The Scret Behind The Successful Unicorns!

Hey everyone! Give me a quick favor that share this blog to your friends, family members, read the entire blog and leave a comment because to write this blog, I had to research so deep and it costs me around 1 month to gather the knowledge from distinct books, articles and from internet, and I had to compile that all knowledge into one blog with easy vocabulary.  So, let's start: 

At the core of most startups is a force that transforms ideas into products. As customers interact with those products, they generate feedback and data. This feedbacks are both qualitative and quantitative (how many people find it useful and how many people find it unuseful). The products of a startup are really experiments. These experiments help them to learn about how to build a sustainable business and it is the outcome of those experiments. For startups, information is more expensive than money, revenue, sales, etc. Because it can influence and shape the next idea of the startup in future. The secret behind the successful startups like Facebook, Apple, Intuit, and Zappos is the diagram coined by Eric Ries called Build-Measure-Learn Feedback Loop. So, let's break this diagram:

The Startup Formation Process: (BUILD-MEASURE-LEARN)

1. Idea Generation: Every startup begins as an idea and to validate this idea, entrepreneurs rely on two major assumptions: the Value Hypothesis and the Growth Hypothesis. To check these hypotheses, entrepreneurs take experiments. After taking experiments, if these 2 assumptions were true, they build a MVP.

2. Minimum Viable Product (MVP): Entrepreneurs develop a version of their product known as the MVP, designed with minimal effort and development time. The MVP intentionally lacks some features. Because to observe the behaviour of targeted customers. Why? Let's take an example: Me and my friends are trying to build an AI software and we intentionally don't add some features. If our customers really want that features, they will directly tell us that this product should have this feature. And from those feedbacks, we will add that features that our customer really wants. That's why MVP lacks many features.

3. Build Phase: After creating the MVP and after gathering feedbacks, entrepreneurs enter the build phase. In this phase entrepreneurs face a major challenge; whether they are making progress or not. This is where the Innovation Accounting method comes into play. Innovation Accounting is a quantitative approach to gauge startup progress. If you want a detailed blog about Innovation Accounting, let me know.

4. Pivot or Persevere:

• Decision-making: Following the build phase, entrepreneurs collect data from customer interactions. This data informs an important decision of whether to Pivot (make a significant change in strategy) or Persevere (continue with the existing strategy).

• Pivot: If initial hypotheses are proven false, it signals a need for a pivot.

• Persevere: If all aspects of the startup are functioning well, it indicates a need to persevere without significant changes. And build their first product.

Myths about Startup Success:

A lot of people believe that having the right product at the right time is a success. But success is not guaranteed. The example of Facebook illustrates this point. In its early stages, Facebook faced competition, yet it succeeded due to its ability to identify effective strategies and adapt accordingly.

         Successful startups possess the foresight or the ability to identify which parts of their plans are working effectively and which are not. This adaptability is key to achieving breakthrough success.

In summary, the startup journey involves continuous cycles of idea generation, MVP development, and data-driven decision-making through the major feedback loop. Success depends on the ability to adapt strategies based on insights gained from customer interactions. 

*Written by Ahtisham Asif Tantray*