The Era of Start-Ups

A billion dollars in revenue for 30 startups around USA, China and UK is not shabby by any standard while a 19-billion-dollar acquisition of WhatsApp by Facebook signifies a commanding era for startups.

Apple took five years to become largest music retailer, Google in 18months became the dominant search engine while Alibaba in 7 months became the largest in money market lending out 16billion dollars.

Alliances, joint ventures and acquisitions are effective strategies across all industries, but the secret is to develop solutions that enhances the social and commercial lives of customers.

The slowest way to get funding is to go try to play a game where you are trying to convince VCs you have what they want. Just go out and build a great business and they will find you. There is a great way to get funding. It’s called build a product that customers want and get them to pay you for it. And then guess what? You have some money. Once you get that money, you the validation to raise more funds from other people.

For instance, a quarter of traditional banking revenue comes from payment transactions, but this has been highly contested but gives PayPal business validation, PayPal is dominant with online payment, it is no surprise that Tmobile, Google and Walmart got the validation to encroach into that space by introducing plastic debit card to their customers.

The banking sector much like other industries needs disruptive technology around the social and commercial lives of their customer base.

The startup mindset should not be limited to just entrepreneurs but to project it in government, in academic institutions, in large and medium-sized organizations, in faith-based organizations or nonprofits and even in their personal lives.

Overall Prioritize self-care and avoid burnout. A balanced life enhances productivity and overall well-being. Acknowledge achievements, no matter how small. Celebrating milestones boosts motivation and morale.

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