In Russia, they don't teach entrepreneurship. Most founders lack knowledge and experience both in running a business and attracting funding. They don't know the difference between MRR and LTV, they don't understand what venture investments are and how they work.
Entrepreneurs who came from the corporate sphere are more “pumped up” in these matters. For example, working in a large company, they launched various products and business areas, essentially internal startups. Therefore, they understand how to test hypotheses, conduct custom developments and what risks should be taken into account in the process.
Founders who came from corporations have already encountered most of the difficulties that inevitably arise in the process of creating and scaling a business. Audits, negotiations, a lot of paperwork - they are familiar with all this. They understand where and how to find resources to solve such problems.
What to do . Corporate experience is an advantage for malta whatsapp phone number founders. But if you don’t have it, you should pay attention to educational programs of accelerators or innovation centers. In addition, you can find a mentor who has already reached the desired point “B”. Or visit a specialized community of business leaders.
Inability to see promising niches
Most often, those projects whose leaders managed to notice a new need or “pain” of the client faster than their competitors achieve success. It is important to see what other market players miss due to their thinking in outdated patterns or their “sluggishness”. This is exactly what happened with the Motorola brand: the company continued to produce push-button phones that no longer met the needs of customers, and lost the race to the increasingly popular smartphones.
To actually create new markets, you need intuition and courage. Doing something that no one has done before is always risky and scary. It is much more comfortable to run on the beaten path. But it is unlikely to lead to great success.
Let me give you an example. In 2005, when I first started working in IT, Russian companies already had a pressing need for automated customer relationship management. However, the market did not yet understand how to implement this task in practice. Few knew about CRM systems, which appeared in a more or less modern form in the late 1990s. And even those preferred familiar digital tools such as Outlook and Excel to the new product.
But I saw huge prospects in the technology: Microsoft presented the first ecosystem product that included a CRM block, and a little later the first cloud CRM solutions entered the market. I understood that a revolution was coming in the IT world, and decided to act. Having launched a CRM practice in a system integrator before competitors, my company gained a foothold in the market in this area.
What to do . Trust yourself and your intuition. However, do not neglect a deep study of the market and the needs of the audience. Inner confidence can only arise from experience and research of a potential niche.
On topic. How to pitch startups to Russian investors
What conclusion can be drawn?
When the first project succeeds and starts to generate profit, the startup turns into a successful company. And it's time to think about a new project. Going through the same path a second and third time is much easier.
The main thing is not to be afraid of failure. Getting bumps and bruises is part of the process that leads you to success. If you are not afraid to start over, there is a high probability that something worthwhile will come out.
It is important that it is also easier to find investments for your ideas. The Liberman brothers said it well in an interview with Alexander Sokolovsky at the beginning of the year: “It is always better to invest in people who have done something unsuccessfully than in those who have not done anything yet.”
When there is a reputation in the market and experience, whatever it may be, investors look at founders with completely different eyes.