Taking the leap into the entrepreneurial world requires guts, determination and hard work to turn a start-up into a success.
It also requires hearing a lot of “no’s” along the way. These six technology entrepreneurs say a lot of what helped give them the drive to pursue their passions came from what they learned from their mothers and her constant encouragement.
When George Bousis, founder of Raise, had an idea to build a gift card marketplace, he asked his mother Eleni Bousis about his idea and said she decided to invest.
“I went to her and said, ‘Mom, I’m onto something really big, and she said, ‘Of course I trust you,’ she thought it was the right thing,” Bousis told ABC News. The company now has 400 employees — and George’s mom has a stake in the company, something she said she didn’t tell her husband, George’s father, about until a couple years later.
“After he saw the value and the stake realized it’s a good thing it’s funny to see my parents joke about it,” Bousis said.
Jennifer Hyman, the CEO and co-founder of Rent the Runway, told ABC News her mom taught her “that life is better when you’re part of a team.”
“A team laughs together, loves together and helps each other through the inevitable tough times. Having an autistic family member who requires 24/7 care, I learned from my mom that you can do nothing important or meaningful alone,” Hyman said.
Joe Gebbia, chief product officer and co-founder of Airbnb told ABC News he learned lessons about service from watching his mom, Eileen, who worked as an independent health food sales representative, go above and beyond to help customers.
“As a little kid I used to tag along with both of my parents and see how they would interact with store managers. They wouldn’t just close the deal they would stick around and help,” he said.
Niccolo de Masi,chairman and CEO of Glu Mobile (the company behind Kim Kardashian Hollywood and a slew of other celeb-inspired games) said the career changes his mom Michelle made taught him about the need to evolve.
“[She] was originally a school teacher, but traded it in after a couple years to go into the film industry. She worked for Lorimar as the Assistant Editor on The Waltons and Dallas,” he said before she went back to teaching. “I am perennially inspired by her ability to be successful in tow big career shifts. It’s something I think about often in my own career – the need to continually evolve one’s skills.”
Chris Fanini, co-founder, Weebly, a website builder and hosting service, said being raised by a single mother who ran her own advertising business out of their home taught him a lot about how to run his own future enterprises.
“Growing up so close to this gave me first-hand insight around the trials and tribulations of running a small business. Some years were great, others not so great,” Fanini told ABC News. “Naturally, I started many of my own small businesses and received the utmost support from my mother. First it was a candy store, then a small lawn service company, then a web hosting company and internet service provider, then Weebly.”
Michael Franklin, co-founder Oak Labs, an interactive fitting room company, said watching his mom Patty quit her nurse practitioner job in her 50s to get her doctorate influenced his decision to quit a safe job and become an entrepreneur.
“The year she defended her research, I started working with Healey Cypher [my co-founder]. I had quit a safe job in finance and flew to San Francisco with no plans, no contacts,” Franklin said. “I doubt I’d have the confidence to leave a safe job, try something totally new, and find a way to make it work, without her influence.”