15 steps to launch your own startup in Europe - Part 1

http://christianreber.com/blog/15-steps-to-launch-your-own-startup-in-europe-part-1

he Facebook group Berlin Startup Jobs or visit http://berlinstartupjobs.com.

3. Join the community and meet founders

Spending time with ambitious and like minded people shaped my own path. Most of my friends are developers, designers, entrepreneurs, and work for different kinds of startups. When you move to a new city, like I did, it can take some time to connect with other founders. Leo Widrich, one of the co-founders of Buffer, wrote a great, provocative piece about the importance of the people you spend time with, and quoted the entrepreneur Jim Rohn:

‘You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.’ Jim Rohn

If you start an international tech business, you’ll be competing with intelligent, ambitious, and highly skilled people from all around the globe. It’s a huge challenge and having a great community of entrepreneurs, developers and designers for support is key.

I’m lucky that Europe, and especially Berlin now has a strong and fast-growing community. But, when I first moved here, I didn’t know anyone from the startup scene or anything about related events. I had no clue how to go about meeting with founders or investors.

To help aspiring entrepreneurs facing the same issues, I started a Facebook group called Berlin Startups. My goal was simple, I wanted to build a community to connect people and allow them to share knowledge. I invited founders, investors, lawyers, developers, designers and many more. The group now has more than 7,000 members, with people representing almost every German startup. It’s now the easiest way to discover startup events and connect with great people.

Besides connecting with founders, I would also recommend you identify potential mentors. These can be entrepreneurs who you think are doing a phenomenal job in building great companies. Surround yourself with them, learn from them. You’ll find out it’s easier than you think to get in touch with these people. It’s incredible how much you can learn from a single 30 minute meeting. I spent a lot of time in the beginning just reading about entrepreneurs and watching interviews on YouTube. I recommend you watch interviews onPandoMonthly, Foundation, Stanford’s Entrepreneurship Corner and This Week in Startups.

I follow many founders, CEOs, industry leaders, venture capitalists and other startups on Twitter and Facebook to learn more about who they are, and what they do. It’s a quick way to learn more about trends and important topics.

Read blogs like TNW, TechCrunch, and The Verge to keep up-to-date. I also love to read the blogs of founders and investors, especially Fred Wilson, Brad Feld,Ben Horowitz, Tom Tunguz and many more.

Next week I’ll be sharing the importance of selecting the right location for your startup, prototyping your ideas and analyzing markets. Follow me on Twitter orsubscribe to my blog.