Return to site

How to start a start-up

Naimul Kader

Start-ups are very different from regular companies. For a profitable start-up, one would need to have the centre of attention on four areas-- a great idea, a great product, an excellent team and a wonderful execution. One may fail as there are many uncontrollable variables. One of the exciting matters about start-ups is that they give a level playing field for almost everyone.

If anyone is looking forward to becoming wealthy, there are less difficult approaches to get wealthy. Anyone who has successfully developed his or her company from a start-up continually says that h/she did not imagine how difficult and painful it was once going to be. In getting start-ups to fly, excellent execution is at least 10 times more important and one hundred times harder than a proper idea. Also, a great execution towards a terrible idea will get one nowhere.

When one is evaluating an idea, one needs to think about the market size, the entry and expansion method for the company, the defense strategies and not just the product. Another way of looking at this is that good organisations are usually mission oriented. Hence, if one's idea has a mission then it even works better for the market.

Many founders, in particular students, trust that their start-ups are solely going to take two or three years and then after that they will work on what they are passionate about.

This mindset nearly never works. Good start-ups commonly take more than that. Another benefit of mission oriented groups is that people and many stakeholders will be more willing to help one out. It is hard to overstate how necessary it is to be mission driven. Derivative companies, companies that copy a current idea, with very few new insights do not excite humans and they do no longer compel the teams to work hard enough, to be successful.

Now another common query is how to get great start up ideas? The hardest phase about coming up with super ideas is that the high-quality ideas often look terrible at the beginning. One would want an idea that turns into a monopoly. To achieve that one may first discover a small or niche market, in which one can get a monopoly and then quickly expand.

The common mistake among founders, specifically amongst the first-time founders is that they think that the first model of their product, the first version of their idea, should be the best one. This thought process might not work out well. One should choose something that is a precise idea and one can quickly grab the niche market with the most preferred features of one's product or service. Founders generally do not recognise that one cannot create a market that does not favour to exist. One can change the whole thing in a start-up, however, the market will act by itself. The cofounders and leaders of the start-ups need to be practical and objective about their aims in early stage.

Finally, it is important to continuously develop and improve product. Until one builds a notable product, nearly nothing else matters. When profitable start-up founders tell the story of their early days, it is usually sitting in the front of the computer working on their product, or speaking to their customers. It is a 24/7 job.

So, the recommendation is discovering a small team of customers and make them actually love the product or service. And entrepreneurs should try to increase the word of mouth of their great product/service. If they make things people love, then people themselves will inform their friends about it. Over the long run, fantastic products win. Let us not be afraid of our competitors. Very few start-ups die from competition. Most die because they themselves fail to make something users love.