… to future startups

J Mwaura

Disclaimer

There is no course or book for startups

Insights

What I will tell my kids if they become entrepreneurs

  • Idea
  • Team
  • Fundraising
  • Execution
  • Market
  • Competition
  • Money & Risk
  • Success
  • Tools

IDEA

Somewhere, someone already had your idea

Don't waste too much time thinking you're a genius

Your idea is 1% of success

In all businesses, idea had precedence

Execution > idea

Especially, when executed better and faster

Team > idea

A good or bad idea depends on team

A great team makes bad idea flourish

Product > idea

It all depends on implementation of the idea

Startup = idea + execution + product + team + luck

Networking

Talk about your idea to as many people as possible

You will get feedback, challenges, referrals, unexpected connections

Ideas

Great ideas have lonely childhoods

Great ideas have terrible beginnings

The more disruptive your idea, the less people will understand it

Name

Don't worry too much about your company's name. You grow a name

Sources of Ideas

Every new technology is an opportunity: look for gaps between how things have been done and how they can be done

Every asleep industry is an opportunity: do things incumbents can't or won't do because the economics don't make sense to them, or because technically they can't

Sources of Ideas

Every unconventional user is an opportunity: go after those who are already behaving like everybody will behave in the future

Crisis are full of opportunities

Vision vs feedback

In absence of vision, rely on feedback

With a clear vision, you can ignore feedback

Friends & family might not give you truthful feedback

All the best

The Beauty of Business is in Business