Startups can benefit from some guidance
In the second grade, I entered an invention contest. I had a great idea in mind and wanted to introduce it to the rest of my class. That invention? The Sharpencil, a brilliant product that would always keep your pencils sharp. Take off the rose-colored glasses, however, and the Sharpencil is actually a No. 2 pencil with a mini-sharpener attached to the end of the pencil with a cheap rubber band. I still can’t figure out why, but the Sharpencil never really took off.
But when a little invention called Twitter tweeted it would be filing with the SEC for an initial public offering earlier this month, the projections for its valuation burned the house down: CNBC estimates peg it somewhere between $10 and $20 billion.
Like many startups that made it big, Twitter began with entrepreneurship. In Twitter’s case, it literally started on the notepad of founder Jack Dorsey. But Dorsey’s journey wasn’t all blue birds and billions: Entrepreneurship demands vital skills and personal values such as ambition, passion, risk-taking and foresight.
As demonstrated by the Sharpencil, however, entrepreneurship is not for everyone. For an idea or product to come together, grow and expand, a number of elements need to fall into place. Robert Leon, the vice president of sales at Venice-based startup Gravity, has seen firsthand what goes into a solid startup. I had the chance to interview him to see what goes into a successful startup, and though the following points might not apply to all entrepreneurs, they certainly wouldn’t hurt to try out.
1. Bring in people you’ve worked with before
As enticing as it might sound to bring your friends on board, it’s probably in your best interest to round up some top-notch people you’ve worked with before. Gravity was founded by Amit Kapur, the former COO at MySpace, as well as Jim Benedetto and Steve Pearman, both former senior vice presidents at MySpace.
“[Kapur, Benedetto and Pearman] are really senior guys,” Leon said. “They had a lot of respect in terms of their own abilities, and they had a really compelling vision of what they wanted to do, and it just excited people.”
2. Be open-minded about recruiting
If there are people interested in working at your startup but they don’t fit the bill for any open positions, don’t immediately turn them down. Though you weren’t actively looking for them at first, these people might have other skills and talents to offer that could eventually prove to be beneficial.
“We’ve had people who write emails — just cold emails — to the company, like, ‘Jobs at Gravity,’” Leon said. “Nick [a current Gravity employee] wrote this perfect email and he was very, very specific about what he was looking for. If they’re sales and they need to reach out cold to people, it’s all part of the job.”
3. Keep calm and work on
No startup is flawless. It’s a fact that a lot of entrepreneurs probably don’t want to admit, but every startup runs into at least a couple of issues, be they financial, organizational or otherwise.
“You have to be optimistic to almost a bizarre point because you have so many things that can go wrong,” Leon said. “You have to have this optimism to inspire people [around] you. Some people have great experience, but you also want happy warriors in startups.”
So don’t get flustered if you run into problems — solve them from a logical standpoint, learn from those mistakes and continue working.
4. Always put the user first
Putting the focus on users might seem obvious, but many startups do fail because they do not conduct focus groups or user research interviews.
“People like being advertised to well. And it’s trying to find where that line is,” Leon said. “[Gravity.com] introduces you to cool things and caters to your interests.” At Gravity, advertising — which might not seem very user-friendly in itself — is being transformed into a new experience for the user.
5. Take your time
Being one of the founders of a startup is an exciting feeling. It’s hard not to share your hot new idea with everyone around, hoping you’ll get some extra supporters (and maybe some extra cash, too). But you’ll want to slow down before actively publicizing your product. Before the publicity, Gravity’s founding team spent a couple of years making sure their product was as flawless as possible.
“They had a lot of funding, and they spent a lot of time building the tech before going to market,” Leon said. “It’s pretty cool, how they just incrementally built the core product and the engineering team first.” Unless you’re signed to a contract, there’s no real hurry. Make sure again and again that everything runs smoothly.
6. Money on the mind
It might sound greedy, but one of the most important aspects of running a successful startup is money. You could have a fantastic idea or a ton of seed funding, but at the end of the day, your product has to have some way of generating revenue.
“When you think about business models, ads are really great. If you can get adoption and distribution and if you have a really cool ad model, you can make tons of money,” Leon said. Advertisements, though a popular and proven model, aren’t always for everyone. Subscriptions, fees, add-ons and more are just some ways to help monetize a business.
7. Work hard, play hard
A startup, especially in its early development, will require a lot of time. If you find that your life and your startup are becoming synonymous, at least have some fun at it. Though Gravity is a serious company, they’re also serious about making sure employees get some downtime. Working right by Venice Beach, employees sometimes take a break by changing into their wetsuits to head over to the beach for a brief surfing session.
8. If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em
If all else fails, there’s always the chance to hop onto another startup. Because even if your grand idea does not play out as expected, you’ll at least learn a thing or two from the experience.
Sara Clayton is a junior majoring in public relations. Her column “Tech Today” runs Tuesdays.
Follow Sara on Twitter @saraclay15