Emerture

A startups success is heavily reliant on the experience and credibility of the Founding team. Many investors bet on startups on a combination of factors, but more often what matters is the ability to identify exceptional founders early and spot emerging trends before they become obvious. Repeat founders are considered to have an edge as they navigated the startup maze before. They have navigated the startup rollercoaster, learning to read subtle market signals. It is often not just about past success, but more about the journey and the lessons learned. Repeat founders are statistically more likely to succeed as : ✔They leverage past lessons to avoid common pitfalls ✔They build stronger, more resilient teams ✔They maintain focus on product-market fit ✔They prioritize customer feedback ✔They adapt quickly to market changes ✔They foster a culture of continuous learning ✔They stay in front of customers #startups #startupfounders #successrates

Structuring appropriate compensation packages is a critical challenge for businesses of all sizes, but gets more challenging when the stakes are higher with a startup business. A delicate balance must be struck between unrealistically low levels of compensation in order to attract the right talent and unrealistically high levels of compensation to put off potential investors and threaten the financial runway of the business. For early-stage businesses, sales people are the bridge between innovation and market acceptance. They are expected to drive revenue and adapt quickly to market shifts, negotiate the right deals that boost profitability, identify and seize market opportunities, tailoring solutions to customer needs and fostering trust and loyalty. Sales people are the face of your business, building trust with every interaction and their efforts directly impact revenue, making them key to financial success. Motivated and well performing sales teams can transform a company's trajectory and compensating them with a very well rewarded pay structure is not just fair—it's strategic. #startups #talent #compensation

Most startup fail due to the lack of thorough market evaluation and market need despite flawless execution. They underestimate the cost, time, and effort to bring a product/service to the market. What is the point of running a business with a product, but no customers. Most startups do not progress beyond an idea or product stage, and it means nothing unless people demonstrate their willingness to pull out their wallets and pay for your product. If a startup has even one paying customer, it may eventually mean that they are onto something. Your startup means nothing until people are willing to pay for what you have build and if they do consistently over a period of time, you do not need advisors/VCs/investors help, validation or funding. You just need to keep going. #startups #marketvalidation #sustainablegrowth

One in four businesses fail early on as they did not elect and invest in the right team. Choosing a co-founder is one of the most important decisions you’ll make as a founder. It holds more importance that the product you build, the market you target and the investors you are able to bring into the business. It is often considered a union of two/three individuals (maximum) where the chances of interpersonal conflict being one of the most common reason for startup failures. Besides possessing complimentary skill sets, one of the fundamental questions you need to ask yourself is if the person is equally obsessed and compelled with solving the problem you are looking to address as a business. Secondly, and more importantly, the person has a equal if not more degree of shared passion in building a solution to address the problem which is paramount in helping you to scale and also establish investor confidence.   Ultimately, It may well be wise to build a team of people that share the same vision, common goal, values, passion and enthusiasm, and with time it becomes evident who would be best placed to become your Co-Founder.   #earlystage #cofounders #sharedvision

The foundation for raising funds is to put together a slick investor deck presenting your dream in the most compelling fashion. The more the razzmatazz, the more you increase your chances of securing all the money you need. That is indeed far from the truth. A strong product and a polished deck will not help you alone to secure funding. Investors are more willing to engage if you are able to demonstrate early customer traction with real data, and how you will convert that traction into sustainable growth by focusing on nurturing customer relationships and refining your product-market fit. Presenting a GTM that would lead to a steady growth trajectory by: - Prioritizing customer feedback to refine your offering - Aligning your growth strategy with customer needs - Building a community around your brand Ultimately, trust outweighs the most polished pitch decks and is the currency of successful fundraising. #startups #fundraising #traction

Building something under the radar for a period of time i.e developing the service, gathering incontestable evidence, and to avoid attracting unwanted attention can allow businesses to be first to market, leaving competitors trailing behind. However, building a business in secret can also cripple the development of an early customer base and eliminate any opportunity for valuable feedback. It can also potentially increase your risk of failure while racking up months or years of expenses before knowing if the idea is going to be a flop.   Businesses that are building truly revolutionary technology or waiting to file or receive crucial patents and operate in highly competitive environments, can be tight-lipped about their plans preventing competitors from emulating their technology. Founders need to evaluate the pros and cons and if the need for being in secrecy outweighs the benefits of operating publicly. Remaining in stealth mode generally involves relying heavily on Founder reputations, previous successful exit history leading to several built connections with investors, and having lots of experience with the technology your startup relies on. Ultimately, you may have a gem of an idea, but Customer feedback + Building + Iterating should happen simultaneously to increase the chance of success. #startups #customerfeedback #marketvalidation 

Entrepreneurship is not for the faint hearted, fraught with challenges and uncertainties and having to constantly deal with he highest of highs on one day and the lowest of lows on another. It certainly is a hard slog particularly for 1st time founders who need to have the blend of industry/technical experience and the experience to be more proficient at decision making, risk assessments and of course the resilience to adapt to challenges all the time. Repeat Founders on the other hand clearly have distinct advantages from the 1st time ones as they have learnt from their past successes or failures, and hence find it easier to go to market be it with product, marketing, hiring, roll-outs simply because they have existing networks that have worked well for them, they have learnt from mistakes in their previous startups and they understand the game better. There are factors like luck and timing never in anyone's control, but the merits of betting on a repeat founder certainly outweighs that of a first timer. #startups #startupfounders #experience

Startups go through various stages of evolution and at some stage are not considered to be startups. Most from early stages aim to build a unique business model targeting a mammoth user base with the hope to capture a significant portion of the addressable market. The journey evolves from the experiment stage to quickly adapt, learn from failures and pivot in the right direction. The first indicator of moving from a startup to scale up is when businesses are able to demonstrate that a large number of potential users are willing to pay for their product. Startup status does not necessarily need to be determined by varying factors such as their revenues, number of employees and years since inception. As a business evolves from scale to clear profitability for at least a year with minimal revenue unpredictability, they are perhaps more likely to be moving out of the startup mode, and that is the most important indicator of a business leading to a path of sustainable growth. #startup #businessevolution #profitability 

The secret to staying on track and having a productive day is scheduling an achievable amount of tasks, not a crippling workload that leaves you feeling unaccomplished. Common culprits for taking up time can be social media, prolonged meetings with questionable outcomes and socializing. A check list of relevant, achievable and worthy tasks is obviously the ideal way to manage your time and day. However, it’s not just applying the best scheduling and task-management practices, but also re-evaluating the way you perceive the relationship between input and output. There’s no one measure for a productive day as we all tend to have high expectations of how much we need to do in order to call the day as productive, which can set us up for disappointment rather than success. The future of work may not be governed by technology, but by creating the right mix of education, knowledge and experience needed to develop skills and put them to work, ultimately creating a vastly more productive workplace and economy. #taskmanagement #newskill #productivity

Age and gender bias in investment decisions have been consistently hindering founders and limiting their ambitions. This continued bias resulting in lack of funding poses a big obstacle and threat to the prospective growth, expansion, and profitability of businesses led by diverse founders. These biases are not just frustrating and demotivating, but also ethically concerning and detrimental for investor portfolios. The gross neglect of vast groups of potential entrepreneurs based on age, gender, or race makes investors potentially miss out on groundbreaking ideas and innovations. The startup tech ecosystem should see more Founders who have a wealth of experience, have navigated turbulent economic scenarios and have a reasonably stable financial footing. Ultimately, knowledge and experience are the main predictors of work performance which has no colour and can only keep increasing with age. #startups #fundraising #genderbias