Startups and You

There is always a tussle between you and your desire to startup something of your own. However, I guess it will never be an easy task and would require a great deal of thinking and introspection. Here are some of the points that I had captured after listening to the most successful Indian entrepreneurs of our times:

1. Introspect if you are ready for a startup? Remember it is just not about thinking of a cool or a whacky idea. We all get ideas, what really matters is if you have the desire, passion, patience and a mindset to go through the pains of a startup. Think if you are prepared to make sacrifices at both personal and professional level. Be honest to yourself!!

2. Evaluate your idea by going to Market first. Do not ever start by building a product. Go meet the customers, understand their problems see if are idea can solve their problems or add value to the existing solutions.

3. Never think that you are the only person who has got this whacky idea. At any given point in time there are a number of people who may be building same product or service to solve the same problem. Who will succeed will depend on who has understood the problem correctly and can deliver it successfully.

4. Be imaginative. You can only win customers by being more and more imaginative about the way you can solve their problems.

5. A startup can succeed only if it has fours important things:
- great idea with a solid business plan and a scalable revenue model
- a passionate leader who is a great visionary, communicator and team player
- great passionate generalist team willing to make real sacrifices and an attitude to do any thing to make it succeed
- a disciplined, consistent way of executing the plan

6. The biggest challenge for a startup is to market its product. Build your network or get a person with a network as your CEO. The objective is to succeed so keep your ego aside !

7. If you are in a startup create same rules for personal and professional life. You cannot have two sets of rules to follow when at work and when at home.

8. Do not be scared of failures, if you do not fail, you will not learn to succeed. See failures as a stepping stone to success. Do not penalize someone in your company for failing... Fix the problem and move on rather than crucifying someone. You can always come back and coach him.

9. Leverage the ecosystem around you and leverage the benefit of co-existence. Find partners in your business and expand your revenue streams... It is not an era of working in isolation. It is an era of collaboration and shared businesses!

10. Lastly, find out forums like StartUp City where you can build a network where you can find a mentor, guide, partner, friend who can help you succeed in your venture!

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Some useful references:
1. Organizer: http://www.thesmarttechie.com/
2. Sun StartUp Essentials for low cost hardware and free engineering support : http://www.sun.com/emrkt/startupessentials/index.jsp
3. Amazon Web services with hosting services at no cost : http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html?node=343536
4. Microsoft Startup zone (case studies to resources):
http://www.microsoftstartupzone.com/
5. National Entrepreneurial Network : www.nen.org