What is an intrapreneur and how does such differentiate from an entrepreneur?

There are numerous *preneurs out there. But what exactly are they, how do they differ and why does it make sense to have all those different meanings?

Let’s get started with the *preneur itself: All *preneurs have in common that they are business wo-/men focused around designing/building, launching, and running a venture or venture-like constitution.

Entrepreneur

The entrepreneur is the by far most popular manifestation. An Entrepreneur is someone who has started a new stand-alone business as his/her (mostly) full-time occupation. Therefore the entrepreneur is getting all-in, focussing on building his/her start-up.

Building a business from scratch comes with the downside of also having to deal with finding the right team, doing all the accounting/pay-roll work, which will detain the entrepreneur from focussing on the main challenges/idea/business.

Intrapreneur

An intrapreneur is employed at a corporation, working on a new – mostly innovative – topic within that corporation leveraging the amenities of drawing on corporate structures and functions. Hereby the intrapreneur can “outsource” activities like HR, accounting, marketing, etc. to the experts of the organization while focussing 100% of the start-up idea.

As an intrapreneur you might either work as an employee receiving your monthly paycheck without being invested into the newly build corporate start-up or you take over a role in that new company and thus gain stakes in the new subsidiary.

Sidepreneur

Not sure if your idea is working out? Afraid to take the risk and plunge in at the deep end? No worries: The sidepreneur is the perfect fit for you.

A sidepreneur is working a regular job as an employee but also hustling night-shifts or at the weekends to realize his/her dream of building their own start-up. This reduces the financial risk. However, you are not fully focused and might struggle to balance your corporate job and your start-up. You can also reduce your main job to e.g. 4 days a week and thus unlock a full workday for your sidehustle.

Solopreneur

While there are a lot of benefits when working in a team, some things might work out better on your own. The solopreneur is an entrepreneur who is working as a one-man-show. This form should not be confused with being self-employed because the focus of a solopreneur is building a business not billing his/her work by the hour.

Socialpreneur

While most versions of a *preneur focus on profitable businesses, the socialpreneur is working on a social, non-profit start-up contributing to society or a good cause.

Lifestylepreneur

Maintaining a certain lifestyle is the main goal of a lifestylepreneur. Technically this does not necessarily has to mean, that the lifestylepreneur wants to build a business. Digital nomads, remote workers and the like mostly work one job after the other being self-employed enjoying the freedom of roaming around the globe, and live a desired lifestyle without building a venture.

Wannapreneur

Fake it till you make it! The term wannapreneur (or also wantpreneur) is derived from “want to” and “entrepreneur”. The wannapreneur instead of getting things done just talks about the things he/she wants to do.

Some successful entrepreneurs started off as a wannapreneur. The upsides of talking a lot about your ideas before executing them are obvious: You will receive a lot of feedback about your idea, get to know similar businesses that already exist and start building your network. However, you need to deliver before the momentum decreases. Make sure to find the perfect timing for transferring from a wannapreneur to an intra-/entrepreneur!