Nuts and bolts of entrepreneurship

While a bold idea, unflagging determination and patient financial backers are all crucial to successful start-ups, entrepreneurs must also focus on less dramatic aspects of running a company, according to seasoned entrepreneurs who spoke at the 8th Annual Wharton Entrepreneurship Conference.

This means paying attention to investment relationships, exit strategies and the mechanics of building a business, including hiring, firing, marketing and distribution, said Jeffrey A. Citron, co-founder and chief executive of Vonage Holdings, David Morgan, founder of Real Media and currently chief executive of TACODA, and Josh Kopelman, founder of Infonautics and Half.com.

Citron, whose Vonage Holdings is an Internet-based telecommunications firm, led off the conference with a call to go bold. When looking for start-up opportunities, Citron said, he targets businesses that revolve around disruptive technologies that will shake up big, preferably global, markets with huge entrenched players. He looks for businesses with products that make a major change in a large number of lives.

"If it’s not going to improve peoples’ lives significantly, we are going down the wrong path,"

From Knowledge@Wharton
Special to CNET News.com

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