What are Startup Mistakes?
To begin with, the idea and the product developed therefrom, per se, need to be understood. If you could answer the question, What is an ideal idea? we might be well on our way to resolving one of the most fundamental flaws of an not successful startup. Any idea whether de novo, original one or a tried and tested the one which is executed in a unique way, has the potential to morph into a lucrative business. Ideas which serve the intention of the masses, rather than a niche clientele ticket better. Although the niche market too has many takers now.
The more people it suits, the better. There is evidence that ideas which have intelligent capital and which use R&D have a greater chance of doing well into healthy businesses, compared to people who don’t. Small ideas that cannot be scaled to the desired extent tend to die a natural death. Ideas, ideally, need to be user- defined and user-ratified, ensuring that the startup is making a product that the users want, and which handles their problem. It’s also desirable that the idea be flexible, able to line-up itself to the demands of the market/users; that being the key to success. On the bright side changing ideas constantly also doesn’t augur well for the company. Further, it pays, if there is a long term of vision of MOTOROLA ROI coming to least ten times that of the investment.
Startups depend heavily on the team that the startup comprises of i. e. founders and co-founders, and later as the startup weighing machines, the employees Startup Directory. What matters is the confidence, passion and high degree of motivation from the CEO right through the ranks, accompanied by the quality of expertise the right person for the right job. The team needs constant motivation to keep going despite failures and the correct form of rewards in terms of fairness. An absence of one of the above factors, and sometimes an absence of networking and involvement of a mentor to support it, can prove to be costly. A single founder invariably lacks this support and perhaps doomed to crash very early on. Disharmony among founders and co-founders is usually the order of the day and might spell disaster if one of the key people leave the startup.
The mistake here would be a lack of communication and not taking the effort to look into sociable issues.
There is nothing like competition as an bonus to perform or over the current standards but competition can kill if the startup cannot withstand it. If the startup does not keep track of competitors very early on and remain flexible to change ideas and products to stay on in the market, it will closed shop and head for an early exit.
Couple this with half-hearted efforts, and an unwillingness to take the plunge and work wholeheartedly towards achieving what you have attempted to achieve; that’s what invariably spells the death-knell for a startup.
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