We tend to associate brands to large companies. But startups and even individuals have our own brands. They come up in the form of consistent words, images and our communications that we use with people. A startup branding strategy is about creating this consistent engagement with your customers.
Don’t assume that borrowing lots of money can make your startup fly: We know that funding is one of the most common reasons why a startup fails. This quote however highlights that apart from funding, there are several other challenges that a founder should navigate through. Funding is only a part of the problem solved. It gives you an opportunity to expand, but you ought to reach some requirements such as product market fit, customer agreements etc to make this viable.
Though it sounds a bit crass, the quote makes an important point about taking swift decisions in a startup. We always get caught up between strategy and acting fast. In most cases, it is also called being tactical. For a startup, both strategy and tactics go hand in hand. We are forced to take some decisions quickly and have little time to strategise about its wider impact. One may even argue that strategy is a challenge with a scale up rather than early stages of startup.
Ideas are like rabbits: A startup is much more than an idea. Most literature tends to either romanticise the idea or grit of an entrepreneur. What if I told you that the truth was somewhere in the middle? I believe that the beauty of startups is in a great execution of an idea. The idea … Read more
In this article, I’ve adapted this model for prioritisation in product management. The use case of this discussion is: You have a list of requirements as a product manager. You’re now trying to prioritise items based on what gives most value in development.
In this article, we talk about various factors influencing your small business branding strategy. I will use the terms startup and small business interchangeably. The focus is about creating a differentiation with the rest of the market. The best way to approach branding strategy is by creating a market map.
In this article, we talk about the various functions of entrepreneur in setting up and running a business. As you can imagine, the list of functions is innumerable, however, we can classify them under broad segments explored in this article.
I’ve been a huge fan of product development and have been very interested in understanding customer needs. As a start-up, I understand it is extremely important to have the first customer. It will not only help your commercial model to raise investment, but it will also help product validation and understanding customer needs.
With limited resources, man power and money, the only key resource we have is the true care of people around us. The help may be in the form of advice or physical resources and sometimes even a gentle push back.
Startups can feel lonely most times. When you start something new, the idea takes time to formulate. Unfortunately it is a lonely journey until you achieve some success. However, it can be fun bringing shape to this idea. One of the most powerful supporters for this journey is the startup accelerators.