Sunday, May 20, 2018

STARTUP SPECIAL.... A word from the wise


A word from the wise

Every business will face some unique challenges as it grows. It helps to get advice from those who have been in your shoes. Read on to find out what tips these seven successful startup founders have to share for budding entrepreneurs

Amy Chasan
Sweet Generation
‘Build an incredible team’
Sweet Generation is a New York City bakery where the pastries are handmade by groups of at-risk youth learning professional skills. “Whether it’s just you and one other person, or you and 15 other people — you spend more time with your team than your family, so you have to love them. They ultimately will make or break the sustainability of what you are working so hard to build,” Chasan says.

Ben Anderson
Amino Apps
‘Surround yourself with a group of people with diverse viewpoints and experiences’
Amino Apps allows users to create apps based on different interests and launch them through the Amino platform. Anderson’s advice to those following his footsteps — “When starting and building a company, you’re constantly battling the unknown. You need diverse input from people who have a variety of backgrounds and perspectives who can help you look at issues through a new lens. This leads to higher-quality decisions”

Jack Kramer
MarketSnacks
“Know, don’t think”
MarketSnacks puts out a daily finance newsletter geared toward millennials. “We use fantastic, engaging, visually sleek surveys to constantly gain insights on our readers in a non-intrusive way — they love participating so we can further sculpt our product to meet their needs. We convert ‘I think’ what they want to ‘I know’ what they want,” Kramer says about his success.

Neil Grimmer
Habit
‘Make your business personal’
Habit provides customers with DNA and other kinds of testing so they can learn more about their specific nutritional needs. But starting a business like this isn’t easy. “It requires long hours and personal sacrifice, and can be tough on you. So it has to be meaningful and something you believe will transform lives,” Grimmer says.

Rus Yusupov
HQ Trivia
‘Bring something to life’
HQ Trivia hosts free, live trivia events for people all over the world, where winners receive cash prizes. According to Yusupov, “Profound motivations will take you a lot further than chasing money or a big exit. Bring something to life, solve a real problem or just build a big vision of the future.”

Evgeny Milyutin
Happy Numbers
‘Invest time in your customer’
Happy Numbers helps teachers personalise math instruction through an artificial intelligence-enabled math education platform. Milyutin’s advice is to “understand exactly what their day looks like and what keeps them up at night.
A true understanding of all their pain points, even if they are not directly related to the problem your product is solving, will help you develop a solution that customers will trust. It also will give you lots of ideas of what else you can do for your customer.”

Kelly Peeler
NextGenVest
‘Keep your end user top of mind’
NextGenVest helps students navigate the college financialaid process. Trained college students provide assistance to college applicants via text message. “There are a lot of problems to solve when building a business that can distract you from delivering real value to your users. You should wake up thinking about your end user and to go to bed thinking about your end user,” Peeler says.

businessinsider.in


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