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May - 2016 - issue > CXO Insights

Eight Simple Ways to Build Successful Start-Ups

Chandrashekar BN, Chief Consulting Officer, Ampligrow Consulting
Friday, June 3, 2016
Chandrashekar BN, Chief Consulting Officer, Ampligrow Consulting
Ampligrow Consulting specializes in Strategic Initiatives, Business Consulting and Frameworks and provides solutions to business-critical problems across vast industry domains

Just before launching my own entrepreneurial venture, I was researching the success rate of start-ups and new businesses. The statistics that are available on the topic is mindboggling! 75 percent of the start-ups disintegrate within three years. When we specifically look at technology start-ups, the percentage of failure goes up to 90 percent.

I have been fortunate to have worked very closely with several entrepreneurs, either as a partner in helping build the organisations or in more recent times, as a coach to some of the best first generation entrepreneurs. These interactions have taught me simple rules to ensure success on an enterprise.

1. Accept What We Do Not Know: I have seen several businesses which started around a great idea, but quickly fall by the way side because of lack of expertise/knowledge outside of the founding members' core competency. So, the first item on the to-do-list for a founder is to identify his/her core competency ; and this, more often than not, is deep insights into a specific domain or technology. The second step is most critical - identifying and building complimentary competencies around the core business idea. Identifying a coach or a mentor would make this task easy.

2. Choose Right People For Right Reasons: Given the limitations around funding, many start-ups may not have the 'purchase power' to hire the best brains for every role. Hence, it becomes very important to identify critical roles which needs best of the talent and make sure right people are hired - irrespective of cost. These 'right roles' have to compliment the core competency of the founding team and help creating holistic capability for the organisation.


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