Before the start

On the third lecture Bala held we learned about the things that you need to be aware of before starting a startup. We also discussed idea creation and we also watched the documentary Something Ventured – the art of venture investing. In this post I will discuss some of the key points which need to be considered before starting a startup based on the lecture and the documentary we watched.

Before starting a startup one must be aware of the counter intuitive nature of startups. With startups you cant' to rely on your intuition, that will lead you astray.  ONLY rely on intuition when it comes to people like finding a co-founder or hiring people. Paul Graham described the nature of startups on his lecture about idea creation with an example about skiing. Skiing is something which is very counter intuitive the first time you try it. Your instincts tell you to lean back if you want to slow down but this only increases your speed. That is why there are a lot of skiing instructors and very few running instructors. Startups are the same way as skiing, you can't rely on your instincts.

There are no requirements for starting a startup, you don't have to be an expert or a business major. You DO need to have product development intuition and empathy in order to make a startup work. There are also no easy shortcuts with startups. The slogan "Fake it till you make it" does not work with startups at all. It's worth noting that startups also consume vasts amounts of time. As a startup founder be prepared to have the startup to consume your life. Startups are always a gamble you will never know with certainty if a startup will be successful or not. The documentary we watched really drove this point home. It takes guts to do a startup or to fund one. In the documentary we saw many success stories. At the beginning of these stories there was never certainty about the idea being worthwhile.

Before the starting your adventure you should have a mentor who has also done a startup. Mentors which have not started their own startup aren't a great help. You really need someone who has walked the path. Starting a startup isn't something one can learn from reading a book. The best way to learn to do a startup is by starting one yourself.

Idea creation was the second topic we discussed.

How to come up with ideas? Here are few key points about idea creation:

• Do not start by thinking "how do I come up with fresh ideas"
• Good startup ideas sound really bad at the start
• Top-down vs Bottom-up is a good way to think about it

A good idea is to keep a notebook with you everywhere you go and every time you get an idea write it down immediately. In real world we run into many different situations which trigger new ideas. Later you can build on these ideas to see if there is actual potential behind the idea. 

Here's all for now. Next post after next lecture!