What is a startup
What comes
into your mind when someone says the word startup? Innovation, new trends,
disruptive technology, experimental business models, scrappy young entrepreneurs,
instability, revolutions, universal impact, name it. These words and so many
others keep crisscrossing one’s mind when one talks about startups and this can
be depicted in the different definitions of a startup below
Definitions of a startup
A startup is an experiment in search of a
business model – Solomon Kitumba C.E.O and founder YOZA.
A startup is a young company that is just
starting to develop, startups are usually small and initially financed and
operated by a handful of founders or one individual, these companies ofer a
product or service that is not currently being offered elsewhere in the market
or that the founder believe is being offered in an inferior manner –
‘investopedia’ .
A startup is a company working to solve a
problem where the solution is not obvious and success is not guaranteed – Neil
Blumenthal.
Culture and
mentality or innovating on existing ideas to solve critical pain points.
Startup is a mindset when people in a young company are still making the
explicit decision to forego stability in exchange for the promise of tremendous
growth and excitement of making immediate impact. The act or an instance of
setting an operation in motion.
Entrepreneurship
is a mental disorder.
At one point
an entrepreneur was forced to say that entrepreneurship is a mental disorder
where one believes they can change the way things are being done and they also
believe that the impact caused will be universal.
One of the
successful startups of all times is FACEBOOK, this thing started as a joke with
some few mentally disturbed individuals led by captain Mark Zurkerberg in a
college dorm room at Harvard University. At first Facebook was an experiment at
Harvard university, then the effect spread to other universities in the USA then
later it opened up to other universities in the USA then later it opened up to all people until it became universal
with more than one billion subscribers allover the world. These young
entrepreneurs managed to turn a dorm room idea into one of the most successful
companies on planet earth.
Difference
between a startup and a small business.
There is a
lot of controversy when one tries distinguishing a startup from a small
business, but the difference is very simple; a startup is designed to scale
very quickly(rapid growth), it is this focus on growth, unconstrained by geographical location which differentiates
startups from small business.
The
difference is all about growth and location, a startup’s business model is able
to go across all boarders rapidly without even the government noticing for
example there is no way a government can regulate Facebook apart from blocking
it from people and avoiding them from using it like the case in China.
Startup is a
revolution, a way of living new life.
A revolution
is a state of complete change in the economical, political and social affairs
of communities. Revolutions bring about new ways of doing things.
Startups are
all about solving universal problems. If you find a problem affecting a billion
people and solve it, even if you charge a few dollars or offer it for free and
then you make money indirectly while people use it, you are having a billion
dollar idea and that’s what they call a revolution.
Startups are
able to innovate ideas that move trends, ideas that change the economical
situation, and cause political systems to stumble and connect people with
different culture. If your idea can make a Chinese stop practicing kungfu, an
Indian stop worshiping Krishna and an African stop dancing for 30 minutes then
your startup is revolutionary.
Hard and
expensive sucks – simple is cheap
A prominent
businessman once said, “If you cannot explain your idea to a 5 year old child
in less than 5 minutes and they understand it, then you also don’t understand
it. Startups majorly develop business models that can easily be understood
people of all ages and that’s how they manage to revolutionize system.
The iPhone
is one of the mobile handsets that everyone on earth craves for but the reason
is because it looks so good and simple that even your grandmother can use it
with less difficulty this makes it revolutionary and user friendly.
How to turn
a startup into a successful business.
There are
five major factors that affect the success of a startup and they include; The
idea, structure/system, finance, people and lastly effective communication. If
you can juggle around these factors altogether, you have 90% guarantee that
your startup will turn into a successful business. The idea should be
revolutionary, the structure/system should be balanced, the finances should be
well managed, people(entrepreneurs/founders, investors, employees, advisers)
should be organised appropriately and lastly communication should be effective(
marketing, selling, public speeches, internet of things).
All these
five major factors constitute our discussion in the next series of: How to turn
a startup into a successful business
Join the
discussion as we change ourselves for the better.
Ahabwe Collins is ,
Sales executive at SUNSINE technologies
Entrepreneur and
business enthusiast.
Find more at my personal blog
www.ahabwecollins.blogspot.com
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