4 Things To Successfully Launch Your Startup

You aren’t the first person to start a business. You are the latest in a long line of entrepreneurs stretching back to the dawn of time. Their work means that you don’t have to start from scratch, and you can take advantage of the learnings of the many who have gone before you to help make your startup a success.

Tony Clemendor is the CEO of Founder’s Forge and has been hosting a Startup SuperHero series to help people learn from experts. He’s worked with a lot of startups, and he knows the key principles required for success.

In the second part of this two-part interview series, I connected with Tony about the actions and mindsets needed to launch a profitable business. [Part 1]

What is the first thing a founder needs to do when building a startup?

They should start by validating the concept. What makes founders special is their ability to have unique insights and to see the world in a different way. That’s what often leads to the solutions that they come up with.

However, founders are an “audience of one” and sometimes think that a thing that bothers them, bothers enough people to represent a meaningful market. I often speak with founders that made the mistake of not talking to people in their ideal target market early in the development process. 

In addition to getting confirmation that the founder has identified the right market and that the problem is meaningful, having conversations early on will force the founder to answer the question: Where do I find my target users? That information is a valuable part of a solid go-to-market strategy.

How can you identify a business that you will be well suited for?

Solve a problem that you care about and that afflicts an audience you can relate to.  A founder has to care about both the problem and the user because that will sustain them through the difficult times they will face while building the business.

Read more: forbes