If you want to be an entrepreneur, your company should have these characteristics:

Was just talking to Tony Fadell, who created the ipod and iphone at Apple, then started Nest, which sold to Google for $3.2 billion. In his new book, "Build", he states that a good company should have the following characteristics:

1. Create a product or service that is wholly new or combines existing technology in a novel way that the competition can't make or even understand.

The iphone combined the ipod (music and videos) with computing (the app store), and the phone and then dominated the market.

2. Solve a problem - a real pain point - that a lot of customers experience daily. There should be an existing large market.

For instance, Uber solved a real problem for consumers. Sometimes in a city (or anywhere), it's impossible to find a taxi (like NYC when it's raining).

Before smartphones you'd have to call a car service or simply wait for a taxi. Both painful or expensive solutions. Uber solved this.

3. The novel technology can deliver on the company vision - not just within the product but also the infrastructure, platforms, and systems that support it.

For instance, the iphone, which Tony created, kept within the design aesthetic of Apple and kept the same ecosystem. Developers who were making products for other Apple devices were able to make products for the iphone.

4. Leadership is not dogmatic about what the solution looks like and is willing to adapt to their customer's needs.

5. The product should be thinking about a problem or a customer need in a way you've never heard of before, but one you hear it, it makes perfect sense.

With Nest, Tony created a thermostat that can be operated remotely and could adapt to the average temperatures you liked, etc. He kept waiting for someone to make this but they never did so he did.

James Altucher