If You Build It… Will They Come?
Too often startup founders and entrepreneurs get so excited by their vision or dream that they forget to check whether it’s actually a vision … or just a hallucination.
STOP WASTING your dollars and valuable years on the wrong opportunity, people or activities!
90% of startups fail. Starting a new business has its risks – but it doesn’t need to be such a gamble.
Why do products or businesses fail?
It’s widely accepted that they typically fail because they don’t generate enough revenue … and they don’t generate enough revenue because:
- there aren’t enough customers you can reach affordably and quickly,
- who care enough about what you do, and
- who are willing to pay for it.
That about sums it up from a business perspective – but there’s something even bigger that causes products or businesses to fail – and it’s the people involved. If you miss the mark with the product or the market but have the desire, willingness and ability to adapt and learn – then you can usually get back on track unless you’ve exhausted your resources.
That’s why investors back the team or person more than the product or technology, and that’s also why as part of this market validation process you’ll be asked to assess yourself and your “fit” for this startup.
Set yourself up to win by joining the Upstart 7 Day “Go or No” Sprint.
Goals of the “Go or No” Sprint:
Most startups apply a Ready, Fire, Fire, Fire, Aim approach to starting their business. They launch a product they’ve developed hoping they’ve targeted it to the right market – realise they’ve missed the mark, fire again and again – until hopefully they hit the target. Most startups run out of ammunition (time and money) before they hit the target.
The goal of this process is to take a Ready, Aim, Fire approach to use your time and money much more effectively.
Step One: “Ready” – where you’ll invest this first week doing this “Go or No Sprint” doing some research and thinking. During the “7 days you’ll be looking at
- Why do you want to do this, and how does it fit with your overall goals?
- What’s the market problem you think you’re solving, and what’s your evidence it really exists?
- Is the market opportunity likely to be large enough to justify your effort and risk?
- Are you the right person to be starting it?
If all goes well with that, you may decide to move to the next step.
Step Two: “Aim” - is full market validation which takes 60-90 days where you’ll interview at least 100 of your potential target market and build a base for first sales, and if that goes well…, then move past market validation to
Step Three: “Fire” – business and product building and scaling, the process of developing your minimal viable product, selling it, and building your business and repeatable scalable process and systems with a reliable and tested busines model.
About the 7 Day “Go or No” Sprint
The “Sprint” runs a week and over the week you’ll need to attend a two hour introductory and educational workshop, and then invest at least 20 hours of your time at a time suitable to you doing research on your proposed venture following a template over the following week.
As soon as we have 6 people wanting to participate… we’ll run it.
How much does it cost to participate – it’s FREE, but you’ll need to be committed to making the most of it, as it’s intensive and not for the faint hearted.
Enquire NOW by contacting Steven Walker on (03) 471 9974 or at steven.walker@upstart.org.nz to express your interest in participating!