Is Your Startup Scalable?

Countless hours spent writing code, developing technology, and producing ideas can yield big paydays for high-energy, high power start ups. I’ve been in the trenches of the Silicon Valley start of universe.

I have toured incubators from Sunnyvale to San Francisco and met with the wizards at the Hacker Dojo. I’ve had the unique opportunity to review dozens of business plans and have seen what makes a start up successful.

Entrepreneurs are looking for a quick and sometimes painful strategy to earn high rewards for putting their necks on the line with a new company. Investors are also attracted to companies who have high risk high reward profiles.

Everyone always wants to know the same thing, is this scalable? It may be a new tech app for the latest mobile device or something like photo Christmas cards, but finding a scalable niche and executing is a very arduous task.

You might think that your idea is the next big thing but sometimes reality is a tough pill to swallow. Investors are seeking companies that can grow rapidly.

You need an idea that can turn into a business model which yields high growth and high profitability.

Find a scalable business model not a new small business to see the fast returns for the iconic start up you’ve been dreaming of.

To build a start up that can go huge here are some important factors. Create a process which can be repeated from customer to customer.Take Instagram for example.

Each user downloads the simple app, takes a photo, and publishes it to their social media. Everyone gets the same simple process.

The user experience is well-defined and easy to repeat. Outcome – $1 billion. Raise the right amount of capital to promote growth. Successful start ups will inevitably grow rapidly once the market becomes interested.

To support aggressive scaling you must have enough cash flow. This generally involves seed money or venture investment. Be prepared to relinquish equity to gain capital investment.

Get the right people. In order to grow your company you will need the right talent.

Founders can get things going and prove the model in the early stages but soon they will need individuals with different skills to continue the path forward.

Build a start up culture. When bringing new people on board build a culture of growth. Make sure the team is flexible and enthusiastic. You want to grow fast and grow big and everyone needs to be on board with that.

Think Big

The essential part scaling is going big. This means you and the rest of the team need to have big ideas.

In order to grow you’ll need to target larger and larger markets. Don’t lose sight of reality, but in order to scale push yourself and go after the big pieces of the pie.

Creating a start up is a very exciting process. Setting milestones and working hard to become profitable and eventually publicly traded is a very rewarding experience.

Huge returns for the founders and investors are available for the best ideas.

The best ideas are the ones that can go huge fast. Stick with what you know and bring people on board to provide what you don’t. Good luck and I wish you prosperity in your start up.