Similarities between Startups & Poker

Suprisingly, running a startup and playing poker has a lot of similarities.

- Both involve taking risks. If you feel you have a good chance and you do not capitalize on it, you 

cannot sustain in either.

- Both have uncertain results. No matter how strong you feel you are, you have uncertain outcomes in either.

Some poker strategies apply to startups very well. These include

- Calculating the odds: Like we calculate odds in Poker as to what are the chances of me winning and what is potential winnings from the hand, we do the same in startups as well. While starting up, we see how we are placed with the competition. Also we assess the target market to see how big it is and whether it makes sense to enter.

- Avoid getting emotional about your hand: Like in poker, we should not get emotional about our startup and should always look at it from an unbiased view. Also at times in Poker, we tend to keep putting in more money even if we start realizing that our hand may not be the winning. This may be due to the money we have already invested. This is a big mistake we commit in startups as well. We should always keep assessing where we stand and should fold/close down the moment we see ourselves falling behind.

- Keep Learning: In Poker, we keep learning and analyzing our competition. The same should be done in startups as well.