Every startup goes through the phase of idea generation, understanding the market and providing an adequate solution. They all start at the same wonderful place. It is a small thought in the head germinating seed of an idea that goes on to create a startup.
Basic choices in an early-stage startup: In this article, we talk about the basics of creating an early-stage startup. We will talk about basics such as company registration, business plan, investment readiness etc.
There’s something artificial when everyone is agreeing: It’s weird when everyone agrees in a team or organisation. Sure, there will be moments like that but if it is a pattern in your founding team, then there are two problems: the leader’s too strong or you don’t have challengers. Either way, it is a sign that something is terribly wrong and you as a founder will need to act on it.
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.
This was a perspective I missed during our fundraising activities. How much is really enough for a startup during its fundraising stages? I’ll admit that we never knew the right answer- sometimes it felt too much. At other times, it felt like we weren’t asking enough. The question is – where do we draw a line and say – this is what we need for a certain stage of the startup?
Good ideas are a bedrock of a startup. However, they’re only a necessary – not sufficient conditioning of running a good startup. We’ve seen plenty of material around how good ideas change the world. Although it is true, ideas alone don’t amount to anything.
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.
Startup is hard work and the journey gets harder when you start presenting your idea to people. When we talked about assessing your startup idea, the first suggestion was to test the idea for feedback. When you go out to get feedback, unfortunately you don’t always get useful feedback. As you grow your startup, you must get good at separating noise from feedback.
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