Startups & Entrepreneurship Tag Archives - General Assembly Blog

5 Steps for Overcoming Career Change Imposter Syndrome

As you approach your dream job or prepare to start a new business, it’s common to experience a sense of unworthiness and self-doubt that can hold you back. Imposter syndrome can prevent you from fully embracing your accomplishments and reaching your full potential.

In this blog post, we aim to provide guidance on overcoming imposter syndrome for individuals who are considering a career change and are struggling with self-confidence about their ability to succeed in a new field. Additionally, we will explore actionable steps to help career changers like you overcome imposter syndrome and realize your aspirations.

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How Tech Skills Can Land You a Creative Career

By Albrina Mendes

Traditionally, “highly paid” and “creative career” doesn’t appear in the same sentence, but as technology transforms every part of the creative process, the demand for creative technologists is surging, creating opportunities for artistic-minded tech workers.

The internet and social media have ushered in a digital creative renaissance, where artists are experimenting with new mediums like augmented reality and virtual reality, and emerging tools like generative AI. Art exhibits have transformed from static gallery shows to immersive experiences created by UX designers. Digital artists increasingly rely on technology as their studio, leveraging software tools like Adobe Creative Cloud, Open AI’s DALL-E, and Procreate to create their next masterpiece.

Similarly, the music industry is experiencing historic change. Software editing programs and virtual instruments have unlocked new possibilities for creative expression. Technology like streaming services have enabled artists to embrace new ways of marketing and distributing their music. Social media platforms make fan engagement possible in real-time.

Even already tech-savvy industries like film, television, and video gaming are seeing new opportunities emerge thanks to innovations in 3D graphics, video streaming, and computer performance. The metaverse has unlocked an entirely new world for the entertainment industry to seize, emerging after the pandemic shuttered live events and forced entertainment companies to get creative with digital offerings.

While technical innovation in creativity is exciting, it also poses legal and ethical concerns around things like an artist’s copyright and control over their work, meaning the field is ripe for innovation in the privacy, security, and compliance spaces.

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Why Entrepreneurs Should Learn to Code

By Albrina Mendes

Entrepreneurship is on the rise. The pandemic led to a startup boom in the United States, with applications for new businesses increasing by 24%. Then, The Great Resignation accelerated the trend, with applications increasing 55% from 2019 levels in 2021.

If you’re thinking about jumping on the entrepreneurship train, learning to code might not be the first thing that comes to mind. After all, computer science isn’t typically found in a business school curriculum.

However, aspiring entrepreneurs should consider learning to code for a few reasons. Learning to code can help you launch your business faster, make better technology decisions, improve your creative problem solving skills, and better understand how your business operates.

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How to Write the Best Problem Statement for Your Startup

By Kevin Sandlin

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The Lean Startup Methodology changed the way we go about starting businesses. Instead of creating a business plan worthy of a Harvard Business School case study, we go out into the market space that we know and find a real problem. Then, we validate the pain point and see how the market is dealing with, compensating for, or otherwise working around that specific problem. Next, we determine if the market participants are willing to pay for a solution to the problem. If they see value, then we solve the problem.

Of course, it’s never that simple, but that’s the basic process in a nutshell. Atlanta entrepreneur David Cummings recently wrote that this process, from discovering the problem to getting to product market fit, generally takes about two years. Finding a problem is usually fairly clear. Validating the problem takes longer. Finding customers who are willing to pay takes a little longer, and building a product that fits the market takes a long time and usually includes several pivots or small deviations from the original product idea.

At the core of everything involved in creating a startup is the customer pain point. But many times, the best product for solving that problem doesn’t win. Why? Because the makers of that solution are really good at solving said problem, but not good at all at explaining what exactly the problem is or what its root cause consists of. In other words, the entrepreneur who can communicate better usually wins. That is why it is so vitally important to be able to explain the problem you are solving to anyone so that they understand it completely. But how do you do that?

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The 5 Pillars of Your Brand’s Business Model

By Kevin Sandlin

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A marketing firm in Atlanta, Syrup Marketing, recently wrote a great article about how your brand is the “lead domino,” to quote Tim Ferris. What that means is that, once you create and solidify your brand, everything else tends to fall into place easily. One of those other dominoes that falls into place after you’ve created a fantastic branding strategy is the actual nuts and bolts of your business model.

Any business model is made up of many different moving parts, but they can be boiled down to these five pillars, on which you should build your business.

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Top Personality Traits of Every Successful Startup Founder

By Kevin Sandlin

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Photo: WOC in Tech

A recent University of Phoenix survey showed that 63% of 20-somethings have a strong desire to start a business. That’s a great first step: desire. But what else does it take to start a business that is sustainable? Since 1999, right around the time many of these 20-somethings were born, I’ve started seven businesses. Five of them failed. In that time, I’ve learned from experience what it takes to be a startup founder.

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Father of “The Lean Startup” Movement Clarifies His Message: Don’t Bulls— Yourself

By Todd Stone

Eric Ries discusses his lean startup methodology at General Assembly in New York City.

“Lean Startup is not a religion,” said Eric Ries, the 37 year-old author of The Lean Startup (2011), which is the handbook for what has become a cult-like movement embraced by entrepreneurs and innovators worldwide.

The core philosophy of the book – and of its practitioners – is to test ideas early and often by getting feedback from potential customers. Before investing very much time and money into a product, the idea is to quickly create an MVP (minimal viable product) and put it in front of potential consumers. This avoids wasting time and money developing products that people may not want.

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How General McChrystal Captures the Magic of Small Teams at Scale

By Emily Pope

In today’s fast-moving society, the greatest leaders are those who discard bureaucratic business models in favor of a networked “team of teams,” empowered to make decisions quickly by breaking down communication silos between departments and positions.

This is retired United States Army General Stanley McChrystal’s philosophy, who dedicated more than thirty-four years of service to the U.S. military. His final, and perhaps most notable assignment, was as the commander of all American and coalition forces in Afghanistan from 2003 until he retired in 2010.

Throughout his tenure, General McChrystal worked to develop scalable management practices that enabled the U.S. Army to embody this “team of teams,” which possessed the necessary agility and flexibility to fight in a modern, technologically advanced war environment and beat back Al Qaeda.

Five years into civilian life, General McChrystal applies the leadership skills he learned during his time in the Army to the business world as co-founder of the McChrystal Group, a leadership and management consultancy firm.

We recently had the great honor of speaking to General McChrystal before he came to our headquarters in New York for a keynote discussion on leadership and team building.

This special event was moderated by Scott Kirkpatrick, the President and COO of General Assembly, who spent time as an officer in the United States Coast Guard.

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