As the regular readers of my blog most likely will know by now - I love startups; working with entrepreneurs, people full of enthusiasm and the energy which comes together when something new is created. Over the last couple of weeks I talked to a whole bunch of startups - all great guys with a lot of great ideas. Most of them were rather fresh on their journey - so a lot of things haven’t been decided, are unclear or weren’t even thought about. Out of all those topics, somehow I always seem to come back to the basics. I mentioned the need for a really simple, single-focused, inspirational company mission/vision before. The other big topic seems to evolve around the idea of “What kind of company do you want to be?”

Let me explain: When you create your product or service I believe you need to define how you want to serve your market (and thus your customers) - you can put the focus (the magic word again!) on an innovative product, best customer experience, great support, lower prices, etc. You rarely can be more than one of those at once - at least not in the head of your customers. To be successful you need to carve out the niche in which you want to play and then focus, focus, focus on this one angel. Get it right. Blast your competition away in this niche. Build it into your primary strength and woe your customers with it. Once you made this choice - all other decisions in your company will suddenly become so much clearer and more obvious - all energy flows towards fulfilling the customer expectation you set in the beginning.

So - which company do you want to be:

Dyson: Dyson took the hoover and made is so much better. When you are a Dyson you are a product driven company focusing on making existing technology significantly better.

Apple: Apple created the Uber-Brand. Apple has fans. When you are Apple you create products which stir emotions. You build a brand which connects with your customers and turns them into evangelists.

Nintendo: Nintendo makes video games insanely funny. They don’t fight a tech battle. They put a huge grin on the face of their customers. When you are Nintendo you build products and services which people love. They love playing, working, tinkering with them. They make them smile.

Zappos: Zappos sells shoes online. But Zappos is not a retailer - Zappos is a customer service company. Zappos does everything to make their customers happy. When you are Zappos you truly treat your customer as king. People will tell stories about your service, about the way you treated them, about the way you went above and beyond what would be considered ‘normal’.

I’m sure you can come up with a ton more and different examples. The point is: You are not building a technology. You are not building a product. You are building a company. And only if you know where you want to be, will you be able to get there. Otherwise you will be yet another startup with an interesting technology which never made it.

Posted in Entrepreneurship