2.Mar.2011 at 2 | admin
Starting Shouldn’t be so Scary
I was reading an essay titled “Startups in 13 Sentences” from Paul Graham one of the founders of Y Combinator. I normally don’t place too much credence to articles about tech startups. Why…
1. I’m not a tech startup (been there done that – didnt make me happy)
2. Most tech startups focus on a build to sell model. I decided when i started this business that if it makes me happy i’d keep it and not sell it.
But Paul’s essay intrigued me becasue it’s relevant to anyone starting their own business. He says many of the same things I’ve said to friends who want to start their own business. I’ll let you read the entire thing yourself because there’s a lot of useful information in his essay.
What really struck a chord was his second point.
“Launch fast. The reason to launch fast is not so much that it’s critical to get your product to market early, but that you haven’t really started working on it till you’ve launched. Launching teaches you what you should have been building. Till you know that you’re wasting your time. So the main value of whatever you launch with is as a pretext for engaging users.”
Of course you should launch fast with a basic plan. But most people are too scared to start. You need to take that leap and once you do the market will define the oppotunities for you.
What I started off doing and what it has evolved into seem miles away but if i hadnt started i wouldnt have found the correct niche to focus on.
You’ll never see the market opportunities by just analyzing spreadsheets and developing business plans. Jump in and get your feet wet and suddenly the opportunities will present themselves.
You know – I am a big fan of bootstrapping because it forces you to readdress the value of each “step”. I am running a business that I was involved in at start-up and dealing with the ambitious decisions made when it was being set up to be huge, and sold. I wish the start-up guy had planned for small instead of huge. Financial decisions made with small expectations are much easier to deal with than the ones made when the plan was to be big on a timeline….
I’ve always believed in small incremental growth. It’s more sustainable for the business and manageable for expenses. Investors want to look not only for innovation and a good team but profits and low debt ratios. Only way to do that is to plan things out properly and not get caught up in the hype of internet growth cycles.