Startup addiction: how to stop looking for rich suckers and change your tie to slippers
Oddly enough, the meaning of the word “startup” has received many different interpretations in recent years, despite the fact that initially, in the classic sense of the word, a startup is just a newcomer company with a short life that recently started to lead its operating system. activity We will adhere to this interpretation in this article.
Modern start-ups (or startopophilia - whoever you like) have their prerequisites. First of all, it is the successful story of hyper successful Facebook, Vkontakte, etc. In general, there have been successful projects before, and they will be later, but it was the story of Facebook or Vkontakte that made the seemingly incredible thing obvious - not some big business oligarch, but a simple neighbor guy, “Pashka from our yard ", can earn not just big money, but countless treasures that he did not spend in his whole life. We agree that the conditional billion (no matter in what units) for most of us is a very abstract sum that is hard to imagine. And this billion is suddenly lost not to Abramovich and Prokhorov, but to the neighbor's boy, Paschke or Mark, in a washed-up T-shirt and slippers. This is an incentive - after all, it would seem, why am I worse? I also have a washed-out tishortka and slippers.
Only you - worse. And I'm worse. For many reasons, but I'm not talking about that. Now a little about something else. A wave of start-ups saddled ridiculous projects to the point of absurdity. Here, for example, in all seriousness, the guys made an “innovative site” for the sale of nanopowders. They are among the top ten startups (by the number of reviews) of the joint project of the Dozhd TV channel and the Skolkovo Foundation. I specifically have nothing against nanopowders, but I am ready to buy gold nanopowder for a rainy day - at the rates of the central bank. But, unfortunately, the circulation of gold (though nano, though not nano) in the country is strictly regulated.
Creating a project or service is not for people, but in order to enter some speculative lists of successful startups (no matter who creates these lists), one of the reasons that a startup has become an abusive word. The second reason is that young businesses are not created for profit, but for selling a share in it to a “strategic investor”. Moreover, a strategic investor is understood as a sucker, who not only takes upon himself the entire burden of financing a project, but also solves all operational problems for you.
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The paradox is that a good startup does not need money. In a successful startup, fundraising is not a victory, but a defeat. Often - it is a necessity, because funds are needed to ensure rapid growth. And in this stalemate, the founder is forced to make a decision under pressure (and therefore, not always at the price with which he agrees internally). Now, most of the startups - judging by all sorts of startup events, startup weekends, etc. - created in order to obtain funding - and no matter what stage a startup is at and whether it is able to create profit in general. Sometimes at launch sites they seriously voice the thought: “our startup is a non-commercial project”. By golly, not kidding. That is, the project is created in order to get money from the investor, and what will happen with further monetization is the tenth question.
But fortunately, for the most part, startups are going to make money on projects. They will earn later. And the money is needed now.
In essence, why do startups need money? I will not enumerate very humorous requirements. Let's remember what is written in classic startup literature:
- to develop a prototype,
- on marketing.
And then watch your hands.
The first case. Who needs money to build a prototype? And how much does it cost? Well, for example , it costs 500 thousand rubles. Where does the price come from? No, you thought wrong, I do not blame the startup for the fact that the price is too high. Let's follow the technology of price creation. If a startup cannot create a prototype on its own (or with the help of a brother, matchmaker, godfather, neighbor), he is forced to turn to pros, developers (or hire these developers - which, in general, does not matter). So what is included in the cost of creating a prototype? That's right: the cost of creation + developer's profit (or his salary) + taxes. In general, it is not difficult to calculate that in this chain the net cost of the product is significantly lower than the final figure. Then tell me, start-up, why the hell are you hanging additional and non-earmarked expenses on other people's shoulders from an investor's point of view? Why should these costs be borne by the investor?
In general, it should. Overhead is a part of any business. But the costs must be incurred in proportion to the distribution of shares. Give 20% of the business - pay 80% of overhead from your own pocket. You can not create a prototype, run a website, create a working model - then tell me, what are you doing at startup wikinde? Get up and go learn coding, look for programmer friends, look at your neighbors, maybe there are lovers of slippers and sweaty sweatshirts with a hood at the zipper among them.
The second case , the most common at start-up gatherings. There is a website - it doesn’t matter what it is: a service, an online store, media, a social network - but there are no visitors. Nobody needs this site. A startup needs money for advertising. Do not feel the catch? And so: a startup needs NOT ADVERTISING, but money for advertising. Why money? Because there is no marketing plan (and, as a rule, there is no experience in disposing of this money), and there is a blind belief that money solves this problem.
Any major player in the advertising market has default traffic, which, relatively speaking, has been bought out, but not sold. This applies to any media - from outdoor to TV. On the Internet there is a context, media, search traffic. And there are major players that this traffic can receive by default - media operators, large context resellers, large optimization firms.
Now the main question - why not go to the operators for the "marketing", and are looking for business angels and investors? Because the operator is a professional. And he will see you in two accounts.
But in fact, it turns out that business angels and investors are not those who call themselves such, but who have a successful background in this field are also professionals. And poor start-upers wander from event to event, from weekend to weekend. Looking for mythical suckers with cheap money. And those, in general, no.
And now let's summarize.
There is only one successful startup business model. There must be a leader - no matter how to call him: a team leader or something else - the essence is that there must be a person who is personally responsible for the business. Before the investor (if any), but above all - in front of his team. There must be a product. No matter what stage. But you should develop this product yourself, and not shift its development to someone else. There must be a team that believes in the product so much that it is ready to work for free. Either you are looking for internal reserves to contain this command. Yes, almost impossible requirement. But who said it would be easy? Go to the bank, take a consumer loan, borrow money from your parents, marry a rich widow. But the content of the team is your headache. The investor will not take on this problem. But after that the investor will come to you himself. And offer you yourself. Because what you have is much more important than investment in the development of a project. And you, by the way, will refuse money. Because you will not need them. And if you take it, it means, indeed, it is secured. And you can breathe out and say to yourself - I grew up from short pants. The startup moves to another stage of development.
Modern start-ups (or startopophilia - whoever you like) have their prerequisites. First of all, it is the successful story of hyper successful Facebook, Vkontakte, etc. In general, there have been successful projects before, and they will be later, but it was the story of Facebook or Vkontakte that made the seemingly incredible thing obvious - not some big business oligarch, but a simple neighbor guy, “Pashka from our yard ", can earn not just big money, but countless treasures that he did not spend in his whole life. We agree that the conditional billion (no matter in what units) for most of us is a very abstract sum that is hard to imagine. And this billion is suddenly lost not to Abramovich and Prokhorov, but to the neighbor's boy, Paschke or Mark, in a washed-up T-shirt and slippers. This is an incentive - after all, it would seem, why am I worse? I also have a washed-out tishortka and slippers.
Only you - worse. And I'm worse. For many reasons, but I'm not talking about that. Now a little about something else. A wave of start-ups saddled ridiculous projects to the point of absurdity. Here, for example, in all seriousness, the guys made an “innovative site” for the sale of nanopowders. They are among the top ten startups (by the number of reviews) of the joint project of the Dozhd TV channel and the Skolkovo Foundation. I specifically have nothing against nanopowders, but I am ready to buy gold nanopowder for a rainy day - at the rates of the central bank. But, unfortunately, the circulation of gold (though nano, though not nano) in the country is strictly regulated.
Creating a project or service is not for people, but in order to enter some speculative lists of successful startups (no matter who creates these lists), one of the reasons that a startup has become an abusive word. The second reason is that young businesses are not created for profit, but for selling a share in it to a “strategic investor”. Moreover, a strategic investor is understood as a sucker, who not only takes upon himself the entire burden of financing a project, but also solves all operational problems for you.
')
The paradox is that a good startup does not need money. In a successful startup, fundraising is not a victory, but a defeat. Often - it is a necessity, because funds are needed to ensure rapid growth. And in this stalemate, the founder is forced to make a decision under pressure (and therefore, not always at the price with which he agrees internally). Now, most of the startups - judging by all sorts of startup events, startup weekends, etc. - created in order to obtain funding - and no matter what stage a startup is at and whether it is able to create profit in general. Sometimes at launch sites they seriously voice the thought: “our startup is a non-commercial project”. By golly, not kidding. That is, the project is created in order to get money from the investor, and what will happen with further monetization is the tenth question.
But fortunately, for the most part, startups are going to make money on projects. They will earn later. And the money is needed now.
In essence, why do startups need money? I will not enumerate very humorous requirements. Let's remember what is written in classic startup literature:
- to develop a prototype,
- on marketing.
And then watch your hands.
The first case. Who needs money to build a prototype? And how much does it cost? Well, for example , it costs 500 thousand rubles. Where does the price come from? No, you thought wrong, I do not blame the startup for the fact that the price is too high. Let's follow the technology of price creation. If a startup cannot create a prototype on its own (or with the help of a brother, matchmaker, godfather, neighbor), he is forced to turn to pros, developers (or hire these developers - which, in general, does not matter). So what is included in the cost of creating a prototype? That's right: the cost of creation + developer's profit (or his salary) + taxes. In general, it is not difficult to calculate that in this chain the net cost of the product is significantly lower than the final figure. Then tell me, start-up, why the hell are you hanging additional and non-earmarked expenses on other people's shoulders from an investor's point of view? Why should these costs be borne by the investor?
In general, it should. Overhead is a part of any business. But the costs must be incurred in proportion to the distribution of shares. Give 20% of the business - pay 80% of overhead from your own pocket. You can not create a prototype, run a website, create a working model - then tell me, what are you doing at startup wikinde? Get up and go learn coding, look for programmer friends, look at your neighbors, maybe there are lovers of slippers and sweaty sweatshirts with a hood at the zipper among them.
The second case , the most common at start-up gatherings. There is a website - it doesn’t matter what it is: a service, an online store, media, a social network - but there are no visitors. Nobody needs this site. A startup needs money for advertising. Do not feel the catch? And so: a startup needs NOT ADVERTISING, but money for advertising. Why money? Because there is no marketing plan (and, as a rule, there is no experience in disposing of this money), and there is a blind belief that money solves this problem.
Any major player in the advertising market has default traffic, which, relatively speaking, has been bought out, but not sold. This applies to any media - from outdoor to TV. On the Internet there is a context, media, search traffic. And there are major players that this traffic can receive by default - media operators, large context resellers, large optimization firms.
Now the main question - why not go to the operators for the "marketing", and are looking for business angels and investors? Because the operator is a professional. And he will see you in two accounts.
But in fact, it turns out that business angels and investors are not those who call themselves such, but who have a successful background in this field are also professionals. And poor start-upers wander from event to event, from weekend to weekend. Looking for mythical suckers with cheap money. And those, in general, no.
And now let's summarize.
There is only one successful startup business model. There must be a leader - no matter how to call him: a team leader or something else - the essence is that there must be a person who is personally responsible for the business. Before the investor (if any), but above all - in front of his team. There must be a product. No matter what stage. But you should develop this product yourself, and not shift its development to someone else. There must be a team that believes in the product so much that it is ready to work for free. Either you are looking for internal reserves to contain this command. Yes, almost impossible requirement. But who said it would be easy? Go to the bank, take a consumer loan, borrow money from your parents, marry a rich widow. But the content of the team is your headache. The investor will not take on this problem. But after that the investor will come to you himself. And offer you yourself. Because what you have is much more important than investment in the development of a project. And you, by the way, will refuse money. Because you will not need them. And if you take it, it means, indeed, it is secured. And you can breathe out and say to yourself - I grew up from short pants. The startup moves to another stage of development.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/120414/
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