Typecasting the Entrepreneur

Steve Blank

Serial Entrepreneur and Author; Entrepreneurship Lecturer at U.C. Berkeley, Stanford University, and the Columbia University/Berkeley Joint Executive MBA Program

"Entrepreneur" has become one of those buzzwords (like "globalization") that often means different things to different people. This is understandable, given that there are four distinct organizational paths for entrepreneurs: small businesses, scalable startups, large companies,and nonprofits.All of the individuals who start these organizations are "entrepreneurs," yet those in one category often think the others aren't "real" or "genuine." The confusion can be compounded by the teaching of entrepreneurship in colleges and universities, where little distinction is drawn between the four types of entrepreneurs.

For budding entrepreneurs, the first order of business is to methodically think through which one of the four categories they want to be in. Once that decision has been reached, the proper tools can be selected, and the process of entrepreneurship can move ahead.

http://www.kauffman.org/Entrepreneurship/typecasting-the-entrepreneur.aspx