Entrepreneur Office Hours: Issue #209
Entrepreneur Office Hours: Issue #209
Penny for your thoughts?
First, a quick plug for my most recent op-ed in The Hill. It’s titled “What if Social Media — Even TikTok — Is Actually Good for the World?” It published Wednesday and, as you can probably guess from the title, it’s already been getting lots of attention, both positive and negative.
But enough about me. It’s time to think about all of you. Specifically, after experimenting with some live classes and webinars this past year and enjoying the opportunity to work directly with lots of you, I’m hoping to do more in 2024. But I want to make sure I’m offering the kinds of trainings and classes people actually want.
With that in mind, can you help me with a quick poll?
I’ve got five ideas for my next (free) live webinar class, but I’m not sure which one(s) to actually host. I’m listing the topics in a poll below, and I’d be grateful if you’d take three seconds to select the one you’d be most interested in.
Thanks for your thoughts! Once I’ve got enough data, I’ll start working on the class and let you know as soon as it’s ready.
-Aaron
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Office Hours Q&A
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QUESTION:
Hey Aaron!
I hope you're doing well! It's Loris here, one of the co-founders of ArtistConnect. I must say, your work has really struck a chord with me. Your teachings at Duke University and your insightful articles on Medium, particularly on social marketing and personal brand building, have resonated with me deeply.
I recently came across your Medium article where you shared your session with a VC and your students at Duke. It got me thinking: In your experience, how crucial is it for startups, like ours in the music tech space, to focus on becoming attractive acquisition targets right from the start?
I understand that you're probably incredibly busy with your various commitments, but any insights you could provide would be incredibly valuable.
Thank you in advance for taking the time to read this email, and I would be thrilled if you're able to respond. I'm looking forward to the possibility of connecting further!
Best regards,
Loris
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There’s a wonderful saying in the business world that goes like this:
“Great companies get bought. Bad companies get sold.”
Someone thinking about how to position their startup for an acquisition (particularly early in the company’s lifecycle) is inherently on the second side of that aphorism, and it’s not the good side to be on.
In other words, the answer to your question is simple: you shouldn’t be thinking at all about how to make your startup an attractive acquisition target. Instead, you should be focused on building the most incredible company possible. If you build an incredible company, someone will want to buy it.
For what it’s worth, your question reminds me of a pattern I see often with a lot of the young athletes I work with. College athletes in the US were recently given permission to start making money by being paid to advertise/promote/endorse products. As soon as the rule went into effect, all these athletes were emailing the owners of local bars and restaurants asking if they’d be willing to sponsor them. The athletes would spend countless hours trying to get these sponsorship deals, but the deals themselves were basically nothing. Maybe $50 for an Instagram post, or a free pizza in exchange for a promotional tweet.
I eventually had to sit down with a bunch of these athletes and explain how foolish they were being. Rather than wasting dozens of hours trying to get tiny sponsorship deals, they needed to use the same time to focus on creating good content and building their audiences. If they build large audiences on social media, the sponsors would start reaching out to them.
For the student athletes who followed my advice, that’s exactly what happened.
You need to approach building your startup the same way. Focus on building something valuable and let people come to you.
Got startup questions of your own? Reply to this email with whatever you want to know, and I’ll do my best to answer!
