24 de February de 2020
How do startups achieve success? The lecturer Marc Sansó shared his insight into the key factors in this respect at the Alumni Program event “Startup Management: key factors in successful models”.
What is a Startup and how are they formed?
Without a doubt, startups are the big stars of modern business world. These emerging companies, predominantly founded by entrepreneurs and visionaries, use innovation and technology to revolutionize industries and propose solutions that are not just modern, but also attractive. As a result, they transform the world and grow at a dizzying speed. But how are they created? What does the consolidation process involve? To find out, we summarize the main points of the talk entitled “Startup Management: key factors in successful models” given by the lecturer and technological consultant Marc Sansó Mata and organized by EAE’s Alumni Program.
Prior Ideas
“Startups are all about growth. They are disruptive”
By way of introduction, Marc Sansó gave an overview of a number of prior ideas that must be taken into account when discussing startups. Disruption, for instance, is a term that not only encompasses the essence of these innovative, but which must also form part of each step of the creative process. The other concepts mentioned included technology, incremental strategies and competition.
Different approaches to business
“As they are disruptive, the strategies of startups cannot be incremental, but rather they must strive for explosive growth, with radical changes and challenges”
Sansó explained that there are two ways of approaching such businesses: harvesting and exploring. The harvesting approach is often used in the case of companies created with the aim of improving something that already exists. In other words, they are “original models for companies that are already competing in a business”. In contrast, the exploratory approach involves discovering new methodologies and industries. These companies thrive on risk and forego security in exchange for exponential growth. The advantage of these businesses is flexibility, Sansó concluded.
The Origin and Key Technologies of Startups
“Every startup has to begin with a problem, not a solution”
Startups are founded to propose solutions, that is taken for granted. However, Sansó believes that, when coming up with the idea for a startup, it is better to focus on the problem. These companies must structure themselves around the demand, not the supply”. Climate problems, age-related issues and matters of renewable energy may be good sources of inspiration for ideas.
In terms of key technologies claves, the lecturer highlighted 5: Artificial intelligence, quantum computing, energy sources with nuclear technology, biomedicine and genetics, and robotics. In view of their capacity to make an impact and their speed of response, all of these fields are ideal settings for startups to make their home.
3 factors for filtering the quality and lifecycle of startups
“Startup are models of growth and, therefore, risk. There is a high potential for failure but a huge return on investment if it succeeds”
How can we know if an idea is a good basis for a startup? Sansó suggested putting the idea through the problem, solution and advantages filters. With respect to the problem, he explained that startups have to address a common, urgent, obligatory, frequent and expensive problem. In relation to the solution, he emphasized that “firstly, we have to define the problem well, then the solution will emerge”. On the issue of advantages, he added that startups must produce goods ten times better, cheaper and more attractive.
“Many startups are founded to be sold to large corporations 2 to 3 years later”
The lifecycle of startups is often characterized by speed, as they are companies designed to achieve profitability as soon as possible. Sansó explained that the first phase is the deployment or rollout, when the concept is defined and validated. This is followed by the transition stage, when the company is transformed into a scalable business. Next comes the longest and most important stage: scaling. This is when the operations are consolidated and profitability is achieved. Finally, the exit stage is when the startup sustains itself and the directors have to decide whether to continue with the venture or sell it and become millionaires.
At 20:30 in the evening, lecturer brought the presentation to a close and invited all the participants to discuss the issues raised. The 20 people connected to the session has the opportunity to clear up any doubts they had, as well as explaining and sharing the different business ventures that they are currently working on.