Okay, so you think you want to start a company. ?You have an idea, and you were able to get a couple fo other folks excited as hell about it to. ?I?ve watched a lot fo startups fumble, and fail. ?As I have thought through i recently, I feel that many of them could?have?made it if they had just kept mindful of these four points:
1- Actually know what the hell your idea is
Guess what? if you haven?t gotten any customers yet, and you have drastically ?pivoted? you company half a dozen times already, then you are fooling yourself. ?You are not a company. ?You are not even an idea yet. ?you are a group of people who are dying to do ?something?, but can?t quite figure out what. ?Stop playing house. ?Sit down and nail your idea. ?Having a?technology?or solution that could do X Y, or Z, and could br priced and sold in model A, B, or C doesn?t cut it. ?If you can?t explain it simply and mean it you?re not a company yet. ?Stop pretending.
2- Make it pleasant to use
I don?t care if you sell a product or a service. ?If it can ?theoretically? accomplish the task, then that sucks. ?Once of my favorite products is a simple one called Skitch. ?Every time I use it I say to myself ?Wow. ?that was easy.? ?Then I smile a little. ?If you are hard to work with then people won?t. ?To hell wit you menu systems, your processes, etc. ?Make it beyond easy? make it PLEASANT to use.
If you can?t explain how it work to your mother in law, go back to the drawing board and fix it.
3- Test your theory
Got a cool idea that no one wants to invest in? ?Probably because you have no customers. ?I know?. cart before the horse? You need money to build stuff first. ?Well, get commitments. ?Take your vision to some customers and get them to sign stating that they will buy it if you build is as outlined. ?Show that you have a pipeline for your product. ?If you can?t get anyone to sign, then it might be a good thing you didn?t go to all of the effort to build it.
4- Be prepared to scale
I know what you?re thinking? You?re thinking ?We talked to our developer, and he assures us that this thing will scale because it?s built in the cloud and ?<yadda yadda yadda>.? ?Guess what? If this is your first startup, then you don?t know this yet, but I can almost assure you that even though you tink you?re building an industrial strength product or service, that you?re not. ?What you haven?t learned yet is that this is really a proof of concept and will almost surely begin to crumble under your success if it start selling like you hope.
But believe it or not, that?s okay. ?there is no reason to build it to scale until you prove it. ?Proof?on concept has a place in business. ?But you need to be aware that you will need outside guidance in where your processes and products are going to fall apart. ?Have these people start to advise you early on. ?Don?t get disheartened when they point out your many?scalability?failures. ?Expect it, and determine when you need to be at that scale, and work on plans to achieve it? once you have some real customers and revenue.
Finally?
I know, I said there would only be four things. ?But one last concept to be mindful of: if your team is nothing other than a group of people that sit around and refine the idea, then you are in trouble. ?I would point you at one of my earlier posts: Get shit done. ?Just because the programmer, or account rep, or person with whatever skill set you need to actually have something to sell isn?t in your coolio business folks club doesn?t mean that he or she is not critical to your business. ?You better have people who can actually do things sitting at the big-kids table and not just a bunch of folks your love to nod their heads and agree with how cool your concepts are. ?Make it happen. ?If you literally cannot do anything to forward your business before you have investment, then you have the wrong team for your startup. ?Fix it.
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