Many of you may know that in addition to my brand strategy consulting I am a new venture coach. I have been coaching pre-seed to series A startups for over three years now, during which I have coached two dozen companies with a very high success rate. Many of these companies have reached the commercialization stage in which they have achieved rapidly growing profitable sales. Here are some of my thoughts from working with startups.
Entrepreneurship adds value to the world in these ways:
• Introduces new products and services
• Creates jobs and economic growth
• Empowers entrepreneurs to pursue their passions
• Creates wealth for the entrepreneur and his or her investors and employees
• Can address social issues
• Can advance technology, which can be used in other ways
These are the most common problems entrepreneurs encounter:
• Not offering the right “unique value proposition,” that is, something that people really want that is different in meaningful ways from what is already available
• Not doing enough “customer discovery,” that is, understanding customer needs and desires
• Founder is too focused on product development vs. business development, especially when it is time to switch from one to the other
• Lots of uncertainty and risk and need to change course or “pivot”
• Access to funding/$
• Hiring the right employees and not being afraid of firing those who don’t work out
• “Scaling”/growing the business, especially anticipating increased cash flow and customer service demands
• Knowing when to hire a professional CEO who can take the company to the next level – knowing when the leadership role has exceeded the founder’s talents and abilities and being willing to give up personal control