Finding Something out of Nothing, by Priya Sheth

Founder Feedback gives you insights from the startup trenches. In a guest blog post that ran on Women 2.0 last week, Priya Sheth shares the story of her transition in the last year from an aerospace engineer in Los Angeles to the Founder of Be Scrappy in San Francisco via both Founder Labs and the Founder Institute. 

Read the full story on Women 2.0 here. Below is an excerpt:

"You may have an idea to start out, but it is through the validation process that your company really starts to take shape...I’ve found that many of the steps I needed to take involved putting myself in awkward situations, stalking people for their inputs and insights, and dealing (as well as coping) with quite a bit of rejection (which I’ve never been good at, but now take in with open arms!)...

A founder’s responsibility is to be resilient and unwavering when facing rejection. While it’s harder said than done, I can attest to that first-hand. As an engineer, I executed on development projects and received approval from colleagues and managers on my work. I learned quickly that this need for approval wasn’t going to fly around here -– mostly because the best people and ideas have entered their current state through rejection...

Becoming an entrepreneur has definitely not been an easy task to undertake… It’s been a series of small but sure steps in what I think is the right direction to get here (and I’m only just at the beginning really!). I really believe it’s the ability to push yourself when your resources are all apparently gone that makes an entrepreneur successful. Because isn’t that what we are supposed to be best at doing as entrepreneurs… Having the vision of finding the something out of the apparent nothing?"

Be Scrappy, a website that connects people who need tools for home improvement or building projects to lenders that have them, is a Graduate of the San Francisco Founder Institute. Follow Priya Sheth on Twitter at @priyasheth, and Be Scrappy at @bescrappy.