The 3 Keys To Startup Success — MOSAM KUMAR

90% of startups fail.

That’s the hard fact and harsh truth you cannot ignore. It happens all around us.

By the time you read this sentence, one startup might have failed out there. No, I’m not trying to scare you. I just want you to come out of the dream state and have a healthy dose of reality.

Because you don’t want to be part of that stats, do you?

How can you avoid your dreadful date with failure? What is crucial for startup success? Is there a formula for startup success?

There is no straight answer because hundreds of factors are involved and contribute to startup success. But, among them, three factors top the list.

They remain universal and constant among all the successful startups out there.

If you focus on getting these three right, you have a good chance of becoming one of the 10% startups that succeed. Right market, the right product, and the right message are the three you need to get right.

Right Market

According to a recent study, most of the startups fail because of the lack of market need for the product. The founder comes up with an idea, falls in love with it, spend whatever he or she saved to build the product [aka solution], and when he or she sells it, no one is there to buy it.

He or she tries harder, spend more, and still, no one wants it. Then he runs out of money, and the startup dies. That’s the story of many of the startups that fail.

You don’t want that to happen to you.

So, before doing anything, spend a lot of time to know the market and make sure it’s a great market with lots of real potential customers. Because the market is the one thing, you cannot change once you’ve started. Make sure you get it right.

Right Product

The next thing you need to get right is the product. The rules are simple. If your product is the first one in the market, don’t worry about building the best product. Build one that works and get it to the market fast.

If you have competitors out there, then focus on building something better, get the customer faster results or reliefs, or cheaper. Talk to your potential customers, get the pulse about their problems, how they feel about the current products or solutions out there, and then build a better one or improve your existing one based on the feedback.

Feedback is the key to building the right product. When you get the market and the product right, you’ll achieve the product-market fit, that will lead you to success. And if you get the third one right, you can be sure about your success.

Right Message

Some might suggest that ‘the team’ is the third critical component. But to build the right product, you got to get the right team. So it gets covered there. Many products have failed even in the right markets because of one big, fat reason. They didn’t get the message right and communicate product features and benefits correctly to potential customers.

You might have built the best product out there. But if you don’t communicate the features and benefits of the product, no-one will know or hear about it. And unless your potential customers hear about it and believe that it’s the right product for them, it won’t sell.

That’s why your message matters. Without the right message, the right product cannot reach the right market and won’t succeed.

And those are the three crucial keys to your startup success. If it doesn’t make much sense right now, don’t worry. We’ll revisit them more in-depth in future emails.

Now, it’s your turn. According to you, what matters most for startup success?

I would love to hear them.

Cheers, MOSAM