THE 10 ABSOLUTE MUST-DOS FOR FOUNDERS WHO DON’T WANT TO FAIL
Your first business-heck, even your second and third-comes with challenges. Lots of challenges, all of which seem like they need to be addressed today, this minute, now, and planned for, of course, yesterday. What’s your company’s mission? Who’s your first hire? How can you beat Big Widget to market? And trying to figure out everything yourself can make it nearly impossible to emerge with your sanity intact, your vision still relevant, and your bottom line strong. So we’re here to help. • Well, not just us, but other entrepreneurs-ones who’ve dealt with it all before. To bolster your bid to launch, we sought these founders’ hard-earned insights on the 10 categories we think are most important to VCs and always in the pitch deck requirements of venture firms like Sequoia Capital: Company Purpose, Problem, Solution, Why Now?, Market Potential, Competition, Business Model, Team, Financials, and Vision. We solicited their picks for the most valuable tools for first-time startups and culled the best of their “if only I had known then what I know now” pieces of wisdom. Then we broke it all down into bite-size bits-so, you know, the reading wouldn’t take too long. Because if there’s one thing we know about first-time founders, it’s that you have work to do.
1 DEFINE YOUR PURPOSE
Donie Yamamoto
Founder VITAL PET LIFE
“Begin by writing out a paragraph that is your brand story, authentic to only you. The who, what, where, and why of your purpose. This process is a great community-building exercise-editing and wordsmithing your company’s essence. Take that paragraph and continue to whittle it down until you’ve created a tag line synonymous with your mission.”
In 2021, just four years after its founding, Yamamoto’s pet care startup landed at No. 348 on the Inc. 5000 list.
68%
OF U.S. ENTREPRENEURS SAY THEY WANT THEIR BUSINESS TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN
