StartUp: Ready! Steady! Go!

Each founder at the beginning of the startup creation and establishment is entirely sure that his project is the best, the most perspective and will be eye-catching for the investors’ attention and venture funds. But in practice, there are more NOs, lots of rejects and flowing bits of advice how to change or enhance business-model. For avoiding such situations, take a reality check and don’t to forget that for every “pros” of the startup there always will be huge “cons”, for solving which you have to spend much more time. Nevertheless, you have an opportunity to start distinguishing which startup is «right» and which is «bad»! From now on take into account these three marks!

Mark One. General characteristics of the startup

Performance indicators are the best data which can describe the startup, confirm or deny its prospects. So, for a genuinely developing project, even without an end product, there should be a bright idea, a well-developed business model and the launched MVP, as well as a development plan for the future. The startup, depicting only the founder’s dreams, will not be attractive.

StartUp_MPSdevelopment

Active, hard-working team of professionals is a leading force to success! It is a challenge to implement an idea being alone! Moreover, investors treat with caution projects where the founder is engaged in everything at once achieving nothing. The primary target for the founder is to make the team competitive. Leadership qualities and brain sharpness are ‘must-have’s for startups. Besides, the manager should strive not only to earn money but also to create a unique product or solution, prioritise correctly, and have his own opinion and pay attention to all, without exception, details.

Knowing the competitors by name is the task of any self-respecting, and even more so, startup-beginner. If you think that you are the best and don’t have competitors — look around, you are not alone in the business ocean. They can be direct or indirect, but they are being existing. If startups know with whom they will have to compete — this is a good sign, signalling about the work done to study and analyse the current market situation.

There is one more question each startup should provide the answer: «What problem does the final product solve?». Occasionally, it happens that the project seems to be attractive from all sides, but does not carry the value or resolution of the real problem. Most likely, it runs the risk of not being in demand.

Mark Two. “One’s own master or investor.”

To determine if the project is good, you have to «turn off» CEO or the team member for a while and to look at the product from the other side, through the eyes of a strict investor.

What would you focus on? For the person who wants to invest money in a startup, it is highly essential, first of all, the project will transform into a business. What does it mean? Startup should be based on a specific earnings’ mechanism, and the specialists working on the project should have at least a minimal level of financial literacy, which makes it possible to distinguish. For example, profit from revenue.

Market issue is also one critical question to raise up. Ideally, a startup must be able to work and scale both in the B2B and B2C segments. And, of course, the investor pays attention to the idea. Having an innovation or an original approach will only add points to the overall startup rating.

Mark Three. When ideal projects turn bad! How to escape from the viral problems when setting up a startup.

It is common for the situations when a startup that meets all parameters and is suitable for a prospective description unexpectedly gives up positions and worsens the performance. Well, let’s imagine the situation: “Once I had an idea and couldn’t realise it. What did I wrong and what actions I had to take to be up to speed?” How can you tell if the project has chosen the wrong course? Want to achieve success, then everything must be clear like A, B, C. Please, bear in mind there several signs of growing problems and be ready to avoid them.

A)»Survival mode» — the team’s expectations before project launching and its first results, often differ in times and for the worse. This state of affairs can not but grieve the startups. As a consequence, they lose motivation and switch on «survival mode» to help them get back into service.

B) «Bad investor’s influence» — the investor is interested in the development of the project; he certainly has his expectations about the terms and amounts of profits. Let’s imagine; these expectations have a significant impact on the startup team — this is a bad sign. It is important to put the investor in the picture about the events and changes so that the sudden emergence of a negative situation and the investor’s reaction to it do not become a big surprise for all parties;

C) «Underestimation of the pivot importance» — each company under the influence of the external environment, should be changed with the aim not to replenish the ranks of outsiders. Changes’ rejection is the way to nowhere.

D) «Alarming conversations near the office coffee machine» — in any team there is a person who doesn’t like any of the results. And he will certainly try to convey his thoughts to others. It is impossible to allow a split in the team, and it is necessary to redirect such discussions to a positive channel;

E) «No unified project vision» — the best source of misunderstanding between the customer and the team of developers. First of all, the most crucial problems and tasks should be allocated. All stages and steps in the project development must be prioritised and cleared up by both sides if you want to get into gear. The startup team should always be on the same wire as stakeholders.

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