Editor’s note: In the second of a series about the five levels of startups, entrepreneur and blogger Joe Procopio talks about Level 2: Start. (Part one is linked with this post.).
DURHAM, N.C. – The five stages of startup I’m discussing are not THE five stages of startup. They’re just landmarks, broken down and generalized into something that we can all hopefully use as a guide, not gospel.
Last time, I defined and discussed the first level of what’s basically a generalized startup timeline. Level 1: The Jump, covers the period of time before the thing is actually a thing — when it’s just a great idea that will become a great product that can be sold to a market by a company.
And, of course, the moment when the entrepreneur has decided that they’re all in on starting that company.
Read Level 1: The Jump if you haven’t.
Now let’s start making stuff.
Level 2: Start
Level 2 begins at that all-important point when the company is real and you arrive for your first day of work. Oh yeah, congratulations on the new job. Celebrate, but then get to work. This is where you make your new job into a real job.
Start is entirely about creating both the product and the company – they will work together as one symbiotic machine that, ultimately, will solve a big problem for your market. The company and product are usually indistinguishable, and the founders are tasked with getting both off the ground at the same time.
This is also the level that everyone associates with the Hollywood version of startup. This is the daring young genius tucked into a dorm room under a hoodie level. This is the Mark Zuckerberg wanna-be level. The Shark Tank level.
Don’t fall for any of that, because despite everything you’ve learned from television and the movies, this is the level at which you will most likely fail.
There’s much more to the column. Read the rest at joeprocopio.com
(C) Joe Procopio
