Startups are literally a journey into the unknown and entrepreneurs need to take on ambiguity, uncertainty and multiple challenges. It is widely believed that, on average, 9 out of 10 startups will go out of business, and the remaining will survive and succeed.
So what is it that drives only some startups to success? Is it the IDEA itself, VISION of the entrepreneur, FUND RAISING skills, SPEED of execution, SOCIAL skills or something else? What according to you drives success for you as a Startup?
Here’s a straight forward question for all the Rodinhooders!
WHAT IS THE SINGLE BIGGEST FACTOR THAT DETERMINES A STARTUP SUCCESS & WHY?
The best of the best responses stand a chance to win FREE DELEGATE PASSES to the STARTUP CAPITALS conferences in Delhi (Oct. 27) & Bangalore on Oct. 29, 2015.
That’s right! We’ve partnered with TheRodinhoods and are giving away 15 FREE PASSES to Rodinhooders from each city (Delhi & B’lore).
So what are you waiting for?! Write your responses in the comments below (DON’T FORGET TO MENTION WHICH CITY) and get a chance to listen to some of the prominent technopreneurs and investors from across the Asia Pacific region next week to brainstorm on the innovation hotspots and startup ecosystem.
CONTEST ENDS: SUNDAY, OCT 25, 2015 [EOD]
@startupcapitals
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asha chaudhry
hey thanks so much vishwesh! 15 free passes for each city sounds awesome!! too bad i live in neither 🙁
looking fwd to a great response – will promote big time!!
Puneet Nirogam Aggarwal
CONSCIOUSLY PERSEVERING is one of the Biggest Factors which contributes to the Startup’s Success.
Each business like any other journey would have its peaks and valleys. And these peaks and valleys come at different stages for different people. If you start with a peak, you may have a trough sometime later and if you are not able to accept it, you may fail to let it pass and may fail to persevere, hence you might fail.
You need to recognise the cul-de-sacs in every journey and seperate those Cul De Sacs from the Dips (quoted from Ashwin Sanghi’s book – 13 Steps to Bloody Good Luck)
Regards,
Puneet Aggarwal
puneet@nirogam.com
@AyurvedaGuy
(BANGALORE)
Rajat
Perseverance – the single biggest factor between a startup success and failure. I think every idea can succeed. Though it can take 1 year or 10 years for the success to reach you. The idea is not to give up and the tide will turn surely.
(DELHI)
Sugandha Dubey
The People.
For all startups, the right founding team, followed by the team that work with you. People.
This is the toughest to put together.
However,
if you get this right, you can make a simple idea into a fantastic business, with speed of execution that may or may not need to raise funds, if it is inherently profitable !!
@Sugandhadubey
sugandhadubey@sibsa.in
(DELHI)
Sunil Suri
My contrarian viewpoint, I feel it is the “Team” which can really make or break a startup, and your Perseverance as well. Even if you keep persevering around, you need “Awesome Team” to execute your plans.
~Sunil Suri(Delhi)
Founder – Falphool.com
Ranjeet Pratap Singh
In my understanding and experience, the three most important characteristics that make a startup successful are:
1.> Understanding that we don’t have to make all the mistakes ourselves, we can -and should- learn from others while not shying away from making our own mistakes.
2.> A lot of hustling.
3.> A little bit of luck.
(B’lore)
Ishani
PASSION & DETERMINATION
if you are passionate about the idea you are working and are determined to make it succeed then there is no force that can stop you, provided you dont let your ego come in between and are willing to make course corrections!
Rajarshi Guha
I am based in Delhi and will share one of my experiences which is biggest success factor of a startup or an entrepreneur :
– It was 1992, I was in my engineering college and went to Uttarkashi as a part of relief team for a earthquake. before we reached the site we met the District Magistrate of Chamoli and asked him where to go for relief work ? He took us out from his office, showed a peak of a mountain and told ” Go , there “. I asked how ? He said “You should go where nobody has gone ” This line is the key success for any startup, we should do something which nobody has done, the idea need to be unique, the concept need to be never heard of, the team should be “class of its own”.
So, my take is “Go where nobody has gone”
My contacts : Phone 9810378955
EMail : rg@navrangcreations.com
asha chaudhry
ishani – are you based in delhi or b’lore?
Parth A. Hingu
As per me the 3 core factor for start up is : Trust, Team & Action The other important factor for start up success is to be like a post stamp..Just stick to it. Never give up.
Shilpi Choudhury
The single biggest factor that determines a start up’s success is Faith.
Faith ‘in yourself’ ensures that you keep going even when the odds are not in your favor.
Faith ‘in your team’ ensures that you are more like a family and you pull each other up when things do not work out the way you want them to.
Faith ‘in your destiny’ strengthens the belief that whatever happens, will happen for the good.
Shilpi Choudhury, @shilpi1412
(BANGALORE)
asha chaudhry
parth – delhi or b’lore??
Rituraj Chaturmohta
I would say that Adaptability would play the most crucial role in the long term success of a start-up, followed by Perseverance. Let me try to explain quickly.
In today’s world, we innovate new ways to serve a customer and make a business out of it. But due to ease of access to technology and capital today, the realities around a start up change very fast and the competitive edge erodes very quickly. Thus adapting becomes the most important factor.
Flipkart, Amazon, Snapdeal etc keep on bringing new things to ensure that competition within and even outside industry does not make them irrelevant, Whereas IndiaPlaza succumbed and Infibeam’s growth stifled as they were not as quick to adapt to changing business environment around them.
Regards
Rituraj (Delhi)
priyanka desai
It’s the flexibility to iterate your idea when the need arises.
Startups such as Instagram (it was previously Burbn a location sharing app wherein people could upload their photos which was then iterated to Instagram where only the photo sharing, liking and commenting were kept) or WhatsApp (it was initially made to share statuses) were way different from what they actually are today.
Every startup thinks his idea is million dollar one but only after entering the market does he come to know whether it sells or not. If it doesn’t generate the desired response (in terms of sales or the number of users), it has to be shred down to bare bones and iterated accordingly. It takes months to build a product and when you come to know that it is not what the people require, courage is required to go back, change and make it a market fit.
@Ahmedabad (Loved the question, couldn’t refrain from sharing my views).
vikas chandra shah
Entrepreneurship is do with whatever you have,where ever you are and what ever you can.
To elucidate further Entrepreneurship is to work within the given set of resources..
1) Some entrepreneurs think that they are jumping into the next orbit by approaching VCs angels even before they start their business,
2) some think of relocating to Metro where their market is.
3) Some think it would be better to start their venture when they get a co founder.
But Alas ! all the above points are not true for a entrepreneur.
VS Mani of JustDial worked without a cofounder .He worked at Just Dial for fourteen years before taking first funding.
Do with whatever you have, where ever you are and what ever you can……..
Vikas Shah
vikaschandrashah@yahoo.com Delhi
Puneet
The ability to create ‘Consumer Enthusiasm’ towards your product. Because in the realm of ideas everything depends on enthusiasm. It is also the key to market penetration. Further, it will bring good partners, employees, investors. Apple, Windows, Flipkart are classic examples.
asha chaudhry
puneet – delhi or b’lore?
Puneet
Delhi
asha chaudhry
dear all,
the contest for DELHI is closed.
we still have some free passes for BANGALORE so if you know someone who’s interested – pls ask them to participate.
kindly write to me asha@rodinhood.com to claim ur free pass (yes – ALL OF YOU GET ONE!)
have a great time at the event!
while tweeting, mention @therodinhoods and we’ll RT 🙂
it would be awesome if some of you could also blog the takeaways for the rest of us!
asha chaudhry
hello dilliwale – the event is tomo – so PLS CLAIM UR FREE TICKETS!!!
Parul Shekhar
As a startup we must do something we LOVE because Startups need much more motivation to keep persevering. I believe anyone can succeed without passion but the success will probably not last. But if we do what we love and what we truly passionate about…then nothing can stop us.
Bharath Jain
I think Single Biggest Factor is ‘Patience’ provided all basic ingredients are present. In most of the cases, the finish line is just around the corner and people change their course. So if you have faith in what you are doing and have Patience, result will always be positive.
(Bangalore)
Naseer Shariff
I think for a startup it boils down to the leader of the company. He is the captain of the ship, he will have to change courses many times, regroup, form his crack team, order his team, guide them, motivate them when the chips are down, and of course when the time comes get funding, for that, you again need to be dynamic and competent.
Even though I have no experience with VCs, I am sure they have seen their share of pitches, and will be hard to impress.
The leader and the management are also a very important factor in selecting the stocks (big-cap or small-cap) for investment (not short-term trading). So, yes, the CEO/Founder will make a big difference to the future of a start-up!
Perseverance alone will not help if you continue to make poor decisions!
Naseer,
Bangalore
Abey John
My two cents: single biggest factor is to connect to your core audience and consistently deliver an experience that satifies their itch. You can run a gig with shitty customer service etc if you can satisfy the core itch. Where startups fail is in correctly identifying the itch and the correct scratch for that itch.
Parul Shekhar
Asha thanks a ton once again! I almost realized instead of going to one startup meet, I should now plan on going to 10 startup meets! Yesterday’s event was such an eye opener and gave me enough time to figure out what’s going on in real startup market. I tried remaining focused on what exactly I wanted to really learn.
My take home was. There’s no roadmap or definitive guide that applies universally to all businesses. Every startup is unique to the specific problem/market it’s targeting. They all shared what’s worked for them and there were suggestions for young startups.. I heard each one of them carefully and like guruji always say and also I’ve heard Alok speaking often.. let your intuition guide you.
Second take home was, Run a business not a startup! I learnt the fact my clients, schools and NGOs for now are startup meets too. I should be now be spending time often meet them in person. And that’s what exactly I did leaving right after from IHC. Conference gave me a drive.
I worked in advertising Industry, corporate for years, a short break after and then Raga Ratnam. I realized for some reason it’s now difficult for me to have hard conversations. This one was particularly challenging for me yesterday and is a skill now I will now very consciously be working on improving. Socializing, saying no, convincing others are situations I dealt with very smooth in past but since I’m working very closely only with children in particular things have changed a lot.
Thanks Rodinhood!
Love,
Parul
asha chaudhry
happy for you parul!! and happy everyone found this event to be very useful and productive. thanks vishwesh for partnering with us!
parul we would love for you to share your story taking off from this comment – also pls feel free to feature raga ratnam in our showcase section 🙂
and next time there is a meetup/open house in delhi – pls to come!