Quickest test to check if your startup idea will win

I bumped into this article about failed startups whose founders eventually moved on to something else. You wouldn't find such stories very often. It describes why many startups were not able to survive in short and bitter excerpts from the founders.

Your startup would win ONLY if you do at least one or more of the following to your customer

1. Solve a crucial pain they have in a wrong place
2. Help them make them more money
3. Cut their cost
4. Save time


If your customer is aware of the problem and how crucial it is, probably he is already looking for a solution, So selling your product would be pretty straight forward. But hey, you are not the only player in the market so he is going to be looking for alternatives. You will have to prove your durable competitive advantage to him to have a winner.

On the other hand, if your customer is not even aware of the pain area, then making him realise would be a herculean task ! But remember once he perceives it to be crucial problem, then you have an easy winner in your solution or product. If you manage to do this, you've actually managed to create a niche market of your own and have the first mover advantage.

The other 3 need no explanation, you win if your customer wins !

If your startup idea is about doing something else, STOP right there and go back to sleep, dream more !

Innovation

A recent news about India's Smart Grid Task Force pushed my interest in further probing about Innovation in India.

Taking or Bringing technology to the grass roots to solve problems is a great way to innovate. Business today explains how Indian companies have managed to innovate. Their recent issue also talks about a handful of independent Indians have managed to do it at their level. One hot startup ideas (next to only to social media strategising) is Innovation consulting - helping other startups and companies to innovate. Quoting BT, a few myths about innovation are

1. Innovation is expensive, demanding lots of resources... Failure to innovate is what is costly.
2. Create hundreds of ideas because of high failure rates... Fewer, bolder ideas based on your company's capabilities and unmet customer needs you discover work best.
3. Early financial analysis is key to approving concepts... Nearly always wrong—build prototypes instead.

Surprisingly, it looks like the National Knowledge Commission's (NKC) very definition and viewpoint on the topic is in contrastingly different. According to its report on innovation,

The Innovation ecosystem is a complex environment that requires the coordinated functioning of a number of diverse factors in order to function effectively. Innovation also needs to become as wide spread as possible, spreading across the entire economy, from the grassroots to the large firm level. It is felt that a comprehensive effort to address these issues would act as a critical enabling factor for India to be amongst the global leaders in Innovation.

We will have to wait and see how fast the NKC manages to do the above, considering the fact that the smart grid initiative which was launched recently was suggested years ago by a Stanford University student here