While onstage at SXSW, Rivian founder and CEO RJ Scaringe reflected on a recent meeting with an entrepreneur, who is just starting to build a business.
“I love that stage,” he said, recalling that his favorite memories were in those early days when there wasn’t a large team in place, and they were figuring out what the business and product would be.
“Everything you’re learning is at such a fast rate — you’re making mistakes, but the cost of these mistakes is not that high, so it’s just a wonderful time,” he said before offering up some advice. “I think one of the things that’s really important is to embrace the difficulty. So in the moment — like classic Type 2 fun — you’re like, boy, this is hard.”
He added that all the hard moments, including being rejected, struggling to raise enough capital, or working through technical problems, form you as an entrepreneur and help inform what the business becomes.
“I wouldn’t trade any of the difficulties that I experienced in the first handful of years that were really meaningful moments for anything,” he said. “I wish I could go back and tell myself, ‘Really enjoy this.’”
