Start A Startup: Idea evaluation

How to get an idea for starting your company?

As a part of our #-Link-Snipped-#, we get lot of requests from people who want to become entrepreneurs but have no ideas. They have the fire to start, some of them have a team, background, experience to be successful, and few have funding or capital also in place. So what is lacking that they are either struggling to get an idea, and others have 2-3 ideas which they are not able to chose from.

I am highlighting few guidelines which can be used to come to a choice:

1. Live with the idea

If you can live with the idea, whether good or bad, for 100 days, and still stay in love with it, then you can go ahead and do it.

And by living, it means thinking through all aspects which are involved - how big is the idea, how can it be executed, will you be able to execute, would customers use your products or services, will they pay for it and will you make money eventually?

It could be a website, a mobile app or it could be a product of everyday use for consumers. Each idea goes through a discovery phase and next is the execution phase, so 100 days are not too much or too less to decide.

For example, India's leading website for personalized products started as an ecommerce channel, but currently they get majority business from offline consumers. Another company shifted their strategy during the idea stage itself from online photo printing to wedding photography printing - and is now among India's hottest startup!

2. Talk to experts

Without fearing about the secrecy of your idea, share it with potential users or consumers. They will give you insights that may be far more valuable than doing internet research, and may also connect you with relevant people in the business - advisors, mentors or investors. The approach and the execution is entirely an entrepreneur's decision, but the inputs from experts really can add value.

A company that we funded initially started as an sms-based advertising network, which failed initially. After inputs from experts, they shifted to becoming a mobile internet advertising network and are now successfully competing with Apple and Google in USA and worldwide.

3. Study the competition

For a small entrepreneur, the best strategy is to follow a large player and create a niche by executing impeccably. Over the last few decades, there have been numerous examples of a small company doing well based on execution capabilities and being nimble - footed. Google, Yahoo, Dell etc. are successful examples who made it big even in the presence of large players.

Sometimes, what can work is to do completely reverse of what all others in the industry are doing. A company that we angel funded last year entered logistics space - not to serve forward logistics (from manufacturer to consumers) but the reverse logistics (returning product from consumers)!

4. Get your first customer

In a business plan or market size, we can project for billions of consumers and crores of revenues, but every entrepreneurs journey starts with getting the first customer! It maybe a friend, family or an early adopter, but its a challenge! Go get your first customer, and that will help you decide which idea you chose. There are lots of sectors like education, health-care, power and knowledge services which offer tremendous opportunities for starting a venture.

Remember, nobody made money by doing the same thing that everyone else did! The key is study your consumers, and believe in your capabilities. If you have to fail, then fail quick. Do short experiments, and keep moving!

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Amit Grover is the founder of #-Link-Snipped-#. He is an IIT- IIM graduate and has previously worked with renowned companies like Infosys, Asian Paints and Onida. He is also a part of Mumbai Angels, a not for profit organization of investors and actively helps with funding and mentoring early stage companies. He has been invited in the past as mentor, judge, panelist, speaker at leading institutes like IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Kolkata, IIT Bombay, IIT Kharagpur, NMIMS, DY Patil, SIES College and Atharva College.

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