“Success is a lousy teacher, it seduces people into thinking they can’t lose.” - Bill Gates

Silicone Valley is the inspiration behind more than a few startup stories. This collection of billion-dollar multinationals has re-defined everything from how we communicate with our friends to what we expect from our employers. Trailblazers they may be, but the path trod by the likes of Google and Facebook was forged decades earlier by Bill Gates, Paul Allen, Robert Khan, Steve Jobs and Ronald Wyne – to name but a few.

The founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates is worth a staggering $79 billion. It’s a success story that has inspired thousands of startup founders to take a chance. This contributed in no small part to the rise in popularity of crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo. However, with over 70% of crowdfunding campaigns failing, bravery isn’t enough. Entrepreneurs need determination, resilience, and one hell of a work ethic if they want to build a thriving business. Failure is inevitable – just ask Bill.
His first business venture, Traf-O-Data, was ambitious and – ultimately – a complete failure. It was supposed to create automatic reports for traffic engineers with a view to ending road congestion, but it never worked. Gates and co-founder Paul Allen eventually called time on the project, but they didn’t let the misstep faze them. They learned, they grew, and they came back better than ever in 1975 to launch Microsoft, now a Fortune 500 company.

With crowdfunding, accelerator programs, government loans and an almost limitless array of programs out there to help entrepreneurs, launching a startup has (theoretically) never been easier. But that doesn’t mean that it’s easy. First Crowdfund boasts an army of enthusiastic backers and investors, but it is up to you to capture their imagination and turn your brilliant idea into a thriving, hiring business. Just remember, failure doesn’t preclude success.