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The Smart Techie was renamed Siliconindia India Edition starting Feb 2012 to continue the nearly two decade track record of excellence of our US edition.

January - 2010 - issue > Entrepreneurial Lessons

Key Ingredients for a Successful Startup

Ajay Jain
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Ajay Jain
Today’s tough economy and financial outlook provides a sobering reminder that an abundance of capital (as was the case recently) is not the only ingredient to building a business. Young entrepreneurs often see ‘access to capital’ as their biggest challenge. However, the two more important factors to successful entrepreneurship and start-ups are:

1. The business idea/gap in the economic fabric that is being patched by the new products/ services offerings and an incredible focus on that alone

2. The attitude of the founders and the incessant inner drive to succeed in business.

Entrepreneurs must focus on building an incredibly enduring business—one that can last for a long time, all the while demonstrating a sustained market value. The business idea/gap one is trying to fulfill must be based upon a solid foundation of innovation; without which the value proposition always will remain on a shaky ground.

Innovation does not mean radical changes but rather, a consistent dose of enhancements to products/services and a continual desire to explore better means of conducting business. The reason for a large number of failures in the world of start-ups is the lack of real innovation in business ideas despite the abundance of available capital. Without innovation in an already-crowded market, start-ups will have an extremely hard time solidifying their value proposition for their core target audience and creating a business that is built for the long term.


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