Hello, ETL fans, and Happy New Year. I'm Ravi Balani, a lecturer at Stanford University

and managing director of Alchemist Accelerator, and I'm here for our final special ETL episode

to offer my take on entrepreneurial lessons from 2020. Last year defied all our expectations

and disrupted our personal and professional lives. From the ongoing

challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic to the economic whiplash many have experienced,

it was difficult to find focus during this incredibly challenging year. But the entrepreneurs

and innovators who visited ETL this year brought us weekly lessons in how to find agency

in times of crisis and uncertainty.

If entrepreneurs take away one lesson from this year, it's to start with just one thing.

Most companies start with good ideas. Your company won't fail because the idea itself is bad.

Your company will fail because you will hit the end of your runway without having taken off.

The end of that runway is running out of energy as founders or cash from customers or investors.

And you will not have taken off because your attention was spread across too many things.

When overwhelmed by forces that disrupt and distract when starting or running a venture,

take steps one at a time and execute each one with extreme focus.

When creating products, block out the extraneous pressures and start with the problem you want to solve for customers.

Let that be your North Star.

During our fall quarter, Play versus founder and CEO Delane Parnell put this insight front and center.

So did Zoom founder and CEO Eric Yuan. Let's start with Delane.

Here he is at ETL in October 2020, talking about his first year building playverses

into an e-sports phenomenon that since raised more than $100 million in venture capital.

I don't think I've ever been more focused than that, you know, that first year, truthfully.

...