A question that lingers in the minds of many working professionals, either experienced or freshers, is whether they should build their own startup or not.A study by Harvard has shown that there are three primary reasons people venture into startups:<ul><li>Many times, it's driven by a zest to really solve a problem that is faced by the future founder itself.</li><li>Sometimes, a major gap is discovered in an industry/sector that the future founder feels he can cover and make money.</li><li>The third reason is love for a particular industry/sector and motivation to grow aggressively..</li></ul>

Building One's Own Startup

Starting up due to Love for a particular industry is often the outcome of creative thinkers, who start their own firm, with the key investment being their creativity.Startup founders are divided into two buckets: Billionaires 1 & 2.

The Two Buckets Of Founders

These are the ones who experiment right from their college days. Most of the time, they connect to the third reason for building a startup- creativity. They love a specific industry and really want to make their mark on it. The biggest advantage college students have is that of low liabilities and tons of resources.A downside is that it's often the first time that they are building anything, and as such, they often make a lot of mistakes, which might hamper the growth or development of their service/product.

Billionaires 1

These are folks who have worked in a particular industry for at least 3-4 years and have identified a gap, which forms the genesis of their startup vision. The gap can be something small, like optimization of a particular sales/marketing/manufacturing process, or building an entirely different operating and business model for the same industry.These folks are quite well suited for a startup, having prior professional experience, knowledge of how things work, soft skills, team building, management, etc.

Billionaires 2

Across all the three reasons and two buckets, a thing that's common is the endpoint. The startup works or it doesn’t. In either case, the founder benefits a lot. For he is someone who has learned real-life lessons, has donned multiple hats, has built a team, a product, a business stream, managed the branding, marketing, etc. These are all the things the founding team is actually expected to do and with this experience, any founder becomes a valuable asset to the organization.

The Endpoint

The question, should you start up, is highly qualitative in nature. Is the problem statement you identified big enough? Do you have any liabilities? Would you be the one who can wear multiple hats for at least 1 year of the startup? Do you have co-founders who are with you on your vision? Do you have enough money in the bank that can sustain you for at least 6months? Do you have industry knowledge of the problem you are solving? A founder needs to be honest about the above questions and gauge independently the feasibility.

The Main Question

We have met folks who are in their 40s and 50s who regret not working on a startup in their 20s. There are folks in their 20s who think they should build a startup once their life is settled off, probably in their late 30s or 40s. And then there are 19-year-olds who think they should start up after some experience. There is no right or wrong age, it's just a moment and the scenarios that help in making the decision.

The Bottom Line

myPluto helps small teams, young entrepreneurs and ,aspiring product managers to navigate the development of their first product in a structured manner.

Stashed ideas

Why Should You Startup?

Both start-up and lean start-ups begin with an idea but the major difference occurs with the speed of the process.

Differen

Start-up is a process to create and generate new products through innovation and creativity. But, as reiterated by Erik Reiss, a Lean start-up is a start-up process done very fast. Lean is not for failure, it is a way to stay away from failure by experimenting with the product and market. Lean is built to last, through great experimentation.

Startup Vs Lean Startup 

The start-ups emerge on the basis of ‘build, measure and learn’ . This process is unique to both start-ups and lean start-ups. In the case of building a start-up the process ‘build, measure, and learn’ is a one-time process. But, in a lean start-up, this works in a loop and keeps on working until the product is out and stabilises in the market.

Lean Only

A start-up begins with an idea, feasibility and validity are checked and market demand and many other things are taken into consideration. However, in a lean start-up, things start with an idea but their process is fast. Eric says start up is a great experiment.

Startup Is  A Great Experiment 

Know The easy differences between startupa ND lean startup 

This blog explains few important differences between start-up and lean start-up

Start-up

Start-up and Lean Startup: Differences

For many years Duolingo offered a free app, the company running on investor money. After they raised an 100M VC round from Google they realised they have to start making money:<ul><li>Their first iteration was a user generated translation service they offered to CNN & Buzzfeed. It made them so little money it was shut down.</li><li>They finally landed on ads as a way to incentivise people to get a pro subscription.</li></ul>The ads were chosen because offering the app for free was a key value proposition. The challenging part was convincing the team to go with it, as most of Duolingo thought ads were inherently evil.

Duolingo's Journey to Monetization

Duolingo has a userbase split between:<ul><li>Professionals who want to learn English. Because knowing English is the universal booster to your career.</li><li>Hobbyists who think playing language games are better than scrolling Instagram.</li></ul>Considering the split, phone apps like Insta or Tiktok are Duolingo's biggest competitors.

Duolingo's Userbase

Duolingo is the biggest learning app in the world and the founder was cool to share some honest insights.

Luis von Ahn, Co-Founder and CEO of Duolingo — How to Be (Truly) Mission-Driven, Monetization Experiments, 10x Growth, Org Chart Iterations for Impacting Metrics, The Intricate Path to an IPO, Best Hiring Practices, Catching Exam Cheaters, The Allure of Toto Toilets, The Future of Duolingo, and How to Stand Out in Your Career | Brought to you by Athletic Greens all-in-one nutritional supplement, Helix Sleep premium mattresses, and LinkedIn Jobs recruitment platform with 800M+ users. More on all three below.Luis von Ahn (@LuisvonAhn) is an entrepreneur and consulting professor at Carnegie Mellon University, who is considered one of the pioneers of crowdsourcing. He is known for co-inventing CAPTCHAs, being a MacArthur fellow, and selling two companies to Google in his twenties.He is currently the co-founder and CEO of Duolingo, a language-learning platform created to bring free language education to the world. With more than 500 million users, it is now the most popular language-learning platform and the most downloaded education app in the world.Luis has been named one of the Brilliant 10 by Popular Science, one of the 50 Best Brains in Science by Discover, one of the Innovators Under 35 by MIT Technology Review, and one of the 100 Most Creative People in Business by Fast Company. Luis also won the 2018 Lemelson-MIT prize, the largest cash prize for invention in the U.S.This episode is brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs. Whether you are looking to hire now for a critical role or thinking about needs that you may have in the future, LinkedIn Jobs can help. LinkedIn screens candidates for the hard and soft skills you’re looking for and puts your job in front of candidates looking for job opportunities that match what you have to offer.Using LinkedIn’s active community of more than 800 million professionals worldwide, LinkedIn Jobs can help you find and hire the right person faster. When your business is ready to make that next hire, find the right person with LinkedIn Jobs. And now, you can post a job for free. Just visit LinkedIn.com/Tim.*This episode is also brought to you by Athletic Greens. I get asked all the time, “If you could use only one supplement, what would it be?” My answer is usually AG1 by Athletic Greens, my all-in-one nutritional insurance. I recommended it in The 4-Hour Body in 2010 and did not get paid to do so. I do my best with nutrient-dense meals, of course, but AG further covers my bases with vitamins, minerals, and whole-food-sourced micronutrients that support gut health and the immune system. Right now, Athletic Greens is offering you their Vitamin D Liquid Formula free with your first subscription purchase—a vital nutrient for a strong immune system and strong bones. Visit AthleticGreens.com/Tim to claim this special offer today and receive the free Vitamin D Liquid Formula (and five free travel packs) with your first subscription purchase! That’s up to a one-year supply of Vitamin D as added value when you try their delicious and comprehensive all-in-one daily greens product.*This episode is also brought to you by Helix Sleep! Helix was selected as the #1 overall mattress of 2020 by GQ magazine, Wired, Apartment Therapy, and many others. With Helix, there’s a specific mattress to meet each and every body’s unique comfort needs. Just take their quiz—only two minutes to complete—that matches your body type and sleep preferences to the perfect mattress for you. They have a 10-year warranty, and you get to try it out for a hundred nights, risk-free. They’ll even pick it up from you if you don’t love it. And now, Helix is offering up to 200 dollars off all mattress orders plus two free pillows at HelixSleep.com/Tim.*For show notes and past guests on The Tim Ferriss Show, please visit tim.blog/podcast.For deals from sponsors of The Tim Ferriss Show, please visit tim.blog/podcast-sponsorsSign up for Tim’s email newsletter (5-Bullet Friday) at tim.blog/friday.For transcripts of episodes, go to tim.blog/transcripts.Discover Tim’s books: tim.blog/books.Follow Tim:Twitter: twitter.com/tferriss Instagram: instagram.com/timferrissYouTube: youtube.com/timferrissFacebook: facebook.com/timferriss LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/timferrissPast guests on The Tim Ferriss Show include Jerry Seinfeld, Hugh Jackman, Dr. Jane Goodall, LeBron James, Kevin Hart, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Jamie Foxx, Matthew McConaughey, Esther Perel, Elizabeth Gilbert, Terry Crews, Sia, Yuval Noah Harari, Malcolm Gladwell, Madeleine Albright, Cheryl Strayed, Jim Collins, Mary Karr, Maria Popova, Sam Harris, Michael Phelps, Bob Iger, Edward Norton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Neil Strauss, Ken Burns, Maria Sharapova, Marc Andreessen, Neil Gaiman, Neil de Grasse Tyson, Jocko Willink, Daniel Ek, Kelly Slater, Dr. Peter Attia, Seth Godin, Howard Marks, Dr. Brené Brown, Eric Schmidt, Michael Lewis, Joe Gebbia, Michael Pollan, Dr. Jordan Peterson, Vince Vaughn, Brian Koppelman, Ramit Sethi, Dax Shepard, Tony Robbins, Jim Dethmer, Dan Harris, Ray Dalio, Naval Ravikant, Vitalik Buterin, Elizabeth Lesser, Amanda Palmer, Katie Haun, Sir Richard Branson, Chuck Palahniuk, Arianna Huffington, Reid Hoffman, Bill Burr, Whitney Cummings, Rick Rubin, Dr. Vivek Murthy, Darren Aronofsky, and many more.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Strategy

The Co-Founder of Duolingo on Tim Ferriss

A valuable product or service is integral to starting your creative business. Still, to run and manage your business successfully, you need to consider other factors such as:

Things You Need To Know Before starting Your Business 

Branding Is About Loyalty—Not Just LooksYour branding should draw upon components of communication to give people an idea of what you’re all about and what to expect when working with you.It’s not just about logos, though the visuals on your business cards and Web site are a key aspect of branding. It’s really more about the client’s experience. You want to use your brand—logos, content development, publicity, and the like—to build credibility, convey a message, and encourage loyalty. You want prospects and clients to want you and only you.

Branding   

One of the nicest things about being your own boss is being able to negotiate your rate. Everything is negotiable; don’t be offended if a client asks you to come down a bit, but know that you have the power to negotiate just as much as a client.When you set your rate, make sure you go high enough so that if you decide to come down in price, you are still making enough money to turn a profit on the project.

Negotiations 

Your portfolio is the best example of your talents as a creator. To put a portfolio together, gather as many examples of your work as possible.Most clients only want to see 1-3 pieces so it’s important that when you want to show potential clients your portfolio make sure it is tailored to their job descriptions, this helps you put your best foot forward.The goal of a strong portfolio is threefold:<ul><li>You want it to highlight the range of services you offer</li><li>Show off your capabilities, and</li><li>Resonate with the prospect so they will hire you.</li></ul>

Portfolios 

Working 40+ hours per week for an employer while adding your own business to your plate is certainly a challenge. Without much time for charging your batteries, it is a recipe for creative burn-out. I found the following recommendations from Khierstyn Ross really helpful:

Moonlighting

<ol><li>Set aside 1 hr per day for your business (before or after work), and 1 day on the weekend.</li><li>Plan your week ahead of time.</li><li>Batch task (ex. Writing emails for the month)</li><li>Know what your priorities are before you start working on them.</li><li>Define what “done” looks like on a project so you can get momentum and check it off.</li><li>1 day off a week.</li><li>Consider hiring a VA for admin tasks.</li><li>Can you habit stack? Listen to the content at the gym/audiobook while driving.</li><li>Work on the important, not easy.</li><li>Have a “dailies”/”weeklies” list of non-negotiable things you need to do every day or week.</li></ol>

Moonlighting Tips

Tips that help small business owners, start and run their businesses successfully 

A Dozen Things You Need To Know Before Starting Your Creative Business

People plan for success but be confused and oblivious as to how they failed.Below I have compiled some of the main reasons why people may fall short of their goals

The 3 stages of Failure in Life/Work <and how to fix them>

These are HOW mistakes - They occur when you fail to build a set of tasks/ routines or when you forget to measure your growth carefully and get lazy with the details. A failure of Tactics is a failure to execute a good plan and a clear vision

Stage 1: Failure of Tactics

These are WHAT mistakes - They occur when you follow a strategy that fails to provide you with the result you hoped it would provide.A failure of Strategy is a failure to build a robust set of routines

Stage 2: Failure of Strategy

These are WHY mistakes -They occur when you don't set a clear direction for yourself or follow a vision that doesn't fulfill you in the long run or otherwise fail to understand why you do the things you do A failure of Vision is caused due to ignorance or have mediocre views on life

Stage 3: Failure of Vision

There are three primary ways to fix the failure of tactics<ol><li>Record your process/Routine</li><li>Measure your outcomes</li><li>Review and adjust your tactics often</li></ol><ul><li>Recording your process - Recording your process/ Routine gives you an overview of where your routine is failing you and where you can make an improvement </li><li>Measuring your outcome - Measuring your outcomes gives you a binary view of your routine -  Is it working for you or not. This helps you to alter your routine or make a new one altogether</li><li>Review and adjust your tactics - This is the CHANGE THAT TACTIC phase</li></ul>

Fix for - Failure of Tactics

There are three primary ways to fix the failure of tactics<ol><li>Deploy it quickly</li><li>Do it with dedication</li><li>Revise it rapidly</li></ol><ul><li>Deploy it quickly - Once you have a strategy/Routine ready, don't delay in deploying that strategy for the next Monday</li><li>Do it with dedication - Be diligent and trust your routine and follow it every day</li><li>Revise it rapidly -   Always keep an eye on your routine and adjust it as and when needed</li></ul>

Fix for - Failure of Strategy

There are three primary ways to fix the failure of tactics<ol><li>Take charge of your life</li><li>Determine your Non-Negotiable</li><li>Navigate criticism</li></ol><ul><li>Take charge of your life - People, most of the time follow the masses or so-called ideals set by society, parents, or social media, It is time to take charge of your life and set a vision you have for your life</li><li>Determine your Non-Negotiables - Your Non-Negotiables are those things you are not willing to budge on no matter what. This can be your values or your idea of life</li></ul>

Fix for - Failure of Vision

<ul><li>Navigate Criticism - The moment you take charge of life, there will be showers of criticism pouring over you. Navigate criticism with your wit and don't take them seriously unless otherwise, it is truly for your benefit and you find sense in it.</li><li> Explain your ideas to your parents and mentors only don't bother about anyone else</li></ul>

Fix for - Failure of Vision 

These ideas give me an idea of how i failed and tips on solving them

How do you know when to give up and accept failure and when to stick with your efforts in life and work? Read the article to learn more.

Why Should You Startup?

Start-up and Lean Startup: Differences

The Co-Founder of Duolingo on Tim Ferriss

A Dozen Things You Need To Know Before Starting Your Creative Business

The 3 Stages of Failure in Life and Work

It's time to

READ

LIKE

A PRO!