Starting multiple businesses at a time

[TK1]

Question: how important is focusing on one business venture at a time? What about entrepreneurship?

Answer:It’s not important at all to focus on one business venture at a time. In fact, I would counsel the opposite.

Let’s take Google as an example. When Larry Page and Sergey Brin were just starting Google they had one goal. Sell it as quickly as possible so they could get back to the other things that interested them: academia. They tried to sell Google for $1 million to Yahoo and Yahoo said “noâ€. So they were stuck with google.com and they ran with it, not figuring out how to generate revenues until another four years went by.
When I started Stockpickr.com I started probably 10 other businesses at the same time. I built keauty.com to be a beauty contest. I built SmokeLove.com to be a dating site for smokers. I built a site that helped people create contests. I really pushed hard on every idea. I had VCs interested in several of the ideas. But finally, like in a horse race, Stockpickr.com stuck it’s nose out in front as the site that was getting the most attention. So I dropped the others and ONLY THEN I focused.
Always have multiple balls in the air in the beginning. This way if one falls to the ground, you are still in the show. The true entrepreneur is looking at everything for opportunity. Opportunity, though, takes its time before giving it’s blessing on one idea over another. Give it that time, but also give it many options.

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