After working for 10 startups over a span of 36 years, Patrick Quirk knows a thing or two about entrepreneurship.

Quirk shared his expertise with aspiring entrepreneurs, seasoned entrepreneurs and those connected to the startup community in his keynote speech during the Wisconsin Entrepreneurs’ Conference held Tuesday at the Alliant Energy Center.

On the internal side, Quirk talked about cash management, having a CFO and creating a culture.

“(For cash management), act like it’s your own money, because someday it will be,” Quirk said. “(For culture), it’s what drives your employees, it’s why they work there.”

On the external side, Quirk discussed focusing on ROI, value proposition, market positioning, net-promoter score and long-term growth strategy.

“You need to ask yourself why is my (product or service) valuable to customers,” Quirk said. “You need that clarity.”

Quirk, a University of Wisconsin graduate, has had stints at Oracle and PeopleSoft, to name a few. His companies have been involved in more than $10 billion in exits.

“At the end of the day, finding out why a certain product works, sometimes it’s luck,” Quirk said.