Alexandra Carmichael

May 27, 2010

A number of people in the Quantified Self community have been asking me about starting companies: How do I find a co-founder that complements my skills? What business model do I use? Can I even make my idea into a business at all?

I wish I had all the answers. It’s definitely a complex path to navigate, and it’s different for everyone.

There are some great resources out there to help you, though. I just came across Women 2.0 Labs, a 5-week evenings-only program in San Francisco this summer (men can apply too). It looks like a fantastic opportunity to dive into projects with potential co-founders as well as meet entrepreneurial thought leaders like Steve Blank, Eric Ries, Mari Baker, and several powerful Silicon Valley investors. The deadline to apply is June 20.

Side note: even if you don’t go to the Women 2.0 Labs program, check out Eric Ries’ recent talk at the Web 2.0 Expo on The Lean Startup, and try to get your hands on a copy of Steve Blank’s book The Four Steps to the Epiphany. They advocate an elegant, quantified approach to entrepreneurship – measuring what your customers actually want and how well you are delivering it to them.

My general advice? Quantify your business experiments as you quantify your self-experiments, and you will have greater odds of success with less time and resources wasted.