the world about your product. Reaching out to partners to help each other along the way. Being resourceful. These are all skills that you’ll be forced to learn in the first year of your startup life, many of which are skills you’d never learn after decades in corporate America.

This is not risky. This is empowering.

Risky is becoming a cog in the wheel, performing the same specific job function day in and day out, never being forced to truly expand your horizons and grow. And then what happens if you get laid off by BigCo? Right back into the rat-race of career fairs and job sites to see who you can convince that those specific skills you’ve been using over the years are the perfect fit for them.

On the flip side, what happens if your startup fails? This is where all of those startup skills really come in handy. Every single one of them is a skill that forces you to make connections and meet other people doing similar things. Investors, potential partners, potential employees, potential customers, startup friends. Being in a startup forces you to meet people who, coincidentally, are always looking to hire smart, ambitious, resourceful, get-shit-done people like yourself. So you’ll never be without opportunities.

So to all the students out there who come to the fork in the road, don’t be afraid to take the road less traveled. It won’t lead you astray.