.

Annnnd we are off!

We had a little hiccup the first night and were unable to sleep on the train as planned. We ended up in a hostel in San Francisco.

Nonetheless we had a fabulous first day in San Francisco! The morning started off with an inspirational talk by Elizabeth Gore, the first-ever resident entrepreneur at the United Nations Foundation. One of the points she made that struck me was with regard to the scalability of good ideas. "A lot of you have good ideas that don't scale," she said. "Always think of how to scale your ideas in order to make the greatest impact." Intrigued, I had to ask: "What's the hardest part of scaling up a good idea?" Check out this video to hear what she had to say:

After Mrs. Gore we heard from Kamran Elahian, a self-proclaimed serial entrepreneur and Co-Founder of Global Catalyst Partners, a tech-oriented venture capital firm. The co-founder of more than half a dozen highly successful companies, including CAE systems, Cirrus Logic Inc., NeoMagic Corporation, and Centillium Communications, Elahian knows a thing or two about startups. I caught up with him after his talk to find out what's the hardest part about starting a company? Check out this video to hear what he had to say:

Elahian also shared a number of business and life lessons that I just loved. Here are some of my favorites:

  • When starting a company, always create teams. You do not want to be weathering the inevitable ups and downs of starting a business on your own.
  • When explaining new ideas to people, whether your team or a potential client, always try to inspire.
  • Stick to the things you are really good at, and pay others to do the rest.
  • Listen to your heart. It will always lead you the right way.

My heart is currently telling me to close my laptop and take in this breathtaking view...I better listen!

See you in Denver.

All videos and photos copyright Monica Gray.

The views presented in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the views of any other organization.

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Millennial Trains Project: On Starting a Company and Scaling Up

August 11, 2013

Annnnd we are off!

We had a little hiccup the first night and were unable to sleep on the train as planned. We ended up in a hostel in San Francisco.

Nonetheless we had a fabulous first day in San Francisco! The morning started off with an inspirational talk by Elizabeth Gore, the first-ever resident entrepreneur at the United Nations Foundation. One of the points she made that struck me was with regard to the scalability of good ideas. "A lot of you have good ideas that don't scale," she said. "Always think of how to scale your ideas in order to make the greatest impact." Intrigued, I had to ask: "What's the hardest part of scaling up a good idea?" Check out this video to hear what she had to say:

After Mrs. Gore we heard from Kamran Elahian, a self-proclaimed serial entrepreneur and Co-Founder of Global Catalyst Partners, a tech-oriented venture capital firm. The co-founder of more than half a dozen highly successful companies, including CAE systems, Cirrus Logic Inc., NeoMagic Corporation, and Centillium Communications, Elahian knows a thing or two about startups. I caught up with him after his talk to find out what's the hardest part about starting a company? Check out this video to hear what he had to say:

Elahian also shared a number of business and life lessons that I just loved. Here are some of my favorites:

  • When starting a company, always create teams. You do not want to be weathering the inevitable ups and downs of starting a business on your own.
  • When explaining new ideas to people, whether your team or a potential client, always try to inspire.
  • Stick to the things you are really good at, and pay others to do the rest.
  • Listen to your heart. It will always lead you the right way.

My heart is currently telling me to close my laptop and take in this breathtaking view...I better listen!

See you in Denver.

All videos and photos copyright Monica Gray.

The views presented in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the views of any other organization.