Nail it and scale it: Day one Startup Grind 2014

Post by Shannon Brown

Startup Grind was founded by Derek Andersen as a global startup community designed to educate, inspire, and connect entrepreneurs. In 2013 more than twenty-one thousand entrepreneurs attended a Startup Grind event. Auckland has recently opened a chapter and you can find out details of upcoming events here. This year, Catherine and I were invited to attend the conference being held in Mountain View.

Help each other, give, make friends and never give up.

These are not just the values Startup Grind prides itself on but also the components that shaped the atmosphere and vibe at the event.

The speakers all drew on their own experiences to inspire and educate. Nailing the product through vision, market intelligence, honing the technology, competitive differentiation and building the team and network to scale it.

Kirsten Green founder of Forerunner Ventures and Victoria Ransom, kiwi founder of Wildfire, both talked about the value of vision and how it can empower teams in startups. Finding the right team for a startup is vital, the connection among the team members must be natural, authentic and each persons thinking must be aligned with one another’s vision Victoria explained.

A lot of the speakers spoke about the importance of Silicon Valley for start-ups. Mike Mapels co-founder of Floodgate Ventures explained the area as being purpose built, the eco system is set up to massively ‘grow the pie’. Keynote speaker MC Hammer (no introduction needed) gives the same account on Silicon Valley but advises that you won’t make it by just being here.

Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn said that Silicon Valley has ‘learned practices’ in its culture. Because so many startups begin here, networks can help each other from their learnt experiences. Here are some of Reid’s other necessary components to build successful start-ups;

Getting advice from others is key. Reid called it network intelligence, companies can be too secretive. Problems that could have been realized by others are potentially missed by the founders of a start-up. Get advice and hone the idea from smart people in the networks around you and listen to them.

Nail the product - get insight to the market opportunity and business models before you build the product or service. It is much harder and more costly to find out essential information after the product has been built.

Don’t let one single idea define you. Instead think of yourself as an entrepreneur looking for the next idea. Let yourself move on when it doesn’t work out. “Take seriously the prospect you may fail- Always have a plan A and a plan B”

Be open to the idea that luck plays its role.

It was a very inspiring day with invaluable advice from some of the tech industries most respected entrepreneurs.