The Startup

THE LAST 10% IT TAKES

TO LAUNCH SOMETHING

TAKES AS MUCH ENERGY

AS THE FIRST 90%.

– Rob Kalin

The lines by Rob Kalin, cofounder of ETSY.

A startup is a small business that starts with an idea seedling in the founder’s mind and then the journey follows. Its stages are as follows:

• Ideation Phase
• Team Hiring
• Funding Phase

When the startup is at an early stage, no investor gets ready to take the risk of investing in a newbie company. New startup founders need to look for FFR (Friends, Family and Relatives) for the initial finances. ‘Startup Fund’ is the amount of money that helps carry forward the operational tasks of development, team hiring and marketing.

Later on, if the company starts generating revenue, or gets noticed by the angel investors for seed funding (the first fund raised by any startup from the investors), the company can go for series A, B, C.. rounds to raise more finances for scaling up the business. Founders can send pitches to the investors, who then plan on investing after a thorough analysis of their business model, target audience, monetization model, and future prospects.

Tech startups like Fintech and Edtech have proved to be quite successful in the recent years as the top startups usually lie under these two categories. They use improvised technology to build scalable services for the consumers. For example: Amazon is giant Tech startup, Crypto currency apps come under Fintech, and Byju’s is a successful Edtech startup.

Edtech startups provide educational services by seamlessly using technology as a teaching tool. With a considerable escalation in the use of online services in the education sector, these type of startups are a great option to start with.

Fintech startups provide financial services to their users and majorly deal in trading or crypto currency. The buzz around them has bubbled the interest of many youngsters recently.

In the beginning, your idea seems to carry the weight of your expectations well and the target remains on the highest mark. Amidst all this, we tend to leave behind the scars of our startup journey. Nevertheless, every successful startup goes through a hell lot of skepticism and failures. There comes a breakpoint when you, as a founder and a leader of this hassle-full venture start to give-up, as your energy, efforts, and motivation shatters to bits. When you find yourself out of finances, the situation only worsens and leads to what we term as a ‘hopeless and helpless’ circle.

You need to remember that founders don’t look good in teary eyes 👀. Alas! Their hearts are the ones that feel utter pain and heaviness.

I can write this today, because I have faced this burning. As a second chance, I learned to accept multiple failures and the pain of stumbling upon giant blocks.

My learning for you:

Whenever you are ready to start, don’t fantasize your success. Learn not to get bothered of your early failures, as these initial falls are crucial to your future success. Keep going without stopping your drive and let go the dismay of unending problems on your way to establish a successful startup.