Senator Warner spoke by video link from Washington today to a conference on entrepreneurship and business innovation hosted by the Roanoke Chamber of Commerce.

Speaking from his Capitol Hill office, Senator Warner, who had a successful career in telecom and venture capital before entered politics, reminded the audience that he was anything but an “overnight” business success: his first two business ventures failed in a matter of weeks.

He advised the entrepreneurs to be flexible in designing their business plans:

“Anything you're going to do is going to cost more and take more time than you initially put in. ... You can have the best idea in the world, but if you can't find access to capital to get started it's going to be much tougher.”

While offering suggestions on how promising start-ups might attract more interest from investors, he also discussed his successful effort in amending the Wall Street financial reform legislation to help promote early capital investment.

"There is sometimes a disconnect in Washington between people who like to regulate things and people who've actually built businesses," Senator Warner said. 

Here's a quick clip of some of the advice he gave:

The Roanoke Times’ Mason Adams covered the summit and filed this story.