Since the 2008 recession, we have seen a surge in the number of start-ups and entrepreneurs with great ideas. However, ideas are plenty, but success is seldom, and according to Fortune magazine nine out 10 start-ups fail.
Why is this?
At Mitra Innovation, we know there is no science or formula for a start-up to become successful. However, our experience shows that 10% of the entrepreneurs and start-ups that succeed master three very important characteristics:
- Commitment and team strength
- Passion to innovate
- Early market validation.
Over the course of the next few weeks Mitra will post three articles about the three important characteristics for a successful start-up. This first article in the series is about ‘Commitment and Team Strength’.
Commitment and team strength:
Entrepreneurs need to be committed and have a strong team
Start-ups are not for the feint-hearted, especially tech startups. Markets move quickly and founders have to dedicate their passion and effort on their ideas, as well as understand what is going on around them and how other market activities affect their offering.
They need support to get their ideas off the ground and this has to come from a strong team who can help with business planning, idea creation, execution, marketing and operations. While an entrepreneur perfects what the product should offer, the team must look at other areas:
- Who are the customers?
- What is the business plan and revenue model?
- How will we deploy and market the product?
- How can we look after customers and partners?
- How should we drive different sales channels and acquire the right channel partners?
- How will we run operations and support end-customers?
Launching an idea involves many activities, with strong dependencies that need to be executed in harmony. Hence why entrepreneurs need a dream team that can be depended on.
The team can be made up of a mixture of direct employees, outside consultants, or a team of people from the investment side. And as long as the team has commitment, drive, passion and stamina, the project is off to a good start.
At Mitra we believe in the importance of a good team for any start-up and we’ve shown this by recently launching a food and health safety startup in New Zealand, called FoodAssured.com. This online platform provides an integrated solution for Café, Deli and Restaurants to plan, operationalise and manage everyday activities for safety, quality and compliance to food standards. Mitra has become an integral part of the core team, playing the CTO role and running the entire engineering team.
If you’re a budding entrepreneur, we hope you’ve found this short article useful.
Do you have what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur?
Strive to be the one out of 10 startups that succeeds.
The next article in the series ‘How to turn a great idea into a successful business: The important characteristics of an entrepreneur or start-up’, will be about a ‘Passion to Innovate’.
If you would like to read all three characteristics in advance, please contact Mitra for a copy of our complete publication.
Mitra for entrepreneurs
If you have a start-up that needs starting up, contact us today about the Mitra Start-Up Kit: an intensive three week programme that will help you transform your idea into everything you need to launch your business, and you’ll walk away with a fully-fledged business model, a product prototype, and a kick-ass investor pitch.
Dr Ashok Suppiah
Founder & CEO Mitra Group
