In this episode, Dave is excited to welcome Andrew Weinrich. Andrew is a serial entrepreneur, social networking pioneer, and active presence in NYC’s Silicon Alley for 2 decades. To date, he’s founded 7 startups and has been awarded 2 software patents.
Since 2013, he has sold 2 businesses, including Xtify to IBM, while advising 5 tech startups. He is currently the co-founder and Chairman of Indicative, a data analytics startup. Additionally, Andrew created the Roadmap Curriculum, an unparalleled educational guide for startup founders. The Roadmap Curriculum provides a solid foundation for founders to build their companies using best practices in order to manage and scale their teams. It covers everything from business planning to product development, branding, financing, and even pivoting/changing course.
But, one of Andrew best gifts is the ability to spot large scale trends and take advantage of them. We are going to share some of his best secrets on entrepreneurship and spotting and actioning on trends in this episode.
www.AndrewsRoadmaps.com
Andrew says he progressed through a number of careers that didn’t work for him to find his way. He did everything from banking to being an attorney, but had a long desire to build something on his own. In 1995/1996, he formed a group to look for the best opportunities in the new internet era. One of the things that he did during this time was create and patent and database used for social networking. Andrew quit his job and started a company called 6 Degrees, which was the first social network. He sold that in the early 2000’s.
He then went on to his next venture in the Wi-Fi-networking space and his other companies like Xtify which sold to IBM.
Andrew has a knack for spotting trends and positioning himself to take advantage of them at the right times.
Andrew shares his best piece of advice for each of the areas of his roadmap curriculum:
Every entrepreneur should know that they are not an island. There is a broader community to participate in and that you can share and gain insight from. Share more without fear of it being stolen or mis-appropriated. Don’t be afraid to put it out there.
At the 30 min mark, Andrew talks about how to spot trends and disrupt markets.
Ask yourself what is inevitable in a space? Then look at how you can figure out where they wave is going to be and go ride the wave in the way you see fit. You don’t have to be exactly right, you just need to get into the ballpark.
Best Quote: "Great entrepreneurs have the right mix of arrogance and humility. Arrogance in that they think that they can do something that has never been done before. Humility in that they recognize that there is a lot to learn from other people and are willing to change course as needed.”
Andrew's Misfit 3