I’m often fascinated by the number of Google searches that talk about success and entrepreneurship. If I’m allowed to be blunt, I’d say entrepreneurship is a gamble – it is a massive risk and most articles that talk about success principles suffer from survivorship bias. It is impossible to replicate success because the environment, product, market and everything is so complex. However, the point of success is to make sure that we give ourselves the best chance at it. In this article, I’d like to talk about some of the key characteristics of a tech entrepreneur for success.
We can certainly speak for length about key characteristics for an entrepreneur to succeed. But for a tech entrepreneur, we’ll add a few more characteristics that differentiate them from the generic expectations.
What Is a Tech Entrepreneur?
It is fairly obvious – any entrepreneur who depends on technology for business success is a tech entrepreneur. It is a misconception to think that a tech entrepreneur must be an engineer or have a technology background. The outcome is more important, we don’t have to be a technology expert to run a business. As long as we can use technology for the best outcome of a business, we can classify ourselves under this label.
A tech entrepreneur, however, relies on technology for business success. Most tech entrepreneurs now come from a technology area and can use it well to reach customer demand. This technology has An entrepreneur who starts a business in the technology sector is called a tech entrepreneur. You can use technology in numerous ways. A tech entrepreneur however relies on technology to provide fundamental value creation to the end customer. Their entire business model relies on the ability to deliver successful technology to users. This is one of the most pursued areas of entrepreneurship due to its scalability and growth potential to become a full-blown startup.
Key Traits of a Tech Entrepreneur
So, what makes a tech entrepreneur successful? Are they different from general entrepreneurs? The answer is both yes and no. The yes because of their specific knowledge about the tech sector. This knowledge can be in the know-how of technology, its building blocks etc. Or, it can be about how this technology is consumed in the market and the ability to penetrate this field. The specific knowledge in the technology field will separate the tech entrepreneur from generic entrepreneurial efforts.
However, I’d say that tech entrepreneurs are no different from general entrepreneurs since they will need similar skills to succeed in this field. The general requirements such as perseverance, market knowledge, communication, visionary thinking etc will be required as a basic expectation from these entrepreneurs. In this article, I will restrict myself to 3 characteristics of tech entrepreneurs required for success
Market and Technology Knowledge
It all starts from the market information and the knowledge of its working. The market demand will define whether the business idea will survive. Even amongst the investors, the market is the number 1 dominant factor in assessing whether they want to invest in your business. Hence, your knowledge of the market, connections and your influence will play a large role in giving you a foothold. In addition to the market knowledge, you’ll also be expected to know the technological landscape. As a tech entrepreneur, this will be a basic requirement for you.
This knowledge could be about the generic trends that are influencing your technology, and its adoption – key challenges and opportunities surrounding it. One of the key components of a tech business is that its early adopters generally come from a technology background. The best way to tap into this market segment is through your knowledge and ability to indulge in detailed conversations to convey the value etc.
Funding, Recruiting and Development costs
Technology is expensive. Although we recommend the MVP approach, it takes time and money to build a product. Technology product development has natural allies such as bugs, customer journey interpretations etc. There is room for a lot of mistakes and each of these mistakes can be expensive since it takes time to develop. In the early stages particularly, the initial cost is high naturally leading us to seek investment from angels or VCs. There are multiple avenues for funding startups, but you’ll need to undergo the journey of fundraising. This is both time-consuming and needs perseverance.
Once you get these funds, the next challenge is around hiring. Technical hires are challenging since these people are in large demand and expensive. Convincing them to join startups needs additional incentives such as shares, ownership of the company higher salaries etc. Hence, the amount of risk in a tech startup naturally is higher due to its large upfront costs. However, these types of startups tend to give high returns too which justifies the risky investment for your investors.
Sales and Marketing
I can’t impress enough the importance of sales and marketing for a tech entrepreneur. Due to the ease of product creation, the market is inundated with products with large marketing budgets. To penetrate such a busy market, it takes additional investment, good sales people and intimate knowledge of the market. Even with all these, you’ll need a great understanding of penetrating this market, fighting competitors and ensuring that you have a strong differentiator.
Software sales are different compared to other physical products although the core basics are about eliminating pain points. In this type of sale, particularly for B2B markets, the user and buyer are two different persona. Hence, in product development, we’ll need to keep this in mind as we create product versions. This will define whether your startup will survive or not. With huge upfront investments, early sales are the deciders for your business survival.
