3 Tips for Starting a Business That Everyone Else Thinks Is Crazy
When I met Dave Schaeffer, cofounder of the San Francisco-based indoor trampoline park House of Air, one of my biggest questions was, why trampolines?
After all, nothing about starting this business was easy. From finding the right space -- an airplane hangar -- to retrofitting it for earthquakes and then loading up on insurance -- trampolining is an "action sport," after all -- everything about it was difficult, Schaeffer says.
And yet, the decision to start House of Air was comparatively uncomplicated: Schaeffer and his business partner did it because "we really wanted to," he says. A little bit of willful blindness helped too.
Not unlike the beginnings of many small businesses, I suspect.
A year later the cofounder who started with zero business expertise but a fair amount of gumption says the company is making a 30 percent profit margin (he declined to give specific figures). He has three tips for wannabe founders who face similar start-up hurdles:
Host Priya David-Clemens and I had a great conversation with Schaeffer about the role of luck in entrepreneurship and what it's like founding a business with a friend.
Here's the full show:
More from our "Inside Business" series: