Why Good Ideas Kill Most Startups

Business Plan Idea - Entrepreneurship - Founder - Startup - Reagan Pollack

Why Good Ideas Kill Most Startups

STARTUP SECRET #1

YOU DON’T NEED A “GOOD” IDEA

 

While everyone’s out there hunting for the next Uber®, Airbnb®, Google® or Alibaba®, the real entrepreneurs are busy testing new concepts instead of dreaming, writing business plans, and overthinking the crap out of everything.

Entrepreneur:

Average Idea + Massive Action x Initial Results/Adjustments = Progress

Wantrepreneur:

“Big” Idea + Zero to Little Action X Excuses/Time = Nothing Burger

Stop waiting for the perfect idea to hit you like some entrepreneurial Cupid arrow. Bad ideas can become incredibly successful ideas with testing and effort. Great ideas can stay great on paper and in conversation and never see the light of day.

The choice is yours. Take time this weekend to stop day dreaming about your big idea some day, and instead take 1 action towards actually seeing if it has legs.

If you’re looking to start your own restaurant, go scout locations and count how many potential patrons walk by in one hour. That might tell you about the existing walk-in value of that retail location versus another one. Log your results.

If you’re hoping to build an app one day stop dreaming about building it and actually go to a meet up for a coffee shop and buy a coder there a cup of coffee and ask them what they’re currently working on and see if they might be interested in talking about the project you’re hoping to build some day.

If you’re looking to run a real estate agency some day, stop envying others and their commission checks but go invite a realtor for lunch and asked them real questions about how they got started and built their client base.

A well executed, average idea is more powerful than a mediocre one that’s poorly executed.

 

Reagan Pollack

3 days ago

Reagan Pollack
In 2005 while attending Babson College business school, I set out to launch my first internet startup. The vision was to build a platform (back then it was called a web portal) that would connect the music industry and expedite artist discovery (A&R), facilitate new business deals, and bridge the fragmented music business ecosystem. The goal was large, but in order to accomplish it, without prior experience nor significant connections, I broke the mission down into manageable tasks and chunks. This not only helped lay the foundation but also helped me to prioritize which elements would be needed first and subsequently.At graduation, I headed back to Silicon Valley and began my adventure full steam by opening an office, raising capital, and hiring my first ten team members. With a business plan in hand, I had a clear roadmap from an operational and financial perspective, and by spending significant time constructing the website wire-frames, it helped me to better stress test my assumptions with real-world pre-customer feedback. While most of the business plan didn’t materialize the way I had envisioned, it did help me greatly to strengthen my resolve for the vision and gain confidence that the end goal was material. I implore founders today to spend a few weeks writing down their vision and breaking into daily tasks, and the rank them in order of importance - ask yourself “if this comes first, does this unlock value next?” “If this comes next, does this expedite the next phase on my list?” The best (fastest to get to market and grow) entrepreneurs think in phases and are incredible at prioritizing tasks to reach the next tranche of milestones. Being in a startup can be dizzying - there a dozens of potential features to build, hundreds of people to pitch, and time is your enemy. Practicing prioritization - the ability to truly rank each activity by its weight (value) to drive actual traction - will ultimately position your business to win cost efficiently and market effectively. #nostartupleftbehind #entrepreneur #startups #entrepreneurship #founderstory ... See MoreSee Less
View on Facebook
· Share

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email

Recent Posts
Recent Comments
Archives
Categories

©2024 Reagan Pollack. All rights reserved.