Hi - I'm not sure you would term my ex-business as successful or
unsucessful
yet...in the sense that I worked 8 months full-time to research an idea,
put
together a plan and launch a prototype / Version I of my Internet
startup. I
didn't have an MBA and was quite young (27)...so those 8 months were
extremely painful. Luckily I got "acquired" by a bigger team with more
funding doing the same thing, and I am now working for them. My
compensation
is all in stock and the bigger startup hasn't gone public yet, so I
don't
know whether my "sell out" was successful or not.
If I could go back in time, I would have waited to do my MBA or joined a
startup first, before attempting my own business. While it can be done,
starting your own business without a large network of reliable contacts
or
any idea of how fundraising / prevaluing companies / distributing stock
to
recruits works, is very frustrating. While there are lots of young 20
somethings who did make it big with the Internet, that time is over -
startups these days need alot of funding...ideas are a dime a dozen,
execution and time-to-market are key...
Hope these random thoughts help...