Startup execution
For the past several years, I have attended many technology startup conferences where entrepreneurs shared their ideas. I found that many entrepreneurs love to talk about their idea or their heroes, but few would talk about their execution or what they have learned by doing a startup. I always teach my students: “Idea is good but success in a startup business is about how you implement it and manage your company to get things done. It is easy to talk, it is easy to come up with ideas, but the startup is about making money and disrupt the market.”
Many entrepreneurs love to talk about their heroes like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk but most of them are “Myths” or “Make-Up” stories rather than actuals. I often teach students: “These people did not start their company by themselves but had many who helped them. These “unknown” people made things happen. People like Bill Gates or Steve Jobs were successful because they had many talented people work for them. The challenge of every startup is to find people with the right skills to get things done. The idea alone does not make a startup success, but people do. One of the reasons startups fails because founders do not have the skill to manage people. Entrepreneurs should know what they DO NOT know and are willing to learn, to develop new skills, even from mistakes. Steve Jobs admitted that he did not know about managing a company, so he hired others to help, but without business knowledge, he let them control the company then fired him to take over the company. He said: “I have to swallow a bitter pill, but I also learn from it. This lesson is worth every penny.” The problem today is many entrepreneurs do not know much but PRETEND to know everything, they often have arrogant “know all” attitude, and that is why many failed.”
Successful entrepreneurs know how to hire smart and experienced people to convert the idea to a business product. They know how to set business goals and metrics to track their progress. They know how to communicate their vision to others and implement it into daily activities. They learn to listen to customers, monitor the market and willing to change idea when necessary. A startup business needs customers so entrepreneur must know how to listen well and deliver solutions to customers and keep them satisfy. Once startup begins to have customers, it is a business, and the rule of business is to be profitable so entrepreneurs must be very careful about managing their money. The common mistake many entrepreneurs made is to try to impress others with a big title like “Chief Executive Officer” or “President” and spend money like they are rich. I always advise my students: “You just start a small company and looking for customers to make money so do not act like you are somebody. The best title you can call yourself is “Founder” of a startup. You will not impress investors or customers with big titles of traditional business because it does not make sense at that time. As a founder, you are the role model for your team. Team members follow the example of the people they look up to. If you act like somebody, they will follow with all types of title and everybody is getting into an arrogant attitude and that is not good for business.”
The best entrepreneurs work hard to overcome obstacles and always know their limit. They make progress step by step and slowly growing until they reach their goals. They are actively seeking feedbacks from customers to improve their products. They are willing to learn and change based on new input and be flexible to adjust to changes in the market. The startup is a risky business, but the reward could be great, if you are investing your time and effort and willing to learn from mistakes.
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
