Fantastic Four

While the unicorn stories and dollar millionaire stories in the press make for good copy, its nowhere near the bed of roses when one starts. ‘Me Too’ versions, demanding customers, motivating employees, product development challenges, IP protection, the forever present Cash flow challenges, the elusive paying customers, marketing challenges, nagging investors….. what seemed like a great idea on the back of the napkin suddenly looks like an impossible dream or a fool’s endeavor!
What can keep you going to discover the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel? Here is the listing of the Fantastic Four qualities :

1. Passion : The #1 quality that comes thru when you interact with the first generation entrepreneur is the passion and the consequent conviction. Customers will buy the first product, employees will bite the offer , investors will commit on this quality. Do not let that die no matter the roadblocks!
2. Positivity : What you have achieved so far ( no matter how little that is) and why you should be thankful for and take inspiration from. Think of the distance covered rather than be overawed by how much is left to go. There is no shortage of doubting thomases, cynics, critics in this world. Do not let them kill your positivity. Its infectious!
3. Pivots : Have you looked at possible Pivots from hereon ? would they make a positive difference? Is there a pivot that can change the trajectory?
4. Peers: You don't have to learn everything from your own experience. No matter how unique you think you are, there are similar players who have gone thru similar challenges. Their experiences can teach you what to do and what to stay away from.

No entrepreneur works towards money. Their goals are bigger and better. The Fantastic Four will help them navigate the alligator infested waters!

The fairness of 1%

All over the world, political parties, pundits and socialists whine and crib about the unfairness of 1% of the world claiming a disproportionate share of world's wealth.

Before you think this is a political rant, let me clarify it is not. If you leave out the rank emotions and examine objectively, why only 1%? Why not 5% or 23%?

How many of the people you know think original and how many wait for instructions? How many are comfortable in the comfort of the routine and the usual? How many are comfortable with risk? How many try the unknown and new?

A great many of the world population wait to be driven or instructed or be told what to think and do. The facts about the multitude of  news channels , religious leaders, political leaders bear testimony to this fact. Many wait for a news article or a boss or a pundit on the tube to tell them what to think and do that day and the next. If the herd mentality assures wealth, it will get distributed among this huge majority and become dissipated.

Very very few venture the unknown , take chances and the risks of failures. A much lesser number of people are able to see beyond the immediate and take a bet on where the future is headed. They are ready to take the social and psychological shocks that come with it .

Granted all of them do not make it but the vast majority of those who make it, end up with a return that is proportional to the risks they took.

Before you crib about the unfairness of the 1% of the world who own a disproportionate share of world’s wealth, do think about your own choices and behaviours about where you wanted to be.

MVP vs MSP

MVP - Minimum Viable Product

MSP - Minimum sellable Product

The above ideas are critical for a startup on what to build. The dilemma for a startup is how much cash to burn in getting the first thing completed. MVP typically is that piece of the product that solves a particular problem completely and perhaps even the most efficiently.

But MVP does not necessarily mean customers will buy it. An MSP on the other hand has revenue focus from the word go. It is focused on getting the first paying customer and you build something until someone is willing to pay for it.

MSP is in that sense less idealistic and more pragmatic.

The question that comes next is which is more expensive to build. There is no easy standard answer. Either of them could be costlier. But the MSP agenda ensures that the product development is 'outside in', customer focused , differentiating and value delivering. MSP agenda also brings in an in-built cost control that the product development needs to be cost efficient and viable within the revenue it brings.

If MSP is so intuitively correct, why is it not practiced as often?

For starters, it focuses/limits your product development to a specific market segment instead of appealing to a broader market. This also limits the number of  early adopters in that segment who need to buy your product/offering. Your product could be ahead of time, not different enough or not enough 'wowing'.

But atleast it prevents a dogmatic entrepreneurial pursuit with no sense of cost /current market relevance.

As someone said famously ' War is fought with bullets and not money. But someone has got to  buy the bullets!'

Every startup's vision of changing the world costs money and someone has to pay for it to keep it going!

The Ignored Art of Storytelling

In the age of 140 character tweets, Chat messages, MCQs , 3 minute videos and breaking news ticker headlines, a critical skill that is getting ignored and ill-acquired is Storytelling.
whether you are pitching to investors for funding your startup idea, asking the first customers to try out your product/service, getting customers to commit to a long term relationship, convincing a prospective employee to join, get people to consider your approach vs others, managing investor expectations.... the everyday slots where storytelling becomes critical are just too many.

It is much different from selling/marketing and one will understand it if one knows how the greatest storytellers operate. There are multiple approaches and here are a few:

Frederick Forsyth - Story is conveyed through intricate minute details that make the story credible and almost real

James Patterson - Story is conveyed direct, simple and crisp so you get the storyline development with little effort and attention

Steve Jobs - Story is conveyed through impressive metrics, core principles and 'see it yourself' demos

Agatha Christie - The climax is conceived first and then the story is laid out in reverse order to condition your mind along a journey , the writer wants you to take

Jeff Bezos - Powerpoints are banned and every business idea is written as a a 6 page writeup that needs preparation, delving into multiple aspects with their pros and cons and helping the audience make a 'deeply informed decision'

Economist - Story is explained through style guides that have perfected the art of communicating to the people who matter, in the shortest possible time

Indian epics - story is conveyed through multiple stories embedded one inside the other

Elon Musk - story is conveyed more through the long term vision and the big picture

Bill Clinton - story is communicated by first establishing a deep connect with the audience

Adi Shankara - story is conveyed through rational, logical argument line that answers unasked questions and by removing all the incorrect options

As you can see from the above real world approaches, there is no one single way. And each approach has its strengths and vantage. Another common thread you can see is that more words help the audience picture/imagine better . It is also possible that the picture imagined by each recipient could be different from the other.

A critical enabler for Storytelling is the lost habit of reading. Reading helps energise neurons that the image/video cannot.

Also you might need to change the storytelling approach based on the audience, objective and the content.

No standup comic gets the joke delivery first time right! Keep learning and fine tuning approaches that work and suitable for specific occasions.

It needs significant preparation/homework, judging the audience, right delivery and answering questions.

The results make this way more than worth it !