Getting your startup right from the start

As an MBA business development consultant, for the past 6 years I have been watching startup founders grinding and trying hard to make business sense of their skills and ideas.

Despite the talent, motivation and enthusiasm, over 80% of ideas will not turn into revenue and profit, because most developers are not business people, and business are far more important than coding skills when it comes to run a profitable company.

Just think of it - any business person can buy an MVP or hire developers to build a solution that makes business sense. But not any developer will have the business management skills to turn their product into a business.

So why most business ideas will fail? There are a various reasons:

• The solution does not solve a real problem
• Customers / users do not see value in it
• Positioning is off, people don't understand the value
• Pricing is off
• Revenue model does not make sense
• Uncomfortable on boarding process
• No credibility
• No meaningful differentiation compared to similar stuff
• No unique features that would make it a better alternative
• Customer acquisition cost will be higher than revenue
• Relying on direct marketing instead of partnerships
• Not finding an investor
• Wasting capital on useless operations

Those startups who plan to involve investors, especially pre-seed and very early stage are typically going blow their chances by not being able to present the financial opportunities in their business ideas.

Investors pay for money, not for products or your team. The only thing they want to see in a pitch is how they will make money, how sure that you will be able to run a business and what risks can they identify.

In order to make early-stage business success, business planning and business concept validation easier for new entrepreneurs, we have created a set of market research and customer perception analysis audits. We also have an "Investor Readiness Audit" which will tell you exactly what potential investors like and dislike about your pitch, based on score ratings and comments from up to 150 investment professionals and angel investors.

An overwhelmingly large number of startup founders and first-time entrepreneurs get emotional when they get negative feedback or criticism about their idea.

In order to succeed, the ability of being flexible and make changes is crucial. It is better to abandon a fundamentally bad idea and pivot to another one.

For your success!