7 + 3 Lessons From Failed Startups
Great Inc post on lessons from a failed startup include:
1. Consider the entire experience
2. Raise money when you can not when you need too
3. Don't give away equity too soon or too fast
Read the other 4 from the Inc post: https://www.inc.com/yoram-solomon/7-lessons-you-should-learn-from-my-failed-startup.html
I'd add three of my own lessons from my "failed startup":
1. Don't think in terms of success and failure, win and lose. Think about impact, learning, and potential. Startups require a more nuanced sense of win/lose.
2. Don't hire your friends even if they are the right people because you are probably blind to faults, issues, or other "round peg in square hole" problems with friends.
3. Create any startup in collaboration with customers. Don't do the "mad inventor" thing and go off and think you've created a better mousetrap. You won't. Instead, collaborate and build on what you learn from real customers facing immediate problems.
A tad "old school" but helpful selling tips such as:
#1 Initiating Contact
#2 Quick Qualification
#3 Demonstrate Your Offer
etc.
There are 10 similar "sales 101" tips. P&G taught me an excellent format to tell a sales story (back in the day lol):
Summarize The Situation (set up your pitch factually)
State The Idea (clear, short, punchy)
Explain How It Works (use examples and made to stick analogies)
Share Benefits (only two benefits make or save money)
We BUY with EMOTION and that format is organized around logic, but skillful salespeople know how to weave that format into what feels like a spontaneous and relevant story.
One of my favorite quotes is the old Indian saying:
Tell me a fact and I’ll learn. Tell me a truth and I’ll believe. But tell me a story and it will live in my heart forever.
Use the P&G format to organize but then riff a story, follow up with relevant links and social media to "simply sell" today.