Harsh Patel is the Education Architect / TA at MakerSquare, a brand new 10 week intensive bootcamp for aspiring developers and entrepreneurs in Austin, TX. He is also the co-founder and product guy at Portfoliyo, a tool that helps teachers and parents communicate with each other easily through text messages. I want to thank Harsh for taking the time to sit down with me and offer some insight into entrepreneurship and what drives him. Read the interview below.
What 3 pieces of advice would you offer to college students who are thinking about entrepreneurs?
1. Don’t be afraid to reach out to people on a whim. You’d be surprised how many will respond.
2. Think for yourself and stand behind what you believe until someone rationally changes your mind. Don’t just go with the flow.
3. Just do it.
What would you say are the top three skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur?
1. Patience
2. The ability to “Get Shit Done”
3. The ability to inspire others.
What motivates you?
Solving problems for other people, empowering other people, and the desire to leave this world better off than it was when I entered it.
What book has inspired you enough to recommend it to everyone?
$100 startup. Valuable lessons in there. Create something that solves a problem for people enough for them to want to pay for it. That’s how you create a sustainable business so you can keep solving people’s problems.
What is your favorite aspect of being an entrepreneur?
Not getting stressed out about not doing what I really want to do. Not being limited in what I can do. Being able to do whatever I want to, whenever I want to (within reason).
What has been your most successful form of marketing?
Building a good, useful product.
Do you have any hobbies that you make time for outside of work?
Lol. Code. Coding is fun, so I do it in my non-work time. I also love Netflix.
What sacrifices have you had to make to be a successful entrepreneur?
Perceived social worth. Being okay with not being a doctor, or lawyer, or at a top name firm for whatever. You grow up conditioned to want to be all of those, so you sacrifice the perceived social worth people put on you for being those.
What company or business do you admire the most and why?
37Signals. They build useful software, useful enough for their customers to directly pay for it.
Is there anything else you want to add?
Love the initiative – and I think it would be really helpful for people. Especially Indians whose parents tell them to be doctors and lawyers.
Pathik: I didn’t even think of this until you brought it up, but one year we had a booth for RAAHI at an Indian vendors conference in St. Louis. A young doctor (probably in his 30’s) came up to us and started telling us about how he loves what we’re doing and that he would buy a t-shirt and put it on (over his dress shirt) while he walks the rest of the show to promote us because he wishes he did something like this. He added that his dad made him become a doctor heh 🙂 Thanks for the great input Harsh and good luck with MakerSquare!
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