Startups don’t fail because they lack a product; they fail because they lack customers and a profitable business model. – STEVE BLANK – PROFESSOR & INVESTOR
What to know about Startups
▪ A startup is a newly established business or company that is typically characterized by its innovative and entrepreneurial nature.
▪ It is often founded by one or more individuals who aim to develop and deliver a unique product, service, or technology to the market.
▪ Startups usually operate in fast-paced and dynamic environments, seeking to disrupt existing industries or create entirely new ones.
Characteristics of Startups
- Innovation
- Scalability
- Limited resources
- Risks and Uncertainty
- Entrepreneural Culture
- Disruption and Market Impact
Key Stages in the Life of a Startup
- Ideation: Find the problem and a solution
- MVP: a product used to satisfy customer needs and demands prior to developing an advanced featured product
- Product Market Fit: testing, receiving feedback, improving your product and testing again
- Scaling: growing revenue exponentially without spending a lot on acquiring more resources
- Sustainability
Growing vs Scaling – Do they mean the same thing?
What to know
- Building a successful company isn’t just about growth – it’s about scale.
- Growth means adding resources at the same rate that you’re adding revenue
- Scale is about adding revenue at a rapid rate while adding resources at an incremental rate
- Scaling a business means setting the stage to enable and support growth in your company.
- It means having the ability to grow without being hampered.
- It requires planning, some funding and the right systems, staff, processes, technology and partners.
A scale-up is not a start-up
99.6% of ventures stall out or die. To grow from start-up team of about 15 employees towards a scale-up company of more than 100 employees, a company needs to transform itself:
● From team to company
● From founder to CEO
● From first to recurring revenues
● From projects to processes
● From first product to innovation pipeline
Growth Strategies
Market Penetration: Sell more to existing customers or target new segments with existing products
Market Development: Sell existing product into new market or enter new markets abroad
Product Development: Create a new product
Diversification: Go into an entirely new business/BU
Tactics for Scaling
- Engage in the next Round of funding
- Invest in technology
- Deploy a new marketing strategy or expand marketing channels
- Launch an associated product and service
- Hire experts and expand your team
- Get external help: Mentors, Coaches, Consultants, others
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