Tag: entrepreneurship

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clarity entrepreneurship startups

Startups that survive crashes

Startups that have survived and will survive aren’t the ones that are just created based on a market opportunity. They are created by passionate individuals who have envisioned the world after a few years and know a path to go there carrying their values and articulating mission to create the perfect vision they have created.

Their current app or idea or product is not the business but an accelerator to achieve the mission. We have an interesting time right now with markets hinting a crash and excited to see startups who will do the tests of the time.

Categories
entrepreneurship How To's startups

Art of naming your users in ideation process

[Published on nextbigwhat.com here http://www.nextbigwhat.com/user-persona-ideation-and-product-attributes-297 ]

In the initial days after I passed out from IIT, used to have dozens of business plans everyday, and was already working on few of them in a given month. Later I realised those were not business plans but cool ideas, thats all. After I was done coding, I was hardly able to find users of my app except myself for couple of days. End result is a failed startup – failure will come very soon and is much assured to come. Series of startups, at one time also made me think I should start a consulting outsourcing businesses. Happens.

Then came a little matured stage when idea of solving problems was the key. This was a stage when I was actively looking to find problems in ecosystems and came up with solutions rather discussing with people who are facing problems. End result is a failed startup. You try to articulate reasons for failure but the reason is it was not built for anyone. Your product was a solution to a problem but a solution which was not desirable. Its an assured failed startup too. Know before you fail what you missed in your product.

Then came an interesting stage. Stage where I knew I came up with ideas which are also solutions to some problems, problems not that big but interesting to have solutions of. Identifying problems for which people were not actively looking for solutions but were surprised and excited to find solutions. There were users. I could name those users when I am coding. I had that amazing feeling while working and much more reasons to work now. But the competitors were growing fast, my product lacked somewhere. Problem was solved, but there were too many solutions already. I created and showed people the problem, and was outrun before I could even imagine this would happen. Obviously I lacked somewhere. The answer was sales. Interestingly it was always sales. Even the user requirements gathering, design elements, product delivery, money collection, user on boarding, user retention, competition watch – everything is part of sales. Naming a user and selling to that named users are two different things. But with a good procedure followed to name your users, idea evolution to product is a stronger process for your startup.

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Categories
entrepreneurship

Dear entrepreneur, making money is easy !

(published on nextbigwhat here)

If you are really hurt by reading the title and planning to share this with “wtf”, please hold on and read more. You might be struggling from last 2-3 years building an ROI positive company and the title might be insulting. But let me tell you, you are the most respected person in my and article’s eye, for you are still pursuing the dream and this article is probably for you only apart from others who are planning to startup or even those who have already built an ROI positive company meeting targets they always wanted.

This is a story involving Sally and Amanda who are very good friends since childhood. Amanda’s father is very rich but she is married to a not so poor guy and has preferred to not take any help from her father. She misses being rich though. Sally and Amanda have ritualized daily yoga in Sally’s garden after husbands of both leave for work. They are discussing about entrepreneurship as Sally’s husband is thinking of quitting job and starting up an e-commerce company. Amanda is moved by the idea that even high salaried people are quitting job to get time for building their business where she is forced to be free for the whole day, apart from preparing amazing food she is fond of. She is disturbed, yet thinking positively out of the thoughts invoked in her. She is thankful for the conversation.  

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