“Entrepreneurship is a lonely enterprise and not for the faint-hearted as there are no safety nets,” remarked Amy Millman, President of Springboard Enterprises (Springboard) at the Carey Private Equity and Venture Capital Club speaker event on Sep 1, 2016.

Amy recapped her journey in forming Springboard, a highly-vetted expert network of innovators, investors and influencers who are dedicated to building high-growth technology-oriented companies led by women, and shared the lessons she has learned helping entrepreneurs to grow their companies over the years.

According to Springboard, there have been over 600 companies founded and/or led by women including biotech, enterprise software, gaming, robotics, alternative energy, computer and medical devices, consumer products, HR, EDU and ad/marketing and pharmaceuticals that have come through the Springboard pipeline.  Together, they have created thousands of jobs, generated billions in revenue and the raised $7.9B in capital.

Amy shared that in her experience working with many entrepreneurs over the years, she found that the sweet spot for entrepreneurs was people who are in the 30 to 45 years range who have corporate or academic experience. In addition, an entrepreneur is someone that knows that there is “absolutely no way they can do anything else.”

“Entrepreneurship requires building relationship and understanding people. It is never about the merits of your argument. More important is whether you know what matters to your audience.” In other words, knowing your customer is the key to success for an entrepreneur.

Amy’s key message to the audience: entrepreneurship is not a spectator sport, and it requires the utmost dedication and perseverance as it is a lonely journey. To this end, organizations like Springboard play a crucial role in providing a support network for entrepreneurs. Finally, she shared the “3Ms” that anyone who is thinking of becoming an entrepreneur need to ask himself or herself before embarking on this journey:

• Management – why are you the one to make this work?
• Market – is this market big enough to be worth my time?
• Money – how does the company make money?