An entrepreneur as someone who wants to make a thing

Most definitions of an entrepreneur mention money or risk. This one mentions neither. David Karp left high school at fifteen, worked with an animation studio in New York and then ran product at a parenting website before starting Tumblr in 2007, at twenty. The service made blogging quick and visual, and by 2011 it hosted millions of blogs. His definition reflects that route. It is about seeing something that should exist and wanting to make it.

That emphasis is useful because it names the part that cannot be taught easily. Business skills can be learned or hired. The urge to make a particular thing, and a clear picture of what it should be, is harder to supply from outside. Many good products started with a person like that, often before there was a company at all.

The definition does leave a lot out. A vision and a want to create describe an artist or a hobbyist as well as an entrepreneur. The difference is turning the creation into something that sustains itself: customers, revenue, a team that can keep it running. Karp was open about his discomfort with advertising, and Tumblr in 2011 was widely used but earned little. The creative half of his definition was clearly in place. The business half was still an open question.

Other definitions push the other way. Steve Case, the AOL founder, described an entrepreneur mainly as someone who takes risks and takes on large challenges. Business writers often stress the finding of opportunities. Each captures part of the job. Karp’s version is closest to how makers see themselves.

For someone deciding whether to start a company, the definition is a fair first test. Without a vision and a real wish to build it, the rest is hard to sustain. With them, the next question is who will pay, and how, and that one needs an answer too.