Guy with headphones

 

The CFE’s Entrepreneur-in-Residence and Finding Your Venture instructor, Brian Hayden, says that the world needs entrepreneurs right now. He’s put together a short playlist of podcast episodes that he feels is what every student at the University of Michigan should know right now:

 

Building your community is what matters

When Duo Security sold to Cisco for $2.35 billion it was basically like the moon landing for the Ann Arbor startup community.

Dug Song is going to explain how Duo didn’t succeed in spite of their midwest values and ties to the community – they succeeded because of those things.

 

You’re not just a student

Sometimes we’re the last ones to see and appreciate our own growth and potential. 

Hear Lisa Sauve, Founder and CEO at Synecdoche Design Studio, describe the transition from architecture student to startup founder. We hope that hearing her story will help you feel more confident approaching customers for your new venture.

 

Think bigger than yourself

Of course you’re not qualified to start your company!

You don’t have experience in the industry. The whole point of starting a company is to build something that grows beyond the capabilities of the founder.

Maggie Bayless, founder and managing partner at ZingTrain, explains how she overcame imposter syndrome to help build a company that employees and customers love.

 

Organizations can do more than individuals

When you form a company the goal is to create something that will have a bigger impact on the world than you could have as an individual.

Whether your goal is to dismantle systemic racism, fight climate change or to solve a problem that is interesting to you, forming a venture means establishing a structure that can scale beyond you.

 

Being different is your advantage

Have you ever felt like you don’t belong?

The list of things that can make you feel like an outsider goes on forever. Race, gender, sexual orientation. Your age. Every startup founder I know has felt like a misfit at some point and here’s why that’s not a coincidence.

 

To hear more interviews, check out other episodes of Finding Your Venture at findingyourventure.com