3 Keys to A Successful Startup – Part 1

It’s been a whirlwind week for me in New York City with Empowering A Billion Women (EBW2020) founder, Ingrid Vanderveldt.

I’ve been the New York City Chapter Director for two years and have been partnering with IV (as she is known) to grow our chapters and financial partners globally so we as an organization can grow and scale.

In the process of running the EBW NYC chapter and in launching my own business and coaching dozens of others, I’ve noticed three keys to success for any startup, and the first and most important step to get right is ….. Drumroll please….. Building something that people want to buy.

If you were expecting the sky to part with an angel chorus, I’m sorry to disappoint.

While there are many layers and dimensions to what makes a startup successful in the long run, 75% of startups never make it.1 Why?

1. No market need
2. Ran out of cash
3. Not the right team
4. Got outcompeted
5. Pricing/cost issue
6. Poor product
7. Need/lack business model
8. Poor marketing
9. Ignore customers

Let’s just tackle #1 – No market need. Why would anyone in their right mind launch a business or product that didn’t have a proven market need? Because they think they have a good idea.

All entrepreneurs start with an idea. But not all ideas are good ones. The breakdown happens when a new entrepreneur assumes their idea is a good one. Then, they jump from ideation to implementation without testing their idea on the market, identifying the ideal client, honing the user experience and perfecting price and ensuring they have a business model that scales.

The 25% who make it know better.

A successful launch – whether you are talking about the launch of a company or a new line of business – starts with testing your assumptions. The wonderful part of this is it’s easy to do, doesn’t cost much, and anyone can learn how to do it. Getting this first step right will save you lots of heartache and wasted time, effort and money down the line.

Here’s Part 1 of  3 Keys To A Successful Startup

Knowing whether your idea is a good one and making it even better is easy to do and doesn’t take a lot of time. It’s a matter of noticing patterns, asking questions, listening deeply to the answers, probing some more and putting all the pieces together. It’s like assembling a three-dimensional puzzle of market need, required solutions (and pricing) and propensity to buy.

Think about it. If you knew that you had a market that needed what you had, and you met their full requirements at a price they are willing to pay, you’d have step one nailed, right?

Right. So how do you get this first step right?

How to get product market fit.

In the startup world, when you have the right solution for the right buyer it’s called product market fit or PMF for short.

If you’ve ever watched Shark Tank, you know it’s what all investors look for first, then they look for MVP – Minimum Viable Product – or “how many have you sold?” But you don’t get to MVP without first nailing your PMF.

PMF formula

1. Ask, don’t assume. Just because you have seen a market need and intuitively have come up with a solution, don’t assume you have the right solution to that problem for that buyer. Your ideal buyers will tell you exactly how to design your product and market it to them if you simply ask. Market research is the first step, and you will get richer responses through having conversations than sending out hundreds of surveys. Start with having 12 – 20 conversations to test your hypothesis.
2. Listen deeply. After the first seven or so conversations, you start hearing the same story. People are using the same words, sharing similar stories, and you are beginning to note common reactions. This is good! Don’t stop – keep going. Make sure to listen deeply for nuances and variances in response. If someone brings up an interesting tangent – go with it – magic can happen here. This could be your secret sauce and be a key differentiator in your offering.
3. Spot the patterns. It’s time intensive and so worth combing through the verbatim responses to identify the common patterns. Pay attention to the words they use, what features hit the mark and suggestions for what to include that you hadn’t thought of yet.

Once you get this step right, you are ready for the next step – which is formulating this valuable info into a refined concept for testing. There are a few ways to test your concept and we’ll dive deep into that next week in Part 2.

Until then, here’s to your launch success!

Best,

Deb Boulanger

P.S. When you are ready, there are four ways we can work together on the launch of your product or program.

1. Join the Launch Lab for Women Entrepreneurs – It’s our new Facebook Community for women turning their passions into profitable businesses – Click Here
2. Apply to The Passion Project Incubator and get-hands on step-by-step training and mentoring in how to launch your business or product – Click Here
3. Join our mastermind group and be a part of a group of amazing women entrepreneurs who are sharpening their product and marketing skills to get more of their ideal clients – Click Here  and  tell me a bit more about your business
4. Work with me privately – If you’d like to work directly with me to take you from trading time for dollars to leveraging your time and money to create a business you love… tell me a little about your business and what you’d like to work on together, and I’ll set a time for us to chat – Click Here

1* Harvard Business School study by Shikhar Ghosh
2* The Top 20 Reasons Startups Fail, CB Insights