During a video interview with Sid Paquette, Head of RBCx, he shared his top advice for early-stage entrepreneurs and investors (the video will be available on my YouTube channel in a couple of days).
I thought that sharing my top advice for startups would be a great topic to cover. Below are my insights, gleaned over 20 years in the financial services and tech industries. Half-way through the article, I realized that I had a lot to share so, to keep it manageable, this will be a 2 part edition - Stay tuned!🙂
Entrepreneurs, investors and advisors of startups can create great success by following some simple rules. Focusing on selling being one of them.
Vet your investors (Sid Paquette). Actively due diligence your sources of capital, and focus on past entrepreneurs who went through difficult times along these investors. You want to know how the chips might fall when all hell breaks loose (because at some point it will).
Get started. Whether it is a new company, a new product or a new geography don’t wait to start. You can business plan and powerpoint to death, but The Universe likes momentum, make the first step (which doesn’t mean quit your day-job overnight!). You don’t need to have it all figured out to get going.
Test the market. As early as you can, organize discovery calls with potential clients tabling your future offering. Your ideas will evolve accordingly and if there is limited appetite, you won’t have wasted too much resources. Beware of people telling you what you want to hear. The best litmus test is to ask for pre-order, suddenly the tone might change.
Start small. Regardless of your business model, go to market with a limited offering. It doesn’t mean that overtime your products and services range will not be large, but starting small and demonstrating success is a great strategy (watch Marshall Pynkoski interview on that topic).
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