Blog_Banner_Asset
    Homebreadcumb forward arrow iconBlogbreadcumb forward arrow iconEntrepreneurshipbreadcumb forward arrow iconLessons in Starting Up

Lessons in Starting Up

Last updated:
26th Dec, 2015
Views
Read Time
3 Mins
share image icon
In this article
Chevron in toc
View All
Lessons in Starting Up

Entrepreneurship is counterintuitive. Some of the most celebrated business school learnings may not hold water when it comes to starting up. I have tried to share some of my learnings which I have gained through experience which I feel might be of value to many aspiring entrepreneurs out there.
You never start up to get funded!
I think in today’s day and age, funding is over-rated. Most of the entrepreneurs start with asking the question – ‘will I get funded?’ and post a round of funding, they feel that they have achieved their goal. But little do they realise that this is just a means to an end. I think celebrating funding is like congratulating an athlete for buying new running shoes before the race has started. An entrepreneur generally starts their journey to solve a pain point that they are really passionate about eradicating. So, they must continue to focus on their primary objective and let funding simply nudge them further on their journey ahead.
Know your customer well
If you have noticed, I have written ‘customer’ and not ‘customers’. This is very crucial when you are starting up to have the ‘one customer’ in your mind and know them really well. By really well, I mean – you should know their name, where they live or work, what they do every day etc. Live and breathe their life.

Learn Online MBA Courses from the World’s top Universities. Earn Masters, Executive PGP, or Advanced Certificate Programs to fast-track your career.

Your product/solution may solve the pain point of various customer segments. But it is important for you to have the razor sharp focus on one customer. This has multiple benefits – from designing your product really well to chalking out an impeccable marketing campaign to communicate to your very customer. In the initial stages of a start-up, there is always this urge to expand the definition of your customer segment so that you can reach out to a much larger customer base. But it requires a lot of discipline to stay focused. When we designed the program to target working professionals, we got a lot of interest from colleges and corporates to offer the same program to students and employees. But we stuck to catering to the working professionals – with a single agenda to wow them.
Go all out to wow your first set of customers
When you are starting up, you are low on resources with a limited marketing budget. Your best source of getting a good word out for your venture and the product is your ‘satisfied customers’. Therefore in early days, it is important for entrepreneurs to focus on ensuring that your customers are happy using your product and are willing to recommend the same to their peers. In the process of doing this, you will end up doing things that may be difficult to scale up. However, your focus should be on getting and giving the best experience to your consumer. Try to get continuous feedback from those who have tried and used your products and keep improvising accordingly.
At the end of the day, a start-up is a continuous learning process. These are just a few lessons out of the countless ones I come across on a daily basis. So if you are an aspiring entrepreneur, all I would say is don’t run after funding, let it run after you; believe in your product and listen to your customers even when they are just whispering and everything else will fall into place.

If you want to learn more about marketing and entrepreneurship, Liverpool Business School & upGrad offers Master of Business Administration (MBA) Liverpool Business School which helps you to transform your career. The program provides 1-on-1 mentorship from industry leaders, 1-week immersion program at University campus, dual credentials (MBA from LBS & PGPM from IMT), network with peers at offline basecamps and more.

Profile

Mayank Kumar

Blog Author
Mayank Kumar is Co-Founder and CEO, UpGrad.
Get Free Consultation

Select Coursecaret down icon
Selectcaret down icon
By clicking 'Submit' you Agree to  
UpGrad's Terms & Conditions

Explore Free Courses

Suggested Blogs

5 Simple Ways To Think Like An Entrepreneur: How To Make it Happen
5867
How to think like an entrepreneur? The ‘Entrepreneurial world’ could be a mind-boggling place for a first-time business owner. With the overwhelming v
Read More

by Anirudh Challa

26 Jun 2023

Are ESOPs a Good Option to attract the Best Talent for Startups?
5761
Employee Stock Option Plans (ESOPs) are part of policies to attract, motivate and retain employees by organizations. Thanks to the startup ecosystem,
Read More

by Himanshu Puri

25 Mar 2023

The Future of Jobs – Automation Mimicking Human Intelligence
899121
This is an excerpt from the book ‘The Fuzzy and the Techie – Why the Liberal Arts Will Rule the Digital World’ by Scott Hartley. Scott Hartley f
Read More

by Kechit Goyal

19 Mar 2023

How to Become an Entrepreneur :Steps, Tips and Best Degree
5603
It’s mostly a dream for everyone to become the master of his own business. And why not? The time for following the bosses’ orders has now shown a tren
Read More

by Rohit Sharma

07 Mar 2023

Top 7 Success Tips for First Time Entrepreneurs
5252
Renowned Silicon Valley investor and serial entrepreneur Peter Thiel wrote in his best-selling book, “Going from 0 to 1 is the hardest thing in the wo
Read More

by Dilip Guru

24 Feb 2021

The Emerging Technologies to Watch for 2018 – 2024
6311
A few years back, a research was conducted by Forrester about the progressive behaviour and pattern of the B2B customers. The study revealed that 74%
Read More

by Anshuman Agrahari

08 Jan 2021

Top 10 Essential Tools For Startup Business in India 2024
6184
  In a start-up, absolutely nothing happens till you make it happen. – Marc Andreessen If you are a start-up or nursing the idea of start
Read More

by Anirudh Challa

08 Jan 2021

Startup and Mid-tier business: Can they grow in 2024?
5219
The world is evolving at a rapid rate as new technologies disrupt traditional business practices. Almost every industry has been transformed by new te
Read More

by Helen Cartwright

08 Jan 2021

4 Pillars of Scalable Startup Entrepreneurship & Seed-Funding!
5522
The startup entrepreneurship landscape in the 21st century is phenomenal. Startup entrepreneurs are working on brilliant ideas in their quest to be th
Read More

by Dilip Guru

03 Jan 2020

Schedule 1:1 free counsellingTalk to Career Expert
icon
footer sticky close icon