I'm not sure defeat needs to be "expected" anymore...
I have friends with a string of successes under their belts. My own track record is ~half the companies I advise get from garage to series A, and I've had three IPOs and numerous acquisitions.
My rules of thumb:
- do something with big impact. "Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men's blood and probably will not themselves be realized." - Daniel Burnham: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Burnham
- answer this question honestly: "why now?" i.e. why couldn't this have been done last year or last decade.
- answer this question honestly: "why me?" i.e. am I really the best person in the world to do this?
- check that your competitive position or margins are strong enough you won't have a zillion competitors causing margins to compress. For example, 15 minute food delivery is tough. For example, don't launch a CPG product on Amazon without a strategy to deal with knockoffs!
- check that your regulatory position isn't so crazy that you'll get shutdown before demonstrating outrageous value.
- create an elevator pitch of one or two sentences and see if a majority of legit prospective buyers get excited.
A few of my friends have done startups, and I have noticed something really important about the "why me" question: it seems to be THE determiner of how much you can actually capture from starting up a company. The questions of product/market fit and timing determine whether a company in the space ought to exist. The "why me" question tells you how much your startup can capture independent of the money and work of other people, and how much of that reward you will get.
Since then, I started up a company that I think I am uniquely qualified to run, but we'll see if we get there.
I have friends with a string of successes under their belts. My own track record is ~half the companies I advise get from garage to series A, and I've had three IPOs and numerous acquisitions.
My rules of thumb:
- do something with big impact. "Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men's blood and probably will not themselves be realized." - Daniel Burnham: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Burnham
- answer this question honestly: "why now?" i.e. why couldn't this have been done last year or last decade.
- answer this question honestly: "why me?" i.e. am I really the best person in the world to do this?
- check that your competitive position or margins are strong enough you won't have a zillion competitors causing margins to compress. For example, 15 minute food delivery is tough. For example, don't launch a CPG product on Amazon without a strategy to deal with knockoffs!
- check that your regulatory position isn't so crazy that you'll get shutdown before demonstrating outrageous value.
- create an elevator pitch of one or two sentences and see if a majority of legit prospective buyers get excited.
hope this helps!