Ep 024: Founders, Date Before You Marry w/ Mike Chan

Mike Chan is an entrepreneur, consultant, marketer, and blogger.
He is the co-founder of Ribl, a real-time, location based message
board app, where you can share and discover the most relevant
content about your current vicinity, so you’ll never miss out on
what’s happening around you. Not only that, he is also the
Founder and Host of his own show, the Go and Grow Podcast. Where
he interviews entrepreneurs and industry leaders to learn how
they launch and grow products and companies.
STRATEGIES USED TO FUND BUSINESS

My businesses are often bootstrapped. I’ve either started them
working on the side while working a full time job or leaving a
full time job and doing some consulting. There are certainly pros
and cons to that but the bottom line is…just make it happen.
Funding from outside sources is not necessary to create a startup
FOUNDERS

The first startup that I worked on didn’t last very long. And it
was because of founder issues. One of the biggest problems for
non-technical entrepreneurs like me who are trying to get into a
tech startup is to find technical co-founders. I found 3
technical cofounders really quickly and what happened was that I
essentially got married without dating. It failed a couple months
down the road. We couldn’t agree on the next steps, we couldn’t
agree on the strategy and the vision of the company. And this was
the startup I quit my full-time job for. Date before you marry.
HUGE SUCCESS

I haven’t got to the point, at least in my eyes, when I realized
I’ve achieved great success. You have to celebrate the small
successes. One of the things that I look at is just seeing the
fruits of your labor when you’ve worked hard.
SUPERPOWER

I think empathy is my greatest strength. Whether in business or
life in general, I think I’m pretty good at putting myself in
other people’s shoes and seeing things from their view.
KRYPTONITE

My kryptonite is that I am a Jack of All Trades, but a Master at
None. It’s tough for me. I like to know a lot about a lot of
things, but it’ll serve me well to focus on one thing and get
really strong at that.
IF YOU CAN HAVE ANY SUPERPOWER

I want to be able to read people’s minds. Empathy is part of
this, but I’m definitely not at the point of reading people’s
minds.
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE OR APP

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RECOMMENDED BOOKS

The Business of Happiness: 6 Secrets to Extraordinary Success in
Life and Work