I had the great pleasure to interview Doug Renert, one of the founders of Tandem Entrepreneurs. 

We are very fortunate to have two interviews with Doug.  Check out his video interview where Doug shares about Tanden Entrepreneurs and what they are looking for, the types and qualities of companies. In the interview below, Doug talks about being an entrepreneur.   Both are wonderful.

Tandem, doesn’t consider itself a VC firm.  “VCs bring mainly financial capital, some social capital and limited sweat. We bring value in the reverse order – sweat, friends and money (much more like entrepreneurs).”

On the company’s site Doug is considered “The Dealmaker.”  Here’s his background:  “Always focuses on building value through relationships. Never stops studying the art of the deal. He started his career as a corporate attorney with Gray Cary (now DLA Piper), where he was first exposed to startups and quickly learned that he could be of more use on the business side of the table. He then spent eight years at Oracle, where he caught the “business creation” bug, buying and building businesses to catapult Oracle into new markets. He left Oracle in 2005 to build Tello, a venture-backed company delivering IP communications services to business users, from the ground up.”

Doug has a JD and MBA from the University of California, Berkeley and a BA from Princeton University.
 
Roe:  In your experience, what are the top 3 ingredients driving an entrepreneur’s success?
 
Doug:  First, having a team that can execute and adapt as quickly as the business evolves, which it undoubtedly will.  Second, being in a market that is large and dynamic enough to support your business as it goes through this evolution.  And third, getting your product to market as early as possible so you can make decisions based on direct customer feedback.   

Roe:  What are some of the top pitfalls or areas to watch out for?

Doug:  The biggest pitfall is trying to perfect your product before you put it in the hands of customers.  If it’s perfect when you release it, you waited too long.   Another pitfall is sticking to your original idea too long even if it’s not working.

One of our investors, Steve Blank, was a founder of Epiphany and wrote a great book called, not surprisingly, “The Four Steps to Epiphany.”  The primary thesis of his book is to get product to market quickly, listen intently to what your customers then tell you, and adjust to where the interest and value lies.  He teaches this approach to students at Cal and Stanford, and we have him meet with all of our companies to get the same message across.

Roe:  Give us an example of an amazing success or failure that can teach entrepreneurs something?

Doug: This may seem a bit random, but I read the book, 1776, by David McCullough a couple of years ago.  Reliving the struggle of George Washington and his troops against the British army reminded me of building a business, at least the type of business that I typically work on.

Washington figured out how to turn the small size of his army into an advantage, he altered his campaign strategy constantly to deal with the changing dynamics beyond his control (weather, enemy movements, etc.), and victory at times seemed very far away if not nearly impossible.   He even had to deal with fundraising and make periodic visits to the Continental Congress!  We all know the outcome of these efforts…
 
Roe:  Is it luck or destiny or hard work that drives success?

Doug:  Nearly all hard work.  As Ben Hogan, a great golfer, once said, “The more I practice, the luckier I get.”  Likewise, I see “lucky” opportunities appear each day with our businesses, but they tend to happen to the folks who have been working hard to have a chance of getting that opportunity in the first place.

Roe:  Parting shot or advice for our readers in these tough times. What can or should they do?