School for Startups Minutes

One of the great things about America is that if you fail in entrepreneurship, it is okay to try again. Just because you failed once doesn't mean you can't try again. Every scar is proof that you can try again. Every mistake is fertilizer for the idea that you can try again.

Many people say that passion is required to be an entrepreneur. I will wholeheartedly disagree. Many businesses have been built where the founder was not passionate about the product, but instead about the process, building a great business, not working for the man, working from home, or working from wherever they want, whenever they want. There are so many great reasons to start a business. You d...

The truth is, entrepreneurs hate risk. They like to take that small five thousand dollars and test their idea, not a hundred thousand dollars. They'll do anything they can to bootstrap their business and start with as little money as possible. Bootstrapping is the process of reaching down in the mud, pulling your boots out, and fighting ahead - just like when you start with under five thousand dol...

Actually, bootstrapping is a better way to go. If you end up with a big pile of money to start your business, you will make mistakes. You will not learn from the customer. You won't be out there doing the sales yourself. You'll be back in the office decorating. The best way to start is with under five thousand dollars to test your idea. You don't need a pile of money.

There are so many myths of entrepreneurship this week. I want to try to dispel some of those myths so that you will be more likely to become an entrepreneur in the future. The first big myth is that you need a genius idea, that this lightning bolt from God comes down and strikes you, and all of a sudden you have a brilliant business idea. According to the London School of Economics, 93 percent of...

Hollow leadership erodes our trust and distracts us from the real solution. If we want environmental progress, we must celebrate the doers—the entrepreneurs solving problems—not the talkers and those who only pose as green with their checkbook. That is the call of the real environmentalist. Please go act, and call out those who are faking it.

Entrepreneurs are building products that are sustainable and profitable. At the same time, capitalism isn't the enemy of the environment; it's the tool. That's the surprising truth you'll find in The Real Environmentalists.

Recycling ships is an ugly, dirty business, but it's much better than the alternative. Entrepreneurs like Wayne Elliott are stepping forward and turning the nightmare into a business. They are using capitalism to tackle the dirtiest problems in the world and making a profit while they do it. That's what makes him one of the real environmentalists.      

The real environmentalists are the capitalist entrepreneurs. They're not posing; they're building. They are solving global problems in ways that are profitable and practical. And that's the lesson we need to follow. Thank God for our entrepreneurs, especially the ones in the environmental space.

I love the environment. I love going for walks along a path with a lake and beautiful trees. There's nothing more enjoyable, but I'm also a hypocrite. I like my air conditioning in my airplanes too, and I drive a big car and have a swimming pool. Am I a hypocrite? Can I love the environment and still drive a big car? That's what I want to talk about this week: real environmentalism. It's an uncomf...

I have been a lifelong scuba diver. It's one of my absolute favorite passions. One of the first things you are taught is not to touch the coral because you will kill it, and it will never come back—except now, maybe it will. Gator Halpern has invented a new technology that grows coral 50 times faster than nature does and can replace an entire reef. He's one of our real environmentalists.

Kevin Gast, with his company VVater, took on the housing challenge with fresh eyes and figured out how to make the water part of the equation more sustainable. It's now scalable and producing cleaner, better water for all of us. He's one of the real environmentalists. Check them out.

Dr. Stephen Mayfield was one of the few academics to see that his research had practical, everyday uses. He was studying algae and discovered that he could grow plastics from algae-based products. This could be used to replace petroleum. Wouldn't that be a great godsend? Another one of our real environmentalists.

Lovesac has long been one of my favorite furniture brands. The founder, Shawn Nelson, has great ads. I love the ads, but he has dedicated the company to upcycling materials and designing products that are meant to last a long time instead of throwaway couches. He builds products that will adapt and endure. He is an environmental entrepreneur.

What happens when a 900-foot ship is at the end of its life? Many of them are sunk in the middle of the night, in the middle of the ocean, destined to leak toxins forever. How can we solve this problem? Surely, we need government help—or maybe something else is happening. I'll tell you who's cleaning up this mess right after this.

One of the final big advantages to having a virtual assistant is how easy it is to operate with them. You don't have to deal with the personality conflicts in the office and you can use amazing tools and apps that let you communicate, share documents, and work together with employees overseas. It works automatically, and it's seamless.

Back to the advantages of VAs: scalability and flexibility for seasonal work like taxes or anything else where your needs go up and down. The best way to solve that problem is not to outsource, but to VA it.

Another big advantage to the virtual assistant is that you get specialized global talent, and it makes a difference. We all know, of course, about India and their IT advantage. Also, Latin America has a huge advantage in design, and the Philippines have a huge advantage in customer support. All of those stereotypes are true, I have found, and it's a great way to get your talent.

Almost all VAs work overseas, which means you get a time zone advantage. I go to bed and wake up with all sorts of new work already done. For me, it's like I was working all night long, time zone advantage. A huge reason to get a VA.

Whenever you meet an incredibly productive person and ask, How is that person so productive? there's almost always the same answer: they get help. They have a virtual assistant, and that is what makes them so productive. This week, we're going to talk about five reasons you, yes, you! should get a virtual assistant. So, the first reason to have a virtual assistant is that you can lower your labor...

The other AI tool is Copy.ai, also known as Jasper. It is a marketing machine. It will help write sales copy, email sequences, product descriptions, and ad headlines in seconds. It is your pro-level marketing tool.

There's a new AI for video called Pictory, P-I-C-T-O-R-Y. It is a video content tool. It will turn your blog, a script, a note, or a webinar into a short, social-media-ready video in just seconds. You can even add captions. No editing is required, and it can make a short video for you that does whatever you want. Imagine a video of your family with everyone's hair on fire. It's a great tool. Check...

Zapier, Z-A-P-I-E-R, connects all of your apps together, your email, your customer list, your social accounts, your payments, all connected so that they can talk to each other. It automates repetitive tasks so you can focus on growing your business. This is one of the must-haves for a busy person. It's called Zapier.

Most of us use some form of a to-do list to keep organized. A new AI called Notion will read your emails and keep all of your messy business ideas, meeting summaries, and to-do lists in one place. It automatically updates so that you know exactly what you need to do and when. It's called Notion.

Artificial intelligence, or AI, is everywhere in the news right now. ChatGPT is probably the most famous and talked about. It is awesome. It can help you brainstorm, write emails, and build marketing copy. It can even code and write computer programs, but it's not the only one. This week, I'm going to introduce you to five other tools that are very useful and maybe even better at certain projects....