Monday, March 28, 2022

Top startup mistakes part 1

Startup in one


“One is not a warrior in the field,” my grandmother told me, but I did not believe her. How many dead nerve cells of entrepreneurs are in this saying.


The product must be made - Product Director, hire engineers - Technical Director, look for investments and clients - Operational, but a professional investor should give money: a studio, an accelerator, an angel, a fund.


Only in this case, everyone is minding their own business: the investor takes a risk, the COO burns out, and the CTO gets the hair that has fallen out.


Not all at once to one person!


A combination of three roles in a team is considered ideal. The so-called HHH:

  • Hacker (C.T.O.),
  • Hustler (CEO/COO),
  • Hipster (CPO/CMO)

Two founders is also great, it is already two more than one. Look for partners, then go to the field (make a product).


Starting with a non-target market


I communicate with entrepreneurs and, as it turned out, I'm not the only one. Perhaps you are now sitting and thinking: I will start with Russia, and then I will go, for example, to the United States. I have a lot of acquaintances in my homeland, an understandable market, language, cultural environment, now I will try out a business model, make a cool product, join YC and sell myself to Google for billions. No, it doesn't work that way, and if it does, it's extremely rare. In short, it didn't work for me.


If your target market is *slash* investors *slash* partners, for example, in the USA, then do traction right there. By the time you launch a product in Russia, try out the business model here, find Product Market Fit, you will run out of money. To enter another country, you will have to do 80% of what you have already done to the Russian market. The rules of the game can differ significantly from market to market.


But this is half the trouble. Now foreign investors really do not like to fit into startups that are sponsored somewhere in Russia. And they can be understood. Would you invest in any early stage Indian startup? I do not think.


To enter the markets of the USA, Great Britain, Europe, investments commensurate with these countries are needed. To raise them, you need a product that has already found its customers in these markets.


But if you, like me, made this mistake, there are foreign accelerators for us, as well as Russian-speaking angels / representatives of foreign funds. But, as you understand, the assessment of a startup with Russian metrics will be significantly lower than a startup with, for example, American ones.


It's better to make a crooked oblique product in the target market than a licked one on what's easier


At the moment, I have set the main goal of the business: to check sales in English-speaking countries: Great Britain, USA, Australia. Fortunately, our business model allows us to do this relatively quickly. At the same time, I applied for acceleration in these countries and wrote to a couple of angels on Linkedin.


We are waiting, sir.

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