Julia Austin has spent her career as a startup operator, executive coach, educator, investor and board member. She is at the Faculty of the Harvard Business School and is the Faculty of Cochair of the Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship.
What is the big idea?
After the idea is a field manual to help you look around the corners to set up or become a member of a startup: understand what is going on now and not alone feels when things become difficult. Starting up is messy, beautiful, overwhelming and often worth it. This guide offers a tool kit for navigating the complex reality of transferring a great idea to a functioning company with clarity and trust.
Below Julia shares five important insights from her new book, after the idea: what really needs to make a startup and scale.Listen to the audio version – read by Julia herself – Look or in the next Big Idea app.
1. The real work starts after the idea.
The journey from idea to company is rarely linear – and almost never glamorous. Most founders have an OMG moment early in which they realize that they not only build a product, fundraising and sales: they build a company.
In the early stages of a startup, the focus is usually on the immediate needs about creating a product instead of a more holistic picture of what the company has been looking like for months or years. It can be easier to concentrate on what is right in front of you if the big whole can be a daunting or even paralyzing concept.
Founders are often depicted in the outside world as ‘crushing’, but internally they can be filled with doubt, imposter syndrome and fear. They can be plagued by thoughts such as, sucks my idea and no one tells me? Do I know something about running a company or leading a team?
If every founder of the company could go back in time and reconsider their start -up plan, most would say they wish they had been more intentional about the activities of their company. It is never too early to be attentive about team culture and recruitment, Merkmago, Finance, Legal Considerations and everything else that goes beyond the product or service offered.
Most teams do not get these tactics directly at the start of a new company, and not everyone has a coach or professor to show them the way. After the idea is about the nuts and bolts from startups only the product. The point is to build something that works after the excitement fades and the real challenges begin.
2. Go slowly go too fast.
Everyone loves the myth of overnight success. In the start -up culture we were told to move quickly, break things and launch quickly. But go too fast before you understand that the problems can waste months (possibly years) and a lot of money.
I teach my students and customers to go slowly to go fast. That means taking the time to understand the customer – who they are, what they need, what they struggle with and how they make decisions – by working the right discovery. Discovery goes beyond customer interviews. Thorough discovery includes observing your target group in their natural environments and conducting experiments to better understand the problem you solve. With these techniques you can validate assumptions and make it invalid to become more confident about what to build – and what you have to ignore.
“Discovery goes beyond customer interviews.”
In 2018, the founder of Brij started an idea to help consumers follow valuable items – such as laptops or jackets – that use QR codes. The concept was a kind of digital insurance that helped lost items to find to their owners.
Before they built something, they carried out Real-World experiments by leaving tagged items in public places to observe how passers-by reacted. Because of this they learned what people appreciated and how likely that others would return certain items – a water bottle, not so much; A laptop, yes.
What is more important, they realized that the real chance was not lost and found services, but when using QR codes as a marketing tool for consumer brands. That insight led them to turn before they hire a team or build infrastructure for a company that they did not want to carry out. Their discovery work clarified the company that they really wanted to build.
Just like checking the weather for a walk, discovery work does not give you all the details, but it helps you to be oriented before you go to the unknown. What you learn will not only form your product, it will influence the company you build, the roles that you hire, how you sell and how you work. Discovery is the basis. It is one of the smartest investments to make at the start of a startup trip.
3. The universal challenges that founders are confronted.
There are many types of founding stories. Founders come from all layers of life women and men, people of color, from all over the world building everything, from business software to food products to mission-driven consumer brands. No matter how different their companies were, their challenges were remarkably similar.
Every founder has to struggle with hiring the right people, while competing with better funded companies or trying to convince others to participate in something that hardly exists. Building a team is not just about finding talent; It is about coordinating values, clearly communicating and building trust under pressure.
Then there is money to manage – something that can make or break a startup. Founders must make difficult considerations: do we invest in growth or do we extend the runway? Can we now afford this recruitment, or are we waiting? Increasing capital, budgeting, predictions and understanding burn interest are daily worries.
“Building a team is not just about finding talent; it is about coordinating values, clearly communicating and building trust under pressure.”
Legal complexity is another constant. Early decisions – such as how you can record, how you can split fairness, or whether your IP needs to be protected – can have shimmering effects years later. Many founders do not realize that they lay the foundation for future financing rounds, partnerships or even scenarios.
Because of all this there are difficult conversations. With fellow founders when visions vary. With investors when goals are not achieved. With customers when promises fail. Add to that the emotional roller coaster of building something from scratch and it is not a surprise that founders often feel isolated or overwhelmed.
For everyone who tries to make an idea in a real, functioning company, while the industries can vary, the patterns-the messy, high-stakes, emotional work of building something completely re-surprising universal are.
4. The emotional side of startups.
Founders constantly manage pressure – from investors, from customers, of themselves. If you have co -founders, the interpersonal dynamics can quickly become intense. I have seen many startups unraveling, not because of product problems, but because the human side was not managed properly, which resulted in burn -out, resentment, wrong alignment or lack of trust.
The number one statement that my coaching customers say when we start a session is: “I am so overwhelmed.” Starting or becoming a member of a new company can be an exciting experience, but it can also be incredibly demanding and stressful. When you jump on this roller coaster, it is crucial to be aware of the possible impact on your mental health and to take proactive steps to protect your well -being. The first step is to be honest with yourself and to recognize the stress. Admittedly to yourself and your co -founder, partner or coach that you are stressed is a step in the right direction.
As soon as you recognize the stress, take steps to manage it. Whether you are a founder, an early team member or investor, it is essential to accept imperfection and embrace uncertainty because both are constants in the startup life. Give priority to self -care, set clear limits and protect your personal time (because a startup will take this all if you leave it). Find a supporting community of objective, empathetic ears that you can turn in times of stress. And consider working with a coach who understands the reality of start -up life and can help you navigate and normalize the inevitable challenges.
Building a company is not just about strategy; It is about resilience, relationships and emotional endurance. The average founder trip for a company that gets off the ground is 7-10 years. The more deliberately you are about managing all the feeling, the stronger your company will be.
5. Define success.
Coordination about a shared vision of success and the desired results amount to the long -term success of each startup. While everyone wants to jump into product discovery and building solutions, coordination is on where your startup is going and how success looks like, is quite important.
At the start of his startup trip, my student Sam and his co -founder were tailored to what they all wanted in terms of financial performance of the company within a certain period of time, but they did not enter their personal outcome scenarios. This is common for many founders. It is easier to concentrate the success interview about product growth, types of customers and income. It can be discouraging to have vulnerable conversations and to link the success of the company to your personal goals and ambitions. Only when there was an acquisition chance, Sam and his co -founder were confronted with the reality that they were not in fact coordinated. Sam was enthusiastic about the financial benefit and the opportunity to work on a new idea; His fellow founder, on the other hand, was completely happy with maintaining a modest company over which he had full control, instead of becoming an employee at someone else’s company.
“Whether you are a founder or a carpenter, I encourage you to consider why you are entering Startupland.”
Getting clarity about why you want to start a new company is important. Every prospective entrepreneur or startup -Joiner with whom I chat has another reason why they want to get this crazy ride. Some want the autonomy and control that comes from their own boss (a myth if you take out capital) or the possibility to innovate quickly. Some want to prove themselves to their families and friends, or want to influence the world. However, it is difficult to imagine what that path will look like or feel as soon as a company is working or when it is time to pursue an exit or, for some, to throw the towel in their hand because they simply cannot get there for a number of reasons.
Whether you are a founder or a carpenter, I encourage you to consider why you enter Startupland and what success means that you go beyond the potential for a major financial result. Make a note of your thoughts in one way or another, so that you can think about this over time, because how success could see today, can change when you grow up during the trip.
ThisarticleOriginally published in the next Big Idea Club magazine and is reprinted with permission.
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