Not just the idea

“What makes a few startups scale?” a member from a startup team I mentor asked, is it the idea or execution? And it made me think. Having been on three such journeys and after achieving certain scale, I will put it down to, its not just idea or execution. Its to do with sharp eye on whats working and whats not.

Focus is a most abused word in startup world. If you ask an entrepreneur, he will always say, I would love to focus but don’t know on what. In the initial stages, you have a rough idea of what you want to do but there are a lot of ifs, you keep expanding the possibilities and narrow them to expand again. So its a constant expand and shrink and expand. If thats what it is, one needs to know when to expand and when to narrow it down. And that comes down to whats working…

Many a times, entrepreneurs love their idea so much, they forget validation. Even the most scaled businesses didn’t start with that exact idea, the founders started with a broad concept and then kept sharpening keeping an eye on whats working.

And, I dont think it can be taught. What differentiates entrepreneurs from managers is this ability. Doesnt mean one is good over the other. In the initial stages of a startup, the uncertainty is too much, an entrepreneur’s job is to bring it down as close to an input output algorithm. As a business moves from too many variables to a few, an entrepreneurial mindset can be limiting. A manager can make a lot better decisions in optimising resources to a multiplier.

And thats the precise reason investors invest a lot in a team than just an idea.