Early-Stage Founders Need to Avoid These Pitfalls
Before entrepreneurs can think about term sheets, cap tables and exits, they have to start at the very beginning, with an idea. However, the ideation process can be extremely challenging. Many entrepreneurs never transform their ideas into a businesses.To learn how early-stage entrepreneurs can turn their ideas into successful companies, Hyde Park Angels interviewed Mark Tebbe. Mark was the original founder, CEO and chairman of Lante Corporation, which after going public was sold and became Razorfish, and the founder and chairman of Answers.com. He currently teaches at entrepreneurship at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and serves as chairman of ChicagoNEXT.
“No business ever follows a straight path. It’s a constant iteration, a constant shifting because what you have to do is listen to what your customers are asking you to do, what problems do they have,” stressed Tebbe.
As an entrepreneur, your job is to focus on the problem you are trying to solve for your customer, not maintain the integrity of your original idea. Listening is essential to success because your idea cannot evolve into a viable business without a clear understanding of your audience. Consequently, you have to be prepared for rapid iteration, maintain a flexible mindset and stay curious about your customer.
In other words, you have to be inquisitive and interactive. Mark recommends, “Go out and meet your customer. Get out of the building. Go meet them in their space.” Once you’re in that space, focus on learning as much from the unsaid as requests. Your customers may not always know what would fix their problems, or even what their real problems are. This is where you need to focus on reading the situation and asking insightful questions.
For example, ask your customers how they would conceive of their problems on different platforms or through different tools. Try to understand the kinds of solutions they’ve already put in place, and the logic they relied on to develop them. Ask them to walk you through their workflows or typical day-to-day experiences, and how the specific pain point either affects (or does not affect) them. Going beyond, “What is your problem?” and “Here’s how I can fix that,” will help you develop a much more disruptive, sticky solution.
As Mark puts it, taking the time to understand your customer will allow you to “fail fast, fail cheaply, but fail often,” which will allow you to “build and create a success opportunity.”
Hear more of his lessons learned in the video above.
About Hyde Park Angels
Hyde Park Angels is transforming early-stage investing by taking a people first approach. By matching our members’ expertise with entrepreneurs’ needs, we help develop top-performing companies that are delivering extraordinary results. Our approach has led us to become the largest and most active angel group in the Midwest.
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