The Secret To Being A Successful Startup Founder In Your Early 20s, A Founder’s Story with Logan Nicholson

My name is Logan Nicholson and I’m the 22-year-old founder of LocalEyes, a tech company in the lodging and hospitality space. I attended BYU for a few years but dropped out when LocalEyes received some funding from private investors. I’m not a technical founder, nor am I a marketing genius or a finance scholar, but I’ve made it my priority to be a tenacious business leader. LocalEyes has brought some rigorous learning into my life. While we started as just a cool way for Airbnb hosts to connect their guests with high-quality local experiences, we’ve now broken into the hospitality industry with cutting-edge AI-driven products.

Tell us about your childhood and where you grew up

I grew up in Vancouver, WA, just outside of Portland, OR. My Dad was a long-time company man and while I did not learn about entrepreneurship at the home, I learned lifelong lessons about hard work, integrity, loyalty, and communication. Many entrepreneurs talk about how they got started as a kid. That wasn’t the case for me. I sort of stumbled into entrepreneurship by working and interning for startup companies.

How did you get started as an entrepreneur?

I decided to pursue my first venture at 20 years old. I was very naive and I didn’t yet know what it takes to be a good entrepreneur. I would describe my dive into entrepreneurship as a constant crash course. That might sound extreme but you seriously have to be learning ALL the time. Only some of the building blocks of entrepreneurship are identifying a need in a market, product development, finding product market fit, and achieving customer success (or learning from customer dissatisfaction). Once you feel like you have a handle on those things, you’ll get slammed with the challenge of learning about cash flow management, sociable but effective leadership, building an admirable company culture, and more.

What is one business lesson you would tell a startup founder?

Young founders need to understand this. To be a good leader is to be humble. As a first-time founder, you HAVE to be willing to listen to mentors, associates, advisors, strategic partners, and just about everyone you talk to that has an ounce of useful knowledge. Find ways to be helpful and impressive to the leaders that you admire in your life. This will open the door to opportunities and knowledge. But that’s the easy part. Once you’ve begun building a team, you realize that humility does not just go up the ladder. You have to be humble enough to listen to and learn from your employees and customers. Ultimately, your employees know the company culture better than anyone, and the customers know the success of the product better than anyone. Young and aspiring entrepreneurs, the best way to take the world by storm is to learn. Learning turns potential into power.