The startup entrepreneurship landscape in the 21st century is phenomenal. Startup entrepreneurs are working on brilliant ideas in their quest to be the next unicorn. You need not be surprised if we say that the amount of capital invested in startups has drastically increased over the years. More than $171 billion has been invested since 2017, which marks a growth of 231% since 2010.
It is simple to deduce that it is growth and investment that has made the sector so appealing. But behind all that appeal, is the rigour of hard-working founders who sold their cycles, leave aside Ferraris. What we see eventually is the glamour of an enterprise that has had a tough becoming. So, what are those factors that contribute to the success or failure of a startup? In this article, we discuss four major tenets for aspiring entrepreneurs.
4 Pillars of Scalable Startup Entrepreneurship
Startup Incubation
The incubation is an essential phase. There are way too many incredible ideas in the market, ready to compete and shine. But these ideas, despite their inherent brilliance, fail because of inadequate evaluation. Please note it is not necessary to have a unique idea. You are set to attract investment to scale your dream as long as your business fulfils a need in the market. In the case of the later, your focus should be on positioning your product in the market, shadowing the position of your existing competitors.
Get Top MBA Certifications from the World’s top Universities. Earn Masters, Executive PGP, or Advanced Certificate Programs to fast-track your career.
A great way to start on the incubation phase would be to join local startup incubation centres. Through peer and mentor consultation, you will have a better understanding of your proposed product is what your business should take up. An excellent execution strategy is the only way out. Check out
Team Building
In the 21st century, when you set out to build your empire, people relationship is a significant success factor. Millenials do not work for bosses; they work for businesses. If you come across as an arrogant and exacting person, you’ll lose the opportunity to work with the best people. Without them, you can never build a great team that can materialize your business idea.
Read: Online Education Programs to Transform Your Life
You must understand the psychology with which young people operate, give them responsibilities that commensurate their talent and freedom that gives them the power to face the future head-on. As a technology firm, your hiring influences your business success.
Form an advisory board of experienced businessmen and enthusiastic young people who see value in your mission and are ready to give their best for your success. Be mindful of the money aspect; although necessary, it is the last motivation for any doer.
Pursuit Of Perfection
Of course, a sincere entrepreneur would always be obsessive about the quality of their product. That is the way to go about striving for excellence in cutting out a differentiation. But here’s a challenge; many entrepreneurs with the potential to do great business get stuck at the product perfection phase before entering the market. For example, you may be determined to launch an AI-based app development company. The idea is distinct enough as per your incubation evaluation.
Read: Career Options After Engineering
However, you do not know how much the market is going to accept it until you start and operationalize your product. You will have no fund for marketing your product if you exhaust your capital only in perfecting the product. So, start without obsessing on perfection too much and focus on improving your product as per market response.
Agility to Adapt
The premise we built above, further branches out to the critical aspect of agility to adapt. One thing is not to overspend on perfecting your product before entering the market. The other is to be ready to amend your original product vision, depending on the market response.
There is absolutely nothing wrong or defeating about a strategic amendment to the original product archetype because your passion must fulfil a requirement to solicit funders. You are set on an epic journey if you notice the market steadily warming up to the new solution your product/service offers. Stay put and keep improving. But if the response is cold, you know due market diligence can help you figure the priority quadrant of your product/service.
Startup Entrepreneurship & Seed-Funding
You may think that the above discussed four simple tips to scale your startup to success aren’t that simple. And if that is so, you are not entirely wrong. The tips discussed may appear like simple chunks of text, but the scope of implementation is enormous. But you are an entrepreneur.
You have the vision to give the best to yourself and the community at large. So, go for them and ensure you have your game plane attuned to those crucial strategies. By the way, it is Ronnie Screwvala at the helm of upGrad’s startup entrepreneurship which is disrupting the space of online education.
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.
