15 Startup Missed-Conceptions
From Rock the Post Blog 18 Feb 14 enhanced by Peter/CXO Wiz4biz
Entrepreneurship is the new “hot” Career path, and the barriers to launching a company are lower than ever. What used to cost thousands of dollars in servers for tech startups now has been reduced to < $5,000. Additionally, legislation is changing up the entire landscape of Fund-Raising – from the way you are able to advertise your projected revenues on venues such as Twitter or LinkedIn to (soon) - being able to receive outside capital from investors that don’t qualify as accredited (ie, over $1 million in Assets) only 1% of the US qualified]. Missed-Conceptions. There is no doubt that the entrepreneurial life is glorified, and in our time of equity Crowd-Funding for startups at RockThePost, we’ve seen many missed-conceptions about startup life that aspiring entrepreneurs hold to be true. Here are the 15 Startup most Missed Conceptions.
1. Starting up a Company is going to make you $ Rich $.
With the popularity of Apple, Facebook, Google, etc., there are many stories of entrepreneurial success. It is a common fantasy for a company starting out in a dorm room or a garage to achieve “viral” growth, go public / have an big exit, and create great wealth for the founding team. However, the most successful startups don’t begin with the end goal of getting rich. These companies are out to solve a problem, advance society, and create value – “Better, Faster, Cheaper”. The best entrepreneurs are the ones that create something from the ground-up, out of their frustration towards certain situations they had to deal with in the past. They are out there to resolve problems, and out of that, they end up creating the next “cool” product or service. If you begin a company just to get rich, chances are you won’t.
2. There’s a Perfect Time to begin your Startup.
There is a lot of planning that needs to go into starting a company, but for many wishful entrepreneurs, this planning is too much for them. They think they need to quit their day job, save up a significant amount of money, and have the perfect idea before taking the entrepreneurial plunge. In reality, there is no “perfect time” to begin a company, and all it takes is the will & discipline to get something out there, get feedback & change it – as you see fit. The quicker the better, as Eric Ries’ Lean Startup method introduces. All you need is a minimum viable product to test the market. First, you will build the product with assumptions, and when you launch you will be able to further shape up the product with the reality of actual customer using is and providing you feedback.
[ 3. A Founding Team is easy to build. 4. Your Founding Team will be around forever. 5. You can’t Pursue your Product, because it already exists. 6. Competition can’t Threaten because you will have a big Head Start. 7. Your Product needs to be Perfect before launching – in Premium Content ]