Aditya Kothadiya’s Blog

Targeted Audience: Entrepreneurs, Students, Recent Graduates

I am a strong believer of ASAP implementation when it comes to founding your own startup. Please do read my previous posts here, here and here. I think, age is really not a barrier to start something, but it might be a concern if we want to grow our company. But there are solutions to tackle that problem. And let’s not worry about Friday’s problem on Monday.

Now I understand that ASAP approach may not seem logical to all streams. It may be easy to get started with Web applications, then little tough for Desktop and Enterprise Software applications and probably very tough for Semiconductor applications. So the dynamics of ASAP approach will change as per our field of interest. As a counter reaction to this thought, I found a interesting study on the founders of America’s fastest growing private companies: 

Forty percent of the Inc. 500 founders had no experience in the industry they were entering. Over one-third of Inc. 500 founders were out of work when they started their companies, many others had just a few years on the job. These entrepreneurs have few if any contacts in the field they are going to enter. It is their personality, adaptability, and their willingness to provide specialized products or services that wins the day, rather than traditional industry expertise they bring.

So its proven that your track record, and relevant work experience is not the only measure of your startup’s success. On the other hand, this may not be true always. Sometimes we just wait for a remarkable idea to click. Sometimes we have a breakthrough idea, but we are waiting for a right founding team.  Or sometimes we have a champion team and compelling idea but we don’t have much experience to execute it. So we wait for few years till we gain that experience, and then start. Because of this wait period, we might miss being early in the market opportunity. At the same time, the more we wait, the more issues and responsibilities we get attached to and then starting our own startup remains just a dream. 

So does that mean waiting is a mistake?

NO. There is nothing wrong in waiting and taking experience as long as we keep our entrepreneurial spirit live. It’s logical to wait, when it is necessary to wait. But we have to keep working on our dream, atleast in the part time if not full time, to keep that spirit alive. But we have to remember that this part time activity should not be a hobby activity. Even in the part time phase, we have to get into the field. We have to talk to customers, face the real world challenges, develop new relationships, build the product and also the company – all in the part time.

"My research," said Myra Hart, Professor of Management Practice at Harvard Business School, speaking from experience, "is all about the importance of experience. The subtle message is that here are people who did well the first time and a lot better the second time." She said, the essential difference between them was the degree of knowledge — both "knowing," on the part of entrepreneurs who can prepare themselves for what they face, and "being known," by networks of other people who can supply the thousand things it takes to fuel a business.

My experience is, even if it’s a part time venture, the learning out of this journey is tremendous. We will be very well prepared for our next full time venture if we keep working part time than we keep waiting for that "remarkable idea".

So go start it – ASAP!