Joe Procopio’s Startup Show: When being an entrepreneur stops being fun (+ video)

Editor’s note: In Episode 6.3 of The Startup Show, Joe Procopio (Automated Insights, ExitEvent), Jon Colgan (Veeto, Cellbreaker), and Andy Roth (RocketBolt) discuss every entrepreneur’s responsibility to walk the fine line between having fun and making money. Startup should be a blast, but at some point, you have to start chasing revenue. Here’s how to do that without killing your company culture.

DURHAM – The first few years at a startup can feel like a constant party, not in the traditional sense, but coming in to work and kicking ass every day and finding success while doing it can be a contagious, addictive kind of fun.

This is why most entrepreneurs remain entrepreneurs and never go back.

But making money is also fun. If you don’t believe that, get out of startup. Too many entrepreneurs go all in on one or the other, all in on fun or all in on revenue. So we discuss how to put the brakes on fun and ramp up revenue without killing your company’s culture.

We also come back and touch on the 2nd thing (see episode 6.1), which is where a lot of entrepreneurs find that necessary fix of fun while they’re chasing that all-important revenue. The 2nd thing can’t be a hobby or a sport, it’s got to be something where you can use, practice, test, and experiment with the same startup concepts you’re using at your 1st thing.

The more revenue you bring in, the longer you keep the party going. Finding that balance is every entrepreneur’s primary job.