Start something you are passionate about: Lessons Learned from Livemocha

Thought I would put together a top lessons learned over the past 4 years at Livemocha. I tried to pick ones that are big in the long run and write this over a series of posts.

#1 Passion: When starting a company, pick a problem that you are passionate about solving.

Seems really straightforward but not so much in practice when you look at how many startups get started as groupon clones. The goal of starting a company should not be to build something that's attractive to VC's or have google acquire you.

For a long time, I was enamored ( like many people) by the idea of starting a company. Over the past years, I realized that are lots of ups and downs in a startup. You make personal sacrifices - My daughter and wife barely saw me for the first year of Livemocha. It's great if you eventually build a huge business but what will keep you going during your low moments (esp. early on) is if you really believe that you are solving a problem that you believe should be solved.

In some ways you are an early explorer like Columbus who cared passionately about finding a new place. You may not find it or make much money of it but that's not the main focus of that journey. If you are passionate, it will show in the conversations to future employees, customers, investors, press etc. and it makes a huge difference.

You are not going to start more than a few companies in your lifetime. If you are going to put yourself through a bunch of crazy stuff and try to succeed against tough odds, do it for a product you care about passionately.