The Fundamentals Pillars of a Successful Start-up?

This article will breakdown what I believe are the core elements for success that many choose to ignore, usually at their peril. Based on the ‘6 Pillars to Build a Successful Startup Ecosystem’ which comes in many different flavours. But to keep it simple, they are: –

1. Product
2. Access to Capital
3. Leadership
4. People
5. Culture
6. Marketing and Communication.

 

• and Product and Capital

Having a great idea is fundamental but the product needs to deliver, not just in doing ‘what it says on the tin’ but it has to have a smooth UX/UI interface that is simple and works well, getting acceptance not just from buyers but from users. We live in a software as a service (SaaS) world and renewals are as important as new sales. It’s pointless if you’re paddling twenty to the dozen to win clients, if they’re falling off the backend after the first 12 months. Capital is important as it gets you in the game and buys you time to fix what needs fixing; having access to capital is paramount. Very few get everything working 100% from day one, because it’s a process. The product needs to just keep getting better, the broader the foundations, the better. This allows you to build on a solid base improving all the time, delivering what your customers want, as well as what they need. Access to capital gets you in the game, allowing you time for the sales to provide the ongoing needed capital.

3. Leadership

Leadership is the next pillar which includes a lot of sub elements including vision, belief, focus, drive, commitment, management, organization, experience, as well as know-how. This is something that needs to be switched on 24/7 and needs a leader who will take ownership of it. It’s not always the founder or entrepreneur who is the natural leader, sometimes you need to bring that person into the business or build the team to do it. You need people that can develop and document their leadership vision. It’s what new employees are going to buy. People join a startup not just for a salary but for many other reasons, including culture, working with an inspirational leader, someone that they can learn from. Having a completed detailed ‘roadmap’ helps with this and developing a detailed target operating model (TOM) is as important. Therefore, knowing what we are going to do when we achieve X, and not flying by the seat of your pants. People want to know that you “have a plan”, they don’t want to follow someone that is just blagging it. In most cases this is a team of people but invariably levelled against an individual, a CEO.

4. People

People, this is very much my area. For a startup it’s a critical element; finding people that are able to wear multiple hats (more on that later), people that are flexible, high achievers, people that can think outside the box and get things done and people with a history of delivering. Most startup’s need a very high achieving sales team that can deliver multiple millions in sales. It’s not a place in the early days for the new or the cruisers. You need the elite people with the pioneering behaviour, experienced individuals that have done it before several times. Selling a product no one has ever seen, heard of, or sold before and it naturally takes a ‘little bit of secret sauce’ something that few people have. Finding those people and getting a couple that have it, pays dividends big time. Startup’s are typically places that you need to be, self-reliant, you don’t have people to pick up the slack, you need to be able to do everything yourself so multi-skilled, experienced individuals are best.  The same applies in the other areas and departments as well. Getting exceptional people to lead each department allows you to bring in additional highly educated, cheaper resources behind them that become invaluable over time and  if led and mentored by the high calibre individuals it keeps the intellectual property (IP) in the company for an extended time, and is great for retention.

5. Culture

Culture is also very important and typically set by the leadership and the sales team. It’s the hype and vision that they embrace and build upon with success that drives and inspires the rest of the team as they come onboard, it’s what they really buy. Getting this sorted and making it honest and clean with good processes and procedures in place is important from the ‘get go’, so everyone knows what’s going on and what the rules are. Therefore, how you work and where, the working environment, the ethics and values of the company, what’s acceptable and what isn’t. Getting this right and documented so everyone knows what the culture is, allows your new people to adopt it quickly. In the early days it’s a representation of those first few people you hire and it then develops over time. However, it needs documenting and the formal processes and procedures putting in place, so everyone understands what it is, along with the companies ‘mission statement’, as this results in a clear, healthy culture.

6. Marketing and Communication

Marketing and Communication are in fact two separate things that are intrinsically linked and creating presence in the marketplace as well as supporting the sales team’s efforts, is another critical pillar. Getting the marketing engine rolling and pumping out opportunities is essential for any startup’s success, but keeping those opportunities coming through, in order to grow is everything. The communication element is the other side of the page. This applies to internal and external communication, ensuring that this is both detailed and unambiguous. Ensuring that it’s targeted and personalised to each individual audience and ensuring that each persona is detailed and targeted for the individual buyer. Making sure that all the marketing communication collateral is of the highest calibre and that the messages are clear and succinct.

To summarise, getting these 6 pillars up and running might sound achievable to many of you and in most cases, it is, but only if you put the right level of rigor into getting them sorted and hiring the right level of people.

The difficulty in 9 out of 10 startup’s is getting it right consistently. These 6 pillars need constant nurturing; they are there, but not something you do once and forget about. Over the years, I’ve seen many companies get it right and then lose the focus and stop nurturing these core functions. These are the foundation pillars, disrespect them at your peril, as they need constant attention.

I would strongly suggest any startup to put a ‘traffic light system’ in place to measure these 6 pillars on a monthly or quarterly basis. You might say they are a view into the health of the company. For example, if one or more start to fail going from green to amber, its likely ‘there may be trouble ahead’, which can quickly derail what appeared to be a strong, successful, and growing startup. This is something that the management team can do as part of their regular review or reporting to the board.