8 Things I Wish I Knew Before Starting a Business – Don Rainey

Check out the great article from Venture Beat called “8 things I wish I knew before starting a business”.  Don Rainey, general partner at Grotech Ventures says there are many experiences that, though he learned lessons from, he wishes he knew from the get go.

1. Things take longer than you ever imagine

2. Items that do succeed tend to do so quickly

3. People will let you down

4. Good employees are really hard to find

5. Your bad employees rarely quit

6. You will be lucky and unlucky

7. Avoid the myth and misery of sunk cost

8. Fill the pipe, always fill the pipe

4 and 5 remind me of Howard Tullman talking about hiring. He had lots of pithy insights – here’s one that will be featured in How They Did It: Billion Dollar Insights from the Heart of America (now available for pre-order on Amazon).

"I used to fall in love with everyone I interviewed and I’d say, ‘We can make anybody successful’ or ‘We can find a job for any talented person.’ And that’s just completely wrong and a really bad idea."