A casual chat that made me realize the entrepreneur within | The two-year journey!
It all started with a small idea (in fact a BIG one) where my buddy asked me to keep it a secret!
I just wondered and asked her, do you really wanna build a startup?
“ Yes,” she replied with great enthusiasm.
Startup Myth #1
Keep it a secret.
Never my dear. Things don’t work as expected. When you just keep things a secret.
Don’t believe me?! Here you go. (shared her a link that supports my line)
“Okay. But it’s all about the idea right.” replied apathetically.
Startup Myth #2
It’s all about the idea.
No, my dear. It’s not always about the idea. It’s how you execute it.
As a matter of fact, both Google and Yahoo are search engines, WhatsApp and Telegram are messengers.
“Yeah…. We can execute like…” She added vaguely
I do not understand why the scope is so high. Do you really want to build a startup or planning to establish a company?
Well, ever wondered about the difference between a startup and a company?
(“StuMagz is now an ocean” I remember Charan Lakkaraju (Founder & CEO, StuMagz) adding this line in a meet we had.)
“Umm, Nah! Can you say what it is?”
Startups are something that concentrates on a small thing initially. Which we usually call pain point. By the way, what’s the pain point of your startup?
“Well, it could be … “
Now I understood. You must need to do the step #1 thing. Research.
“I’m not publishing a paper, why this?” she exclaimed.
A problem for you may not be a problem for all. A solution that works for you may not work for all.
So this is the stage where you study your pain point, solution for it, USP, stats, competitors and in-fact this stage is where you examine, analyze, squeeze your mind and manage to validate the idea, and figure it out completely, theoretically. And make it ready to put into practicality.
Targeted audience, running a pilot run,…
while adding my views this question struck my mind that I asked her curiously, what’s your business model?
“Business Model. Pardon”
I mean, how do you gonna earn out of this startup.
“Somehow, we can figure it out.”
I felt pity. This is where we failed in our first startup.
Who knows, Zuker might have bought WhatsApp keeping the idea to earn from its business API maybe at later stages.
You must have a plan about earning.
“It’s not about the money though. Maybe if it runs…”
A quick example struck: “X” is running. But they are bankrupt. (X is some startup that is very close to us)
Stunned by the example. She replied nothing.
This is about STARTUPS in short. There’s much, kind of rocket science behind every successful entrepreneur you see. There’s a lot of hustle, red eyes, seek discomfort things about them.
Then I decided to stop. Felt like I scared her to start something new. What are you thinking? I asked.
“ I’m actually trying to figure out the things you asked.”
I’m lost hearing this line. She didn’t give up. She seems really involved in this thing.
“ Can you also help me in my Research?” she questioned me.
Yeah, why not dear. I replied.
Elated she: “Thanks mate :)”.
So this is something I leant from a failed startup (I do not admit this still) and a startup that we are working on now. All thanks to COVID which brought this lockdown thingy that gave me a lot of time to land in my first job, have insightful conversations with successful people out there, schedule a set of meetings with hustlers in the industry and get mentored.
People I must mention here from whom I got this experience about startups and all:
- Sri Charan Lakkaraju (CEO & Founder, StuMagz)
- Srihari Golla (CMO, BroChill)
- Prudhvi Tammana (Founder & CEO, Wissiontalks)
- Durgaprasad Kondeboina (Head of Operations and Marketing, ShortCode)
- Vamsi Chaitanya (Team Lead, Client Growth Advisor, Outplay)
- Ravi Teja P (Senior Category Manager, Flipkart)
- Gautam Ronanki (Founder, StuNxt)
