Vision, Mission & Market Sizing: Often Overlooked Yet Critical (Part 2 of 3)

I often see start-up vision statements that look like status reports. In Part 1 of this series, I talked about what a vision statement should be. I have covered the importance for founders articulating their vision, a checklist for a great vision statement and why vision needs to be intertwined to founder values. 

Vision is supposed to be grand and open ended. But vision alone is incomplete. You need something more to crisply articulate a path to achieve the vision. That’s what I call a mission statement.  You might call it a goal statement or strategy statement; that’s perfectly fine. The key is once you make a grand opening, you need to back it up with a more realizable short-to-medium plan outlining how you are going to realize your vision. 

Why is a mission statement important?

A mission statement talks about the present. Its purpose is to guide and inform stakeholders about core activities. It explains what the start-up currently does, for who, how, and why (linking it back to the vision). A well-drafted mission statement allows external stakeholders, particularly investors, to build more conviction in your start-up idea.

Think about meeting a billionaire investor in an elevator and wanting to pitch your idea. A well-drafted vision and mission statement can build a good hook, two sentences powerful enough to get a follow-on meeting. 

Drafting a good mission statement

A good mission statement reflects a founders’ understanding of the problem. It is an outcome of a robust customer discovery process. The founder has reasonable clarity on the following:

• Who the target customer is in the near term?
• The size of the customer segment and adjacent segments to grow the market.
• Whether the customer will pay for the start-up’s solution and why will they choose the start-up over other options?
• How is the start-up’s solution bench-marked against peers?

Once a founder has clarity on the above, the founder should they translate that clarity into a well-articulated strategy, which becomes a powerful mission statement.

Example of good Vision and mission statements

Let us take a hypothetical example of a Wealth Tech start-up; where the founders aspire to bring high quality personal finance advice to the masses.

Vision: Democratize wealth management by providing accessible, personalized financial advice to all to secure their financial future

This vision is aspirational, broadly defined, keeps customers in mind and has the ability to inspire others to join your start-up journey.

Mission: To empower middle-income families in the [Location] with affordable and personalized financial planning tools, targeting a [•] billion serviceable market and aiming to secure a [•] % market share within [•] years

This mission statement clearly talks about who the target customer is, where they are located, how big the market segment is, and what the start-up aims to achieve and by when.

Another example of a sustainability startup.

Vision: To revolutionize agriculture with technology to ensure food security for future generations.

Mission: To develop precision farming tools that help small farmers in [Location] increase crop yields by 30% within 3 years, using sustainable practices.

Common pitfalls to avoid

When drafting vision and mission statements, founders often fall into several common traps:

• Being too vague or broad: Your vision should not only inspire but also provide clear direction. Avoid jargon or overly technical language that can alienate stakeholders.
• Focusing too much on the product: While your product is important, your vision and mission should emphasize the impact and value you bring to customers.
• Neglecting the competitive landscape: Ensure your mission statement acknowledges how your start-up stands out from competitors.

Wrapping Up

So, going back to that elevator conversation with the billionaire, the above vision and mission – just two sentences – give a lot of clarity. The follow-up question would be more clarity on how will you achieve this mission (your solution) and why you, the founder, are best placed to achieve this vision. In total, a 5-minute elevator pitch shouldn't need more than 5 sentences from you. But those five sentences should summarize months or years of understanding into a capsule.

We spend a reasonable amount of time with our startup founders in our Accelerators at WISE Tech | SPJIMR , helping them draft compelling vision and mission statements. They then get to practice these in the mock pitch opportunities available during our 4-month accelerator program.

Stay tuned for Part 3

In the next part of this series, I would delve into TAM / SAM / SOM and how to link it to vision and mission