Celebrating 25 years of Building Companies that Improve the World

Celebrating 25 Years

My 25 lessons learned
From 25 years of creating companies

Subscribe

Stay informed about
upcoming lessons

25 years of thanks and
25 years of lessons learned

bill gross

I started Idealab with a dream to make something like a modern version of Thomas Edison’s Lab where we could test ideas under one roof and then spin them off into separate companies. These companies would have their own management teams and their own equity pools, while at the same time benefitting from shared experiences and resources.

With lots of help from so many great people, my dream became a reality. We have come up with more than 5,000 ideas, started more than 150 companies, and had more than 50 successful IPO’s and acquisitions. We are most proud that we created more than 10,000 jobs and thousands of new entrepreneurs.

We learned lots of lessons - some great and some painful - and it’s my honor to share them with you here. If even one tiny bit of one of these lessons can help you be more successful, that would make me so happy. I love entrepreneurship, and hope that our lessons can help more companies and entrepreneurs to be successful and change the world in a positive way.

I am so grateful to all the people who helped me make the Idealab “experiment” work for these 25 years.

Sincerely,

Bill Gross

Chairman and Founder,
Idealab

My 25 lessons learned
From 25 years of creating companies

Introduction to the lessons

Transcript

Share this lesson

I am Bill Gross and I started Idealab 25 years ago.

It's been a long entrepreneurial journey for me. I have been an entrepreneur all my life. I was selling candy at the bus stop when I was in junior high school, I was making solar devices in high school in a mail-order business, I made loudspeakers in college to pay my way through. After college, I started software companies.

And finally, I had so much fun being an entrepreneur, and I had so many ideas ..rather than being a serial entrepreneur I wanted to become a “parallel” entrepreneur. So I started Idealab to do exactly that.

Under one roof we could house multiple companies and I could have ideas in many, many different areas.

Over the last 25 years, we've had many ups and downs and we started more than 150 companies and we have had more than 50 successful IPOs and acquisitions.

But most of all, I had many lessons learned. That's exactly what I'd like to share.

25 lessons from 25 years of starting companies. If any of these lessons learned could be helpful to you in your business or improve your success, that would make me feel really, really great.

< Previous lesson

Next lesson >

More Videos

play button

Stanford ENERGY seminar

Bill Gross discusses his entrepreneurial journey to solve climate change

play button

SALT Talk

SALT Voices: Bill Gross | Founder & Chairman, Idealab

play button

Bill Gross presents at VERGE 16

Ground-breaking solar technologies and why clean technology is a trillion dollar opportunity

play button

Bill Gross speaks at TED 2015

Bill's talk on the single biggest reason why startups succeed

play button

2014 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland

Bill speaks about regulation designed to foster technology-driven growth

play button

Bill kicks off Entrepreneurship Week at Stanford

An informative and inspiring talk on innovation and starting companies

25 years of thanks and
25 years of lessons learned

bill gross

I started Idealab with a dream to make something like a modern version of Thomas Edison’s Lab where we could test ideas under one roof and then spin them off into separate companies. These companies would have their own management teams and their own equity pools, while at the same time benefitting from shared experiences and resources.

With lots of help from so many great people, my dream became a reality. We have come up with more than 5,000 ideas, started more than 150 companies, and had more than 50 successful IPO’s and acquisitions. We are most proud that we created more than 10,000 jobs and thousands of new entrepreneurs.

We learned lots of lessons - some great and some painful - and it’s my honor to share them with you here. If even one tiny bit of one of these lessons can help you be more successful, that would make me so happy. I love entrepreneurship, and hope that our lessons can help more companies and entrepreneurs to be successful and change the world in a positive way.

I am so grateful to all the people who helped me make the Idealab “experiment” work for these 25 years.

Sincerely,

Bill Gross

Chairman and Founder,
Idealab

View more lessons

  • Introduction to the lessons

  • Lesson 1:  

    Challenge the Status Quo

  • Lesson 2:  

    Find Great Timing

  • Lesson 3:  

    Learn to Say No

  • Lesson 4:  

    Be Success Sensitive

  • Lesson 5:  

    Find Product-Market Fit

  • Lesson 6:  

    Become a Great Story Teller

  • Lesson 7:  

    Be Lean

  • Lesson 8:  

    Be Remarkable

  • Lesson 9:  

    Try Again

  • Lesson 10:  

    Build A Complementary Team

  • Lesson 11:  

    Be Persistent

  • Lesson 12:  

    Protect Your IP

  • Lesson 13:  

    Ignore Downturns

  • Lesson 14:  

    Use Moore's Law

  • Lesson 15:  

    Iterate Like Crazy

  • Lesson 16:  

    Be Frugal

  • Lesson 17:  

    Find your Purpose

  • Lesson 18:  

    Culture Eats Strategy

  • Lesson 19:  

    Have Laser Focus

  • Lesson 20:  

    Make Investors Money

  • Lesson 21:  

    Be a Learning Machine

  • Lesson 22:  

    Always Be Fundraising

  • Lesson 23:  

    Be Transparent

  • Lesson 24:  

    Ignore Sunk Costs

  • Lesson 25:  

    Embrace Diversity

  • Thank you from Bill Gross

  • All 25 Lessons and Summary by Bill Gross

View more lessons

  • Introduction to the lessons

  • Lesson 1:  

    Challenge the Status Quo

  • Lesson 2:  

    Find Great Timing

  • Lesson 3:  

    Learn to Say No

  • Lesson 4:  

    Be Success Sensitive

  • Lesson 5:  

    Find Product-Market Fit

  • Lesson 6:  

    Become a Great Story Teller

  • Lesson 7:  

    Be Lean

  • Lesson 8:  

    Be Remarkable

  • Lesson 9:  

    Try Again

  • Lesson 10:  

    Build A Complementary Team

  • Lesson 11:  

    Be Persistent

  • Lesson 12:  

    Protect Your IP

  • Lesson 13:  

    Ignore Downturns

  • Lesson 14:  

    Use Moore's Law

  • Lesson 15:  

    Iterate Like Crazy

  • Lesson 16:  

    Be Frugal

  • Lesson 17:  

    Find your Purpose

  • Lesson 18:  

    Culture Eats Strategy

  • Lesson 19:  

    Have Laser Focus

  • Lesson 20:  

    Make Investors Money

  • Lesson 21:  

    Be a Learning Machine

  • Lesson 22:  

    Always Be Fundraising

  • Lesson 23:  

    Be Transparent

  • Lesson 24:  

    Ignore Sunk Costs

  • Lesson 25:  

    Embrace Diversity

  • Thank you from Bill Gross

  • All 25 Lessons and Summary by Bill Gross

Show more