Based on the style entrepreneurs engage in while building their venture, we can think of three distinct groups – single venture entrepreneurs, portfolio entrepreneurs, and serial entrepreneurs. Single venture entrepreneurs consider their entire entrepreneurial journey to be closely entwined with their debut. They are not interested in any other opportunity that comes their way, and believe in the single specific business and making it big.
Portfolio entrepreneurs capture the environmental triggers and create businesses as and when they sense a challenge or an opportunity. You will find themselves tied through ownership links with these multiple ventures that they would have started. The multiple ventures often are not in the same industry. They are interested in solving problems and enjoying the new possibilities that entrepreneurship allows them.
Serial entrepreneurs, on the other hand, conceptualize and grow a business only to exit it. Following this, they may cool off a bit before they start another one inspired by another opportunity. The new opportunity may or may not be in the same industry, but they are interested in the entrepreneurial journey and the excitement it brings to them.
Whichever route you may take in the entrepreneurial journey, learning is central to the process. The three distinctions we mentioned here is more to highlight the differences in the learning and capture the application of the learning we find while interacting with these entrepreneurs.
In the single venture scenario, the nature of decisions made are often with a long-term orientation and ensuring sustained growth becomes a primary focus. Lessons learned from past decisions are matched well with the realities of the industry in which they operate, and incorporated into the subsequent venture decisions. Development of the industry itself may be an essential focus area so that all players in your industry can benefit from long term growth. Their learning may be deeply embedded in their industry, and hence they are very good mentors for new entrants into their industry.
Serial entrepreneurs who start multiple ventures after building and exiting a specific venture may seem to be in a hurry to accomplish a goal – say your first sale, ticket size. From past experiences in earlier ventures, they may have developed heuristics, which could be useful in identifying a specific external situation as favourable, prepare substantially before making the launch and leverage credibility in accessing resources. Their heuristics could be transferred across ventures – this makes them extremely valuable mentors to understand how to start a venture.
Portfolio entrepreneurs are often excited about problems or opportunities and capitalize on them. You may find them enjoying the initial phases of the entrepreneurial journey but liking to stay away from the venture building process itself and delegating the task to other managers of the firm. Formalization and growth of these ventures is often the outcome of the interest and freedom experienced by the managers of the business than the entrepreneur.
While there are these different types, your motivation to leap plays an essential role in choosing any of the three. Do not judge anyone to be superior to the other, as it is just personal choices.
Ask yourself:
Which type of an entrepreneurial journey would I like among the three?
What should I do to ensure that all the ventures are initiated and achieve scale?
How do I leverage the learning across different ventures if I do start many ventures?
How do I ensure my attention does not slip away from the venture I have begun?
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