Jump In
Surround yourself with awesome people and do the work. You will need patience. You will need capital. Focus on your customers and the problem you want to solve.
I've had a lot of questions in the last year about how to get started in a startup in Houston. There are a lot of really great resources here in town and not everyone knows about them, so today I thought I'd give some (goal-based) recommendations:
- Got an idea, and want to structure it while you're bouncing it off friends? Awesome. Go through the exercise of making a pitch deck. Read Guy Kawasaki's blog post on pitch decks. Download his template, fill it out, and go share it with the world. You probably want to read his blog anyway.
- Want to dip your toe into the startup water? Go to the monthly GroundUp Meetup, and meet entrepreneurs, others in the Houston startup scene, and people who are thinking about being entrepreneurs (but aren't yet sure). It's friendly!
- Ready to kick things off, and need a place to work? Try Platform in Rice Village, or Start Houston in EaDo.
- Want to find cofounders and/or a development team? That's harder, but a good place to start are the meetups and hackathons that you'll find several times a month at Platform or Start Houston.
- Want to hang out with the Houston startup community? Try here.
- Done all of the above, know you've got something good, and still need help getting off the ground? Call Jeff at January Advisors. They're a consulting company, and they're for-profit. And awesome.
The most important thing you can do if you want to start a startup, or join a startup, is to get started (start is literally the root word here). Surround yourself with awesome people and do the work. You will need patience. You will need capital. Focus on your customers and the problem you want to solve.
Get moving. Jump in.
Updated January 24, 2022