Wise Answers for Startups

Compiled by Peter/CXO Wiz4biz 1/14 Legend: D = Dumb, W = Wise

Checking your Entrepreneur Quotient/Startup Savvy !!!

D1. Patents make your Product defensible. False
W1. Truth. You won’t have the time or money to sue anyone with a pocket deep enough to be worth suing. Patents make the small players think twice about stealing your idea.

D2. The foundation of success is an outstanding Product/ Service. No
W2. You can have the greatest Product or Service in the world, but if nobody needs it, you’ll just dry up & shrivel away. Show it to your potential Customers, to see if they want it. Have them try it for awhile and give you feedback. Choose their good ideas to make it better.

D3. A good Product/ Service is more important than Production or Marketing. No
W3. How you produce & market it. You have produce a quality Product at reasonable cost, so you have enough margin in it, to make a good profit – to survive & grow. You have to find out who needs your product and how to let them know about it.

D4. Hire the most experienced Candidate. Not necessarily.
W4. You should give more weight to the person with “passion” – who will be devoted your Product & Vision.

D5. Having a Business Plan is the most important factor.
Not at the beginning. There are too many unknowns.
W5. Start to define your Startup with a 1 page Briefing to give an “overview” of your Startup. Next, do an Executive Summary to go into most of key factors. You should send in the Briefing to Angels & VCs. Since they’re all busy, don’t you think they’ll read that instead of a multi-page Biz Plan. Use the plan internally to set up your Biz Model. Expect to change it as your Startup changes & grows. Review it periodically & update it. [Peter of Wiz4biz can help you with these]

D6. My Business Model has to be quite unusual to handle my unique Product.
Not necessarily.

[ Answer to Business Model, Metrics to measure our results, Boot-Strapping, Tech Giants, Pilot Projects, Pitching, Hiring in Premium Content ]