TalentOnCampus

17 yıl öncediscuss

the point made here is valid to an extend but tangent to the basic objective - A startup joins a seed fund incubator program to get to the next level & not get funded by the sponsoring VC. Thereafter if the venture displays potential it cant be ignored for long. Good ventures should not get too concerned about VC firms giving them a pass remember Canaan Partners gave Google the pass

TalentOnCampus

17 yıl öncediscuss

If there was one more relevant but vital surprise to add it would be > underestimated the role of marketing

A lot of startup founders think its about building a superb product , its not . Its about how you market it and get users on board

TalentOnCampus

17 yıl öncediscuss

this depends on the dynamics of the startups , equally is good but not always appropriate. The equity split should always be proportional to a. quantum of pain or skin in the game [investment & time] & b. vested over 3-4 years

Equal is good when all founders are on it full time and have invested an equal amount of money but this is usually not the case

TalentOnCampus

17 yıl öncediscuss

this question comes up a lot at forums , discussions. You either have to be lucky or not lucky but mathematically one can build ones luck as the law of probability says you can not be lucky only so many number of times , the more failed try's the closer you are. Its not a a motivational speech by a management guru its maths . If u flip a coin a 1000 times you would get an equal number , 500 heads and tails

TalentOnCampus

17 yıl öncediscuss

Successful entrepreneurship is a lot about perseverance & passion is the only fuel for perseverance Ray Kroc of McDonalds a classic example of perseverance backed by passion

No passion equals low perseverance - dima chances of making it

TalentOnCampus

17 yıl öncediscuss

Mostly a case scenario when development is completely outsourced , its suggested that the tech vendor drafts a technology plan inclusive of Design & Architecture . Get the technology plan vetted by experts , plenty of tech guys would be willing to help for free. A clever way to go about it is , post a specific tech challenge / query on LinkedIn , of those answering and willing to help request if they would vet ur technology plan & get this done by 3-4 good tech Samaritans Don’t go overboard – prepare for success not for failure , spending too much time on analyzing tech plans is preparing for failure. Focus on building the Biz & success. Once u have costumer traction all tech challenges can be solved . Heard of Twitter in the early days ?

TalentOnCampus

17 yıl öncediscuss

The only way tech founders can appreciate the biz guy is by personally engaging in biz development

Going by trends & data I would say every startup founder / founding team must have basic business & sales acumen to succeed. Even if u have a great business guy , he / she would need a team to compliment the efforts and that would be the founders in the initial days. Lets take the most obvious examples to back up this theory Bill Gates – a technology god but also a very shrewd business guy , he actually bought the OS Larry Page & Sergey Brin – beating Yahoo out of AOL by diverting a Spain bound flight and meeting with AOL’s Rowley in London eventually clinching the deal – this was impossible if not for the biz acumen of Page & Brin Google & Microsoft clearly indicate founders need to be well rounded in Business & technology both Its disastrous for a startup founder to say hey I am the tech guy , for success u gotta be good at Biz Development. The good news is it’s a skill that can be acquired by meeting prospects

TalentOnCampus

17 yıl öncediscuss

You gotta cook the beef & acquire the client so If ur in the restaurant biz it’s time flipping burgers and if ur in the product startup space it’s time on the phone [works way better than email] Everybody talks about innovative products. Innovative sales & marketing is ignored We have made inroads into accounts like Dell, Yahoo, Walmart & Google and it all started with tracking big guns at these organizations attending conferences, getting their phone numbers from conference organizers, calling up & requesting a meeting at venue – also to mention an innovative pitch. Definitely could not have been done by a sales ace to start with but definitely something we can teach a sales guy to replicate Bottom line – if the founding team does it themselves its easy to build a scalable process

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