Starting a Startup: A serial entrepreneur's guide to steering clear of trap

Starting a StartUp: Build Something People Want

by James Sinclair

Published by Pan Macmillan

264  pages ₹499

  I remember sitting with my first Chennai client, the late Pradipta Mahapatra, at Spencer’s almost 30 years ago. I got his business without the usual song and dance that precedes the appointment of an ad agency by a client. A longer version of this story appears in my book Sponge — Leadership Lessons I Learnt from My Clients.

 

I was reminded of this anecdote while reading Starting A Startup by James Sinclair. The book targets startups in the B2B technology space. Mr Sinclair is described as a “founder’s founder”. He is a serial entrepreneur who has had multiple successful exits. He loves the chaos of the early-stage startup. He is the guy founders call to transform their ideas into something customers actually want to buy.

 

This statement from the book resonated with me: “Despite what you think, your startup isn’t about your or your brilliant idea. It’s about solving a real problem for real people.” And here is one more: “You don’t have to look far to find the wreckage of companies built on ‘problem solutions’ that no one wanted.”

 

The book’s premise is that you can have a successful startup only if it satisfies a genuine customer need. You cannot succeed until you find the real problem you are solving and offer your solution, not the other way around. You cannot take a hammer and then look for the nail with which to hit it.

 

In the B2B space, the author says, the most critical breakthrough is getting that first paying customer. A founder should focus all his or her energy on achieving this. It is here that I realised my sales pitch to Pradipta was not so much about what my agency would offer him, but how I, as a professional, could help him with his plans for Spencer’s. And that clinched the deal and our Chennai office was up and running.

 

A section titled “Earn The Right Framework” outlines multiple issues that qualify you to earn the right to succeed. The first thing to do is identify the ideal customer (ICP — Ideal Customer Profile) and the problem they would want solved, not something that has caught the fancy of the startup founder. Quite rightly this issue occupies a large part of the book.

 

We then look at the section on “Earn the Right to Enter the Market”. What is the market? The blue ocean or the red ocean?  (For those not fully versed with this terminology popularised by Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne of INSEAD:  Red Oceans are all the industries in existence today — the known market space, where industry boundaries are defined and companies try to outperform their rivals to grab a greater share of the existing market; Blue Oceans denote all the industries not in existence today — the unknown market space, unexplored and untainted by competition.) What is the TAM? What is the SAM ? What is the SOM? Respectively they stand for total addressable market; serviceable addressable market; serviceable obtainable market. The author proposes a 5-5-5 formula: Make five cold outreaches a day; five conversations a week; and five follow-ups for feedback.

 

Product market fit (PMF) is a big buzz word in the startup ecosystem. The author advises the startup founder not to obsess over it. Instead build, listen, measure and improve. If you build something customers want and are happy to talk about, PMF will find you.

 

The book presents interesting insights around the right to build something, the right to delight, the right to ship, the right to grow, the right to (not) launch, the right to (not) pivot, the right to artificial intelligence (AI) and the right to take a vacation.

 

Each chapter ends with a set of observations or thought starters for startup founders. The book also offers some quotable quotes. Here are a few: “If everything is your fault, then everything is within your power to fix, which should feel oddly liberating”; “The best sales people are problem solvers for customers”; “Data without insight is just noise”; “Learn to frame your startup’s journey and your products’ value in a way that connects with people”.

 

This book is written almost as if James Sinclair has his hands on the shoulder of a startup founder, nudging her to get out of her tunnel vision. Not to get trapped by the common fallacies of the startup ecosystem. Not to get overcome by emotions. And not to get too depressed when things don’t go the way they were supposed to. In short, Mr Sinclair is helping the reader find the light at the end of the startup tunnel.  The book is a useful guide map for any startup founder who is wondering whether the business is on the right road.

The reviewer is an independent brand coach. His latest book Marketing

 

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