Launch a Startup | Day 1

“If you aren’t embarrassed by the first version of your product, you shipped too late.”  ― Reid Hoffman 

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Launch a Startup | Day 1

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Starting a company is a staggering journey into the unknown. It doesn't need to be any harder than it needs to be. What's the difference between thrilling and terrifying? A little bit of guidance.

A Startup is often confused with the word Business. Business is anything that derives wages for it's founder. Example:

• a franchise
• a store in a mall

These are not a startup. A startup is bound with 3 dimensions:

1. very high impact
2. a lot of innovation
3. great uncertainty
    

Without these, you either have just a job or a business.

After clarifying this mindset, I move onto the tangible action. There's so much advice out there and it's almost impossible to cut through what's needed to get a new startup going.

So, while I'm working it out for myself, I will go ahead and share all the information and steps in this journey.

How to come up with a Great Business idea?

Ideas do matter. It's not everything, but it's fairly important. You need decide a route. Idea is your route. Where most people get it wrong is -

Idea is not "What app to build?"

Idea is "Why do I build something?"

Step1: Find a Problem

• nowadays, this is the most clear step.
• all great startup solves a problem
• so go out looking for one
• start from within
• notice your own life
• consider past few weeks -> note 3 problems or challenges you have encountered
• i would also go in the past
• look at your life and see if there was a major fork. something you wanted to do but couldn't due to 
• lack of resources
• lack of information
• lack of clarity
  
• these all are great problems to solve
  

Step2: Who is the main Customer?

• if the problem you selected was notified by someone else
• talk to them
• go out with them often
• try to spend some time with them
• talk about the problem
• how did they feel?
• what were they thinking?
• what do they expect?
   
• if the problem you selected was encountered by you
• find similar people
• look at your circle
• you might be an ideal customer
• where do you go often?
• find more people there

 

• More on this - 

The $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau | Summary

 

• Note:
• person buying or spending money doesn't necessarily is the decision maker
• example: parents buy breakfast cereals, but the decision is often made by children
• this is why breakfast cereal ads are not shown during news commercial but during cartoon tv shows.
   
• person you want to target might not be the first to see it
• someone might be filtering the ads or products before them
• parents, or official staff, etc
  

Step3: What is the core problem?

• the core problem is an umbrella term.
• it encapsulates
• problem
• something people lack
• an issue a lot of people are facing
• example
• food quality in trains
• long delays in govt. offices
   
• need
• personal fulfillment, 
• justice, 
• security, 
• identity, 
• freedom, 
• safety, 
• self-esteem, 
• participation
• belongingness
  

Know your customer to find out their core need. Depending upon which stage a person is, their core needs are different.

Maslows' Hierarchy of Needs

 

All humans go up this pyramid. Some are lucky to have their parents cover some of these steps for them. Starting from the bottom:

• Physiological
• breathing
• food, water
• sex
• sleep
• excretion
• once you have all these covered, you start caring about the next ladder
   
• Safety
• safety of body
• safety of employment
• safety of resources
• safety of morality
• safety of family
• safety of health
• once you have all these covered, you start caring about the next ladder
   
• Love/Belonging
• friendship
• family
• sexual intimacy
• once you have all these covered, you start caring about the next ladder
   
• Esteem
• self esteem
• confidence
• achievement
• respect for others
• respect by others
• once you have all these covered, you start caring about the next ladder
   
• Self actualization
• morality
• creativity
• spontaneity
• problem solving
• lack of prejudice
• acceptance of facts

Note: to understand this look at this example:

If your customers are worried about their job safety or bringing food and water to their family, you can't sell them anything that bring them confidence. They don't understand that need right now.

I had a colleague some years ago, who was quite behind on how much he earned at his job. All I always found him talk about was "how to make quick money", "increment", "change job to get a hike". 

No matter how much I talked to him about working on his skills and confidence, he never seem to understand that.

Step4: Challenge statement

• once you have identified the problem you want to solve
• reframe it into a challenge
• how can I solve this?
• how might I approach this problem?
• how have other people solved this?
• Is there any society, city or country that has solved this problem before?
   

Step5: New markets

• Problems people don't know they have yet
• boredom is one such problem
• YouTube and Facebook solves it excellently
• Higher risk
• more on this tomorrow - Day2
  

Keep growing.

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