The 10 Essential Steps In An Entrepreneur’s Journey To Success

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By Alejandro Cremades

There are a lot of myths and hypes out there about the tough journey of starting up. But in my view here’s what the entrepreneur’s journey to success really looks like.

The Steps in an entrepreneur’s journey:

1.Get Inspired By An Idea

It may be simply being struck by an opportunity, seeing where the business puck is headed, or a gaping void in the markets that you have a solution for.

More often, startup ideas the actual start of the startup journey initiate from getting frustrated about inefficiencies or lack of good service and solutions in antiquated markets. It’s that friction that creates highly valuable business pearls.

2.Take Time To Think & Plan

Before rushing in at full speed, take a moment to think, and hone your idea and vision. Some of the most successful founders of billion-dollar companies that I know took several months out just to think and get clarity on their ideas first.

Don’t get lost in this stage. Speed is important in the entrepreneur’s journey. Yet, you have to make sure you are going in the right direction and there is real potential to create a big business.

Research, talk to potential customers, find out what they will actually pay for, and begin networking with the investors, fundraising consultants and M&A experts who will help you go from zero to one.

Layout your pitch deck. Even if you don’t plan to raise money, it will help you organize your thoughts and get objective.

3.Bootstrap

Unless you land sizable seed funding right upfront you’ll probably start by bootstrapping.

Many of the most successful billion-dollar businesses started with multiple cofounders squatting in a studio apartment or sleeping in the office for several years.

Ramen may sound like a cliche, but unless you’re a food startup with lots of leftovers you’ll be plowing every penny you can back into the business. It is everything but glamour during the initial stages of the entrepreneur’s journey.

4.Find Product Market Fit

Your business isn’t going far fast until you find product-market fit. This happens when your product or service is selling so fast that it is hard to keep up with demand.

Keep testing until you’ve got it. If you aren’t sure if you have or not product-market fit, then you probably don’t have it. You will know.

In the event you are not there yet, it may still take some funding, marketing, and PR to really get adoption and sales going. Though, this will all be far easier once you’ve nailed this milestone.

5.Customer Love

Love your customers and make sure they love your brand and product. One of my recent guests on the DealMakers Podcast says he deliberately organized his business model so that he would have to win customers loyalty every month.

It forces you to keep innovating and adding value and to keep your edge sharp. When you care about your customers and can deliver the goods, they feel it. When they love you back they’ll tell others and bring you business, they’ll grow with you. They’ll even invest in you.

When they love you enough, even larger companies may acquire you and adopt your brand for everything else they do. Without a doubt, customer love is one of the most fulfilling stages of the entrepreneur’s journey.

6.Raise Money & Scale

Once you’ve got product-market fit and your customers are raving about you it is a lot easier to raise money. You’ll have access to better investors on better terms, and have a higher valuation. At this point, the entrepreneur’s journey becomes a bit easier.

Here is where it really makes sense to raise capital. You should be able to plug in capital and get predictable results out. It’s just a matter of how much you can raise and how fast you can scale.

Storytelling is everything when it comes to fundraising. Being able to capture the essence of what you are doing in 15 to 20 slides is the key.

For a winning deck, take a look at the pitch deck template created by Silicon Valley legend, Peter Thiel (see it here) where the most critical slides are highlighted.

Moreover, I also provided a commentary on a pitch deck from an Uber competitor that has raised over $400M (see it here).

7.Exit

Eventually, you’ll find an exit with someone like Google acquiring your business. That may be through a merger or acquisition, or going public. You may not do it to cash out for yourself, but for your investors and to ensure your mission has the best chance of blooming to its full potential.

Five-time startup entrepreneur and founder of $10B Zscaler, Jay Chaudhry says the motivation for his exits are to enrich his teams. His first startup created 70 to 80 millionaires among those who invested themselves in working for him. That inspired him to do it again and again.

8.Travel

While selling a company for billions of dollars may sound glamorous and like a ticket to finally get that yacht, $2M custom Bugatti, and private island, most don’t splurge on these things. The most fun part of the entrepreneur’s journey is not reaching the finish line. It is actually the journey itself to get there.

Money isn’t a big motivator for the highly successful founders I’ve met. They are more concerned about the impact and the mission and enriching others.

It’s nice not to have to worry about money anymore, but the most common splurges of those with big exits are traveling and going to take some time in or possibly buy a modest cabin outside of the city.

9.Take Time Out

Perhaps the most valuable thing that a grand business exit can buy you is some quality time out. It may just be to think and cross a few things off your bucket list or go meet other entrepreneurs. Or it is finally getting to be there for your family and spending time being the parent you’ve dreamed of for years.

In reality, this honeymoon doesn’t last. Retirement isn’t for entrepreneurs. They are born to find solutions that create a better tomorrow.

10.Launch A New Startup

Take time to think about your next move and get clarity on your next big business success. Find an even bigger opportunity to tackle and go launch that startup.

There will still be challenges.

Fundraising can be a mission all over again. Though many of the most successful hyper-growth startups are launched by repeat and older founders.


About Author: 

Alejandro Cremades is the founding partner at Panthera Advisors which is a premier investment banking and financial consulting firm. At the age of 22, he moved to the US after obtaining his law degree at Universidad San Pablo CEU. In 2009 he obtained a master’s degree in International Business and Trade Law at Fordham Law School. In 2010, Cremades founded Rock the Post with the goal to help entrepreneurs. He is also the author of The Art of Startup Fundraising with a foreword by Shark Tank’s Barbara Corcoran.