Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

This probably isn`t the ideal way to introduce myself, but I just had to chime in on this discussion.

I am one of three partners at YoungGoGetter.com, one of few communities targeted at young entrepreneurs.

The latest version of our site has only been live since January, but YGG has been around since about August of 2005.

What Craig originally said kinda` got to me:

I myself am 22 years of age, and the majority of our members are between 16 and 24.  Almost all of which have created and owned at least one business in their short lifespan and are at least partially employed as an entrepreneur.

In my opinion, experience is having an understanding of what works and doesn’t based upon the chances you’ve taken in the past.  The thing is, not everyone would have or should have approached the problems you’ve encountered in the same way. 

What worked for you (experience) may work for others, but that breaks the cycle of innovation and results in millions of people creating similar businesses, with similar offers, similar marketing, etc…  Almost all of which are undistinguishable from one another and don’t reach anywhere near the level of success the initial idea/direction did.

Experience is golden in areas that rely on formulas and processes.  You sure as hell don’t want to be creative with your accounting, but should try to be with your product or service, marketing, and almost every other aspect of your business.

There are times when experience is a necessity (ex. landing a large client or performing open heart surgery), and there are times where labeling yourself inexperienced is essential in a treading a new path and developing your own understanding of the processes (ex. generating ideas for new businesses or building a prototype of your product).  

I don’t consider our community competition with Startup Nation, in fact I hope I have the opportunity to chat with Rich or Jeff at some point.  But if you’re looking to label us as a “Startup Nation for Juniors” it would be somewhat accurate.  We’re not trying to replicate them in any way and I only/luckily stumbled upon this community a few months ago.

There are other communities out there like us that target young entrepreneurs, and range in size of memberbase and average age.  Nonetheless, we serve as a showcase for developing and successful entrepreneurs, and there’s no question that anyone, whether 15 or 25 can be extremely successful.  

Creating a community for such people to converse, as we have, is far from a stupid idea and can become an essential resource for many teens to begin the journey of creating their own empire.

I may post a copy of my response here on our blog to carry this discussion on and involve some of our community members.

Although it may seem, I’m not trying to convince anyone that I’m right and Craig’s wrong.  We have different worldviews on young entrepreneurship and without them, discussions like these wouldn’t exist.

So a thanks goes out to Craig for finally convincing me to join Startup Nation, and a welcome to anyone that needs any advice or would like to discuss a "Startup Nation for Juniors” any further.

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Partner at YoungGoGetter.com

Travis,
That`s an excellent post! I want to emphasize that this topic explicitly questionned what it would take to replicate the SuN community. The assumption is to equal the breadth of experience, advice, analysis, and so forth.

I`m arguing that this particular community, as it stands, and the way it functions are the result of both creative ideas and experience (and age). I think a number of people interpreted my previous statements to mean that "no young people can start a business," or that "no young people can discuss business issues." That isn`t at all what I was saying.

Your argument rests on the concept of experience. I believe you`re making the point that experience can be constrained to what works (in the past) toward business solutions. In that narrow constraint, you`re right. But I`m using a wider context.

Experience means life experience, not only business solutions. Simply because of my age and my choice to get into computers, I have a life experience of PCs starting with DOS 2.0, going through all the variations of Windows. I`ve used many applications that no longer exist, but they taught me *conceptually* how to solve problems using what does exist in today`s applications.

If someone asks a question about how to use a computer to manage customer service, I`ll think about a database. Younger folks might think about a spreadsheet, or buying a customer-service application. BOTH solutions will work, but being older I`ll tend to think of both. A younger person will tend to think of the one. (I hope I`m using a good example.)

My main point is that given the same problem, and a similar solution, younger and older people will use exactly the same logic skills and problem-solving skills. But given a wide-open problem with NO constraints on possible solutions, older people have more "pictures in their head" of what might work.

Your thoughts about a Junior Startup Nation make sense, and they would presumably take into account the simple fact of age.

Consider one particular recurring problem/topic on THIS community. Someone would like to start a business, but they have a family to support. How many people between the age of 12-20 ordinarily have a family to support, a well-developed current career path (and job), and the desire to get out of a "rut?" At that age, how much of a rut could there be?

Young adults differ from older adults in 1 major characteristic: age. That`s self-evident. To me, it`s also self-evident that a young person (again, 12-20) just hasn`t lived long enough to develop the same issues and problems, concerns and needs as someone older than 20 years old.

I see no problem at all with forming a community focused on this younger area. Many older business folks would likely join and offer help and advice, suggestions and so forth. But it wouldn`t recreate THIS community. I don`t have report statistics, but I would guess by looking at the community that the number of people aged 12-20 is a much smaller percentage than those older than 20.

I agree.  The motivations and responsibilities for 12-20 year old are much different than those in their later 20`s and older.

That`s why the topics of discussion are different on our site or youngentrepreneur.com compared to Startup Nation.  We have much less of the mindless "what business should I start?" topics than YE does, but our markets are similar in their stages of life.

When it comes to replicating StartupNation, I agree, it can`t be done.  Just as you can`t replicate any other successful business that owns a category in your mind already.  You have to create a new category (aka blue ocean for any other book geeks).

You have to develop a unique concept behind the community, not just a spin on the approach.

In regards to the original questions, determining the applications and technical requirements StartupNation uses is useless.  Community is an enormous term that has a million different ways it can be built.

It`s not a matter of should I use vBulletin or phpBB, etc..  it`s a question as to the problems you`re trying to solve for your potential community members, and then determening the ideal medium/approach to satisfy those needs.


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Partner at YoungGoGetter.com

What`s interesting about this post is that it began as a seeming question about how to "copy" Startup Nation. The conversation went into yes or no, and evolved.

However, Brett posted a Web critique request about the "Pursue the Passion" site, and THAT led to a complex discussion of what`s passion, what does it mean to be an entrepreneur, and how do people handle the risk factor.

It turned out that the site is about traveling the country to talk with folks who`ve started their own business. The context of *this* topic was more about how to form a community of people to discuss the worries and anxieties associated with starting a business. By reading examples of others, it might help someone sitting on a fence.

So this whole topic wasn`t really about the logistics and mindset needed to form a "business community." It ended up that way only due to the way the original question was phrased. :-) Interesting, nonetheless.