Very Short Interview No. 1

For my first entrepreneurship interview, I interviewed a guy named Tom Evans, a British Entrepreneur that I interned for while living in Madrid, Spain. We were working mostly at Google Campus Madrid on his startup company called Start Ups Made In Spain, which aimed to research and address the Spanish entrepreneurial ecosystem, as it differs greatly from other entrepreneurial ecosystems like the US and UK because of some key cultural/economic distinctions. 
Since college, Tom has been involved in entrepreneurial projects, and went on after college to start up a project through Telefonica's Wayra incubator that is now a full-fledged thriving business before branching off to work on other business ideas. He also is highly involved in entrepreneurial/startup activities in the city of Madrid & helps organize weekly functions to bring entrepreneurs, investors, and other creative and dynamic people together to synergize over coffee and beers on Fridays. 

Here is the VERY short interview that was conducted with him, as he was very short and sweet with his responses: 

• What does it mean to be an entrepreneur?
• It means that you have an idea or you find a problem that annoys you and figure out a way to fix it in a way that you are willing to bet is profitable and to risk your reputation and career and financial stability on that bet and stake all your resources behind it to make your dreams come true.

• What do you think I should learn/what should be taught in an entrepreneurship course?
• How to fail.

• What do you wish you had been taught in school before setting out on your own path as an entrepreneur?
• That most people are nice until there is a big pile of money on the table so you cannot embark on a venture with people you cannot fully trust so finding the right people for the journey is so important. Situations and pressure change people.

• What is the best piece of advice you can offer to young entrepreneurs? 
• Right now is the slowest pace of change you will ever encounter and the best time to be an innovator that has ever existed.

Reflecting on this interview, I think that most of Tom's responses were very appropriate and accurate to his experiences. I think that it is always interesting to hear the responses of different people to the same questions coming to the scene with different experiences, and I think that knowing Tom's stories, these responses were very "him". He is a very candid person (which is responsible for some of his biggest successes as well as challenges) and I think it is very refreshing to see from a new perspective, especially since they were not answers I was necessarily expecting!

Thanks, Tom!