Entrepreneurs: Part II of Boost Your Startup (Harsh lessons from panel of VIPs)
Channel: Robert Scoble's Building 43
Date: 01/12/2012

The trick to building a multi-billion-dollar public company?

(This is part II of a panel titled "Boost your Startup" which I hosted in London. Part I is here: https://plus.google.com/111091089527727420853/posts/Zsae2huyi8J ).

Starting a business isn't easy and it's even harder if you start it outside of Silicon Valley. Why? Because it's harder to get money, find talent, build PR, get lawyers who understand what you are doing, etc.

But Rackspace's chairman, Graham Weston did it (Rackspace http://www.google.com/finance?q=NYSE:RAX is now valued about nine billion as a public company). It wasn't all a bed of roses, though, as he gave advice as part of this panel, given in front of London's top startup founders.

Also jumping in with advice for how to deal with governments and build a business was Julie Meyer, founder and CEO of Ariadne Capital. She was Ernst and Young's Entrepreneur of the Year in 2000. Joining her was Benjamin Southworth, Deputy CEO of Tech City Investment Organization (TCIO), and San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro.

This was part of the Rackspace UK Boost your Startup competition, enter your startup here: http://www.rackspace.co.uk/boost-your-startup/

Tips you'll learn here?

How to retain employees.
How to get your company known worldwide.
How to use local resources to build your company.
The trick to building a billion-dollar public company (don't give up).

URLs from the organizations of panelists:

http://www.rackspace.co.uk/
http://www.techcityuk.com/
https://www.sanantonio.gov/mayor/castrobio.aspx
http://www.ariadnecapital.com/

If you think starting a company and being successful is easy, you gotta listen to this panel.