Learning from Failure – Co Founder Disagreement Harms The Startup

Building a startup is a long and difficult task. In order to do so, the team must be aligned in the same direction and must have a common vision for the startup. If there are any conflicts within the team itself, growth is not possible. It is similar to pulling any object. If 2 people do not pull it in the same direction, it does not move at the rate if can if both pull in the same direction.

This is what happened to my first startup Bitequest. We were a team of 3 co-founders. I believed that an online restaurant discovery tool was the right way to build the company while the other 2 felt that building an offline restaurant call center was the right way to move. Due to internal conflict, we noticed that our startup had stagnated for a period of more than 8 months. Eventually, I exited the company.

Advice – Founders are the parents of a startup. Having a similar vision and understanding is a MUST to raise the startup in a uniform and optimum way.

Learning from Failure – Have a Robust Business Model

EverythingMe was a popular Israeli third-party app launcher which shut down in October, 2015. Despite having raised over $40 million till date and having over 15 million downloads, the founding team of the startup had to shut down it’s doors due to the lack of a robust business model.

The closing down of a startup like this clearly indicates how important a business model is. Having seen amazing traction and being on e of the most loved apps once could help the team convert these numbers into a successful and sustainable business.

Advice – Go for growth. Growth is what drives a startup. But also have a plan to monetize this growth once you have reached certain milestones.

First-Hand Learnings of an Entrepreneur

Entrepreneurship teaches one a lot. The learning is first hand and very diverse.

Learning is broadly from the following 2 things.

Experiences: Whatever you do teaches you something. If what you do goes right, your learning is good. If is goes wrong, your learning is great.

People: An entrepreneur should keep learning from people around him/her. The more skilled or experienced the people around you are, the better the learning is. From picking up core domain skills to learning how to build a team, there is a lot which can be learnt.

A good entrepreneur will keep learning from his/her surroundings and activities. We should always 

keep our eyes and ears open and should develop an interest in learning as much as we can. Besides these first hand learnings, reading is also a great way to learn from other’s experiences.

A 'How to Startup' Strategy

A quote which highlights the 2 strategies which a startup can follow in it's early days, also clearly mentioning which one I prefer over the other.

How big is the market???

This is one question entrepreneurs have to deal with.

At times, a lot of us wonder why. Even I did when I had attempted to start a 'Zomato for Spas' back in 2010. I used to see the number of spas growing exponentially in Delhi. Seeing so many spas, I thought that there should be a service which could tell users which spa is better, what massages do different spas offer, pricing of services in different spas and so on. I could see a gap and could also see physical growth of the Industry. However, one thing I did not take into account was the existing size of the market.

Think of it like this. If I have a vision of disrupting an Industry and becoming a leader in it (which has to be a vision when starting up especially in the technology space), I would eventually want to capture a 5-10% of the total market share. So if the Industry size is bigger, the business vision automatically becomes bigger. If the vision is bigger, the opportunity cost of doing something else (like doing a course or a job) becomes comparatively smaller and it makes more sense to start a company. If I target a small market, the potential vision for my company becomes smaller and comes close to the line which separates doing a startup vs getting employed elsewhere.

Also if you look at it from an Investor's perspective, they know that typically they will only make good money from 1-2 ventures out of 10. Hence, if they invest in smaller markets, the multiple of returns for them in that particular ventures becomes smaller. Taking into account the money they will lose in some businesses, the averaging of returns doesn't quite work out for them.

So to sum it up, identify a big market, find a gap and innovate in it. It's better to go after a good idea in a big market than to go after a great idea in a small market (unless you want to set up a small/local business).