This video emphasizes the importance of securing capital to ensure a startup's survival and growth, highlighting that money also represents valuable networks for leveraging milestones.
What this video covers
The first reason why startups succeed is capital. As a founder and CEO of the business, your biggest responsibility is literally to make sure that there’s always money in the bank. One of the biggest reasons I would say over 65% of the companies that fail is because they run out of money. So, with that being said, you want to always make sure that there’s money in the bank, that you’re raising company, and that you’re able to continue to fuel the growth of the business during every single phase on the lifecycle of the business.
Money is not just about money itself. You need to have active investors. You need to turn it around and think about the money also as networks because essentially, you want people that they give you the money, and they have networks that you can leverage for either perhaps recruiting, for additional investment, for distribution like partnerships.
So, think about money as networks that you can leverage to achieve your milestones faster and in a more effective way. And again, make sure that you’re never running out of it because this is one of the reasons that really gets startups to succeed. The other thing is, depending on your industry, having more money and having more marketing money that you can spend gives you the possibility to have and create more brand awareness and to crush your competitors.
Another reason why startups succeed is, without a doubt, the founding team. Having a strong founding team, when there is what is called Founder Fit.
The next thing is having great advisors. Let’s face it. Surrounding yourself by the right people is critical. Either it’s advisors for the marketing, for internal processes, for recruiting, or raising more money, you need the right people guiding you, helping you, and those are people that have done it before.
The next thing is product/market fit. Product/market fit is critical. What product/market fit means is that you’ve nailed it on what the market wants, and you are not able to keep up with demand. The product of the service is literally flying off the shelves, and you cannot keep up with the shelves.
The next thing is making great hires. At the end, it’s all about the team. It’s all about that team that is aligned, that is super excited about really getting that culture right, that vision, and that mission right. This is not about recruiting followers, people that you need to micromanage, people that you need to stay on top of, so they deliver. This is about recruiting leaders, people that can just be there with you, behind the trenches, in the battlefield. Those companies that succeed are the ones that create an amazing environment where all these people that are leaders can come in and thrive and grow in parallel with the growth as well of the company.
Next is the company culture. There has to be an incredible alignment and understanding as to where the company is going. What is that future that you’re creating? Are people excited about that future? Do they have a sense of ownership in that culture and in that future that you’re also painting? Do they see themselves in that future? That’s the alignment that you want. When you get the culture right, magic things happen.
Next is they refuse to quit. That persistence, that being constant, and just falling and getting back up no matter what, and reflecting, learning, and continuing to run toward that goal is something that you see left and right on those companies that were super successful because entrepreneurship is not a straight line. You’re always going to have the ups and the downs, and again, whenever you have a down, you get back up, you figure it out, you reflect from what didn’t work, and then you try to make sure that you get it right the next time.
