At the first Startup Grind event of the New Year on January 19th, Preetish Nijhawan, Managing Director of Cervin Ventures talked about his experiences as an entrepreneur and venture capitalist. Nijhawan shared many of his funny, painful, and interesting personal stories about funding startups.
At the end, he provided three lessons that entrepreneurs across all industries can apply:
1. Be wary of building a business where you have to educate the market
2. Reduce your burn rate in order to maximize your flexibility
3. Learn more from your failures then successes
During the audience Q&A portion of the event, Nijhawan brought up a semi-controversial idea stating that not all startups must have (or should have) VC funding. He encouraged entrepreneurs to think about lifestyle oriented companies that allow for more autonomy without the stresses of public reporting, IPO paperwork, or corporate board management. Sorry you missed it? No worries, there is another one coming up!
Shilpi Sharma, Fremont Startup Grind Director and Preetish Nijhawan, Managing Director of Cervin Ventures
Join us on February 18th to talk with our youngest entrepreneur yet, Andrew Ponec, Cofounder of Dragonfly Systems, about renewable energy, Cleantech incubation, and startups. Dragonfly System created small electronic devices to improve efficiency and reduce installation costs for large commercial and utility-scale solar power installations. Dragonfly Systems was acquired in 2014 by SunPower Corporation, a US-based solar company, and is currently ramping up the production of the Dragonfly devices. Ponec was also named to Forbes “30 under 30” list in 2014 for his work in solar energy, and is currently focusing on smart buildings, and affordable housing technologies.
Get your tickets here.
It is never too early to mark your calendar for the next StartupGrind event!
On March 15, 2016, Fremont Grind will feature Aaron Carpenter, Chief Customer Officer at HubNami, a social media management startup.
You can follow Startup Grind Fremont on Twitter, @FremontGrind and Facebook at Startup Grind Fremont.
This post first appeared on Start, Expand, Grow, Relocate Business In Silicon Valley - Fremont, California, please read the originial post: here
