Entrepreneurship is not just about the idea, the research and the drive to succeed; rather it's mostly about the people you take on the journey, the team you build around you.
Jason Raznickco-founder of gasolineHe emphasized this point on The Raz Report podcast on Wednesday, noting that getting the best people was the biggest challenge when Benzinga started from home 14 years ago.
Influenced by his frustration at constantly missing his favorite television show “MacGyver” due to its delay, Raznick delved into research on digital recording. During the exploration he encountered mike ramsaywhose company TiVo had just filed a patent for a digital television recorder.
While Raznick passed on a job opportunity with Ramsay at TiVo to continue his studies at the University of Michigan, it gave him his first taste of what it's like to be an entrepreneur.
“That experience of finding problems and solving them showed me a lot of things about entrepreneurship,” he says.
People make the company
Raznick's path to co-founding Benzinga began with building a steady following on Yahoo message boards writing about small defense and security stocks.
Raznick calls himself a co-founder because he believes that anyone who comes to the company with a creative mindset and adds value to the product is also a co-founder.
“I am the co-founder. A guy named Bill just arrived. He could create some new product. So why am I the founder? I am not. Bill co-founds it every day and that’s exciting to me,” he says.
And this is one of the biggest challenges any entrepreneur faces, says Raznick. You can't do it alone with a product like Benzinga. You need those “invoices” and finding the best ones is not easy.
“At the end of the day, it's the people who make the company. I basically have nothing to do with it, other than laying the first shingles, nothing to do with it. Therefore, the biggest challenge is to get people, but also to get them to believe in the dream,” he says.
Also read: Altman's quest for OpenAI capital, sparking talks with Temasek
But not everyone believed in the dream
Another challenge is funding, and Raznick heard his fair share of “no”s when he started Benzinga. Even people in the industry, some of whom were friends, for whatever reason said “no.”
“And they would have had a good exit at the time when we sold most of the company and they said no. At that moment it hurt me,” she says.
And it's part of this experience that taught Raznick one of the biggest lessons about entrepreneurship: you can't please everyone; Sometimes they have to hear “no.”
“When I started the company, if someone had an idea, even if I didn't necessarily agree with it, I thought, okay, let's do it,” he says.
He adds: “What ended up happening is that the company's performance was not good at this time because you are trying to please everyone. You’re not actually being definitive with decisions and that’s not a way to grow a business.”
“Therefore, one must feel comfortable making decisions, even if they may upset some people,” Raznick says. “And so I would say the most important lesson I would learn from this is radical candor and not being afraid of it.”
Delight your customers
Lastly, but crucially, you need to make your customer or end-user love your product, Raznick says.
“You have to be passionate about solving the problem and delighting the user,” he says. “Think about how you help the user. And then once you’ve figured it out, you go out and execute.”
Raznick also emphasizes the importance of eliminating ego when executing and making decisions. “So if you're not good at receiving feedback, then this world is not for you,” he says.
Now read: 'Apple at a crossroads' analyst says: The company must step up AI or be left behind
Watch the latest episode of The Raz Report below:
Photo: Benzinga
