Comments on: What the financial crisis means to entrepreneurs

By: Fabrice Grinda: Musings of an Entrepreneur » Looking back at 2008, looking forward to 2009

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 22:42:00 +0000

[...] What the financial crisis means to entrepreneurs [...]

By: BizThoughts - Why to Start a Startup in a Recession - Business and Entrepreneurial Thoughts from Mike Lee

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 16:32:13 +0000

[...] Fabrice Grinda: there will be fewer competitors right now, decrease your burn rate, and be [...]

By: Fred

Fred — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 01:39:20 +0000

Interesting article, thanks for sharing your thoughts.
As an aspiring entrepreneur myself, may I clarify that although it may indeed be harder for us to raise money in general, I think we’d better head to the angels and forget about the VC firms.
The current credit crunch should not affect as much the availability of angels’ capital, usually allocated to [smaller] early-stage funding.
Now, there are two challenges: 1. angels too get more risk-averse so it may take more time and 2. future larger funding rounds are still not guaranteed in that context.
Now is a good time anyway. This crisis almost makes me happy because it puts my main competitor, Kraft Foods, “asleep”.
Bonsoir

By: Starting Up in a Down Economy « Anthony Portuesi - DrivenLeaders.com

Starting Up in a Down Economy « Anthony Portuesi - DrivenLeaders.com — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 17:06:41 +0000

[...] Microsoft, the fact is, there are opportunities today for those willing to pursue them. I think Fabrice Grinda sums it up nicely when referring to entrepreneurs during this period… “Your mettle will [...]

By: Angela Wagenaar

Angela Wagenaar — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 19:41:00 +0000

Hi Fabrice,Started reading some your notes on the financial crisis…just wanted to say that I found it very interesting to read…..Thank you

By: Josh Chandler

Josh Chandler — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 19:34:28 +0000

@BenCasnocha makes a great point about how this economic downturn is contributing to far wider problems in the tech industry then expected. I am very glad to see that many influential entrepenuers such as Fabrice are giving startups food for thoughts on how to conduct their activity.

By: Fabrice Grinda

Fabrice Grinda — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 05:34:13 +0000

Mike: It actually has. I will actually blog about it in the coming weeks.

By: mike

mike — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 05:10:16 +0000

has this downturn changed your thinking as an angel, are you now going to be more active as an investor since lower valuations and less competition are around or will the lack of clear exits make you more risk averse?

By: Fabrice Grinda

Fabrice Grinda — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 03:14:06 +0000

Ben: I did not mean to specifically compare this downturn to the 2001 downturn. I believe that downturns in general are great times to start companies.

By: Ben Casnocha

Ben Casnocha — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 02:15:04 +0000

Fabrice — you compare the dot-com bust to now….but isn’t the difference that the dot-com burst was focused more on tech / Silicon Valley whereas the current woes are economy-wide? Ie, if you start a company now, one reason it’s hard is that many of the customers you’re trying to sell to won’t have as much cash on hand (or whatever) since all sorts of industries are affected this time.