Fail Fast, Fail Cheap, And Repeat

Last night, our panel discussion and networking event brought together almost 100 graduate students and 3 panelists from organizations that provide resources for Montreal entrepreneurs. Nicolas Morand of Fondation Montreal, Bruno Vaillancourt from Saje Accompagnateur d'Entrepreneurs, and Augusto Sotelo of YES Montreal shared their visions and talked at length about the range of services their organizations offer - grants, mentorship, coaching, and workshops. During the Q&A, the panelists offered their advice - ask people for help, surround yourself with people more qualified than you. Go to meetups. Network whenever you can. Expose yourself. Overcome the loneliness of starting your own venture, build up your confidence. Minimize expenses. Get started, the sooner the better. Also, competition = allies. Some other common themes surfaced as the discussion unfolded. Here are the big takeaways:

#1 - Adding value to Montreal’s economy: Is your project good for the local economy? What kind of social and economic value are you adding to build a better city? Sotelo explained a formula of value he uses to help answer these questions. [What is being brought to society] = [the quality of your service] x [the number of people you connect with].

#2 - Making your idea happen: Taking your business idea to market is a challenging process that will bring you out of your comfort zone. Organizations like Saje, YES and Fondation will help you expand your comfort zone and move forward. Vaillancourt says to “talk about your idea, but don’t be too in love with your project. Think about your customers first, and let go of some of your own preferences if that’s what’s going to best for your project.” No matter what, your project and the marketplace will always be evolving. Your business plan, even in its most coherent form, is never going to be complete.

#3 - Intellectual property: Panelists shared some useful resources available to help with patents and legalalities, like the Canadian Intellectual Property Office and Info Entrepreneurs. But, Sotero emphasized speed over idea. “Your market ability to make things happen is way more important that worrying about patents. Focus on how to make it happen first.”

#4 - Failure: Embrace failure, because you’re going to encounter it in either the planning or execution phase. Ultimately it will make you better at what you do. It’s true that a large percentage of startups fail, but Sotero offered some reassuring words. “Success is the progressive organization of an ideal. Failure is practice.” When you start out, it’s best to “fail fast, fail cheap, and repeat.”