Most Entrepreneurs have gone through this phase of building a company
- You conceives an idea, get excited about it or
- Identify a problem and believe it can be developed into a company.
If your idea is organic, read this - You write it in your journal or idea bank , tell a friend about it,
- You receive either a negative or positive feedback
- You either drop the idea or get a little motivated to further expand it
- Makes a research about the viability of the idea
- You begin to add flesh to bones in writing
- If your research proved otherwise you drop it here and pick another idea or
- You found out that its really a problem and a solution can be carved out of it
- You write your Elevator Pitch and being to tell others, possibly somebody who can connect you to an investor
- If you intend to do an elevator pitch read this
- You can make it happen yourself so you bootstrap and pitch it after a year or two at techCrunch 70 or
- You put together an executive summary and possibly a full 30 page business plan or
- If you are a geek or a nerd you avoid the business plan and put together a prototype or demo and apply to Y Combinator
- If you cannot build it yourself, your leverage is a well documented plan and a paper prototype
- You begin to search for Angel investors through your network on twitter, LinkedIn or facebook
- To increase your chances of getting funded you apply to Techstars, F8, startup weekend or Startup Demo
- As of now you are still alone, either you will rise alone or fall alone.
- If you made a good pitch to your network of friends , you have one or two follow you as co -founders
- You go through the selection process at Techcrunch 70, Y combinator, Techstars, Startup Weekend
- You pitch your idea to a section of angel investors and venture capitalists
- Fortunately the judges were merciful
- You have qualified for funds
- If you have been lucky to this extent, you must listen to this from venture hacks
- Angel investors send their scouts after you if you are lucky
- Fortunately you now have the luxury of choice.
As of now you may still b in the idea phase of your startup, let me take a coffee break and get back to you in my next post cheers.