I may very well date myself here, but when I was a kid, I absolutely loved riding bumper cars at amusement parks.
On the bumper car platform, everyone—friends and strangers alike—rides together with the freedom to do whatever they want. The unpredictability of the experience is top notch. Some drive slowly and follow the other drivers, while other riders are disruptive and crash into opposing drivers as hard as they can, whenever they can.
Like bumper cars, starting a business is never a smooth ride. It can be hard. There are unforeseeable collisions that can occur while trying to find things like product market fit, an investor, or even your first customer. And if you don’t navigate and turn at just the right moments and pivot your way out of sudden death, you may hit a wall, or worst: crash and burn.
Startups are complex, and unfortunately, most fail.
While we may be domain experts, we cannot predict and mitigate all business adversities. However, to better navigate those these adversities, we know you need the right tools, guidance and data to make informed decisions quickly. That’s why we work hard to provide our founders with the space to experiment and grow their knowledge; the encouragement to explore their instincts; and the tools to analyze market feedback and the data they generate.
Every entrepreneur faces the difficulties of locating their north star, deciding on their target market, and—like a bumper car driver—figuring out just how hard and fast to hit their mark. It’s up to them to research, learn, and understand when the right time is to disrupt their surroundings and generate some attention. Because while surviving in the field is one thing, thriving in it is another. And a startup’s best chance at thriving is for founders to embrace ambiguous problems more quickly, using simple rules (PowerUps) to move forward, then dedicate more effort to resolve ambiguity and uncertainty during later stages of decision-making.
“Running a startup, you only ever experience two emotions: euphoria and terror.”
Ben Horowitz
The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers
This freedom of choice is exactly what scares away so many people, because they were never taught how to navigate those open waters. All they were taught is how to follow instructions. But personally, I have never been one for following the rules. And if you want to become an entrepreneur, you must be content with navigating your own path and making your own decisions while leveraging the right tools, guidance and data you have access to at key moments along your unique journey.
At StartupOS, we are launching a platform for startups and every entity that supports them. Because we believe that empowering all founders with equitable access to great startup business tools, sources of funding, and valuable guidance from top mentors and serial entrepreneurs is what makes you unstoppable.
