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For most Irish teenagers, the end of their Junior Cert Exams is followed by a year of sloth (also known as ‘Transition Year’). Daniel Kyne was different. As soon as he walked out of the last exam, his mind switched to building his first startup- a music publishing platform. After 18 months of hammering away on the project with little success, Daniel reached out to Patrick Collison for guidance. Miraculously, Patrick responded within a few hours with the following sage advice: ‘You’re too young to be building a company- enjoy yourself, have a variety of experiences, and you can always start a company later’.

It was not the advice that Daniel had been seeking, but in time he came to understand that it was what he had needed. Now, six years since that email, Daniel is again building a company. This time, armed with the experience, network and expertise to turn his vision into reality.

In our wide-ranging discussion, Daniel shares a selection of his hard-earned wisdom for aspiring entrepreneurs. Here are some of the highlights:

College Students 🚨 Build Community and Credibility, Then Build a Company

“Build community, build credibility, then build a company. That was the approach that I took. When I came into college, I wanted to get involved as many things as possible. I started working at Dublin tech summit about a week before my Leaving Cert Results, and took on as much responsibility as I could really.

I went from intern to one of the department managers within two months. I just jumped in as much as possible. And I joined, maybe three societies, as well, and I was just flat out. I really embraced the idea that if I want to build something, I'm not going to be able to do it unless I actually know people who can help me along the way.

There's just this such a big presumption that people like Mark Zuckerberg were super talented with a great idea. And that's just not the case. It's like Mark Zuckerberg is super talented, had a great idea, and a whole support network that he built around him to enable him to flourish.”

On The Art and Science of Sending A Great Cold Email 📩

“Overall, just do not be worried about emailing people. Like you can email absolutely anyone in the world. It's so, so easy. People think that you're never going to get a response and you absolutely are. I mean, I've gotten responses for cold emails from people in the White House, people in Westminster, in NASA, like the CEO of Airbnb, like you can literally email anybody you want.And if you write a good email, you will get a response.

… the one thing you've got to have in your head is like what, it's not necessarily that you need to be giving them value because a lot of people are willing to give time on sort of a mentorship basis, especially when you're younger or a student, but you’ve got to know that you're not wasting this person's time at the same time that you're going to ask them questions that are going to impact your own decisions, because that's really what they want to see is that their advice impacted the actions you took afterwards.”

The Book That’s Had The Biggest Impact on Daniel’s Life 📚

The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick. I've read it probably four or five times now.

And I tend to just keep reading it as many times as I can. Whenever I need to top up. For me, it was basically just like that lightning bolt moment. I think for me, it just made me realize how much conversations are just based on ego and wanting to get compliments about like, ‘Oh, you're really doing a great job’, or to get people to just validate what I want to hear.

Thanks for reading!

All the best,

Will

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