Why startups succeed: 5 biggest factors deciding a company’s success and failure

Startups can be found almost everywhere. You are bound to discover startups in nearly every country that are aimed at solving problems or introducing new technologies. While startups are a great way for an idea to grow and thrive, many startups don’t make it.

Various factors decide whether a startup will get to go further or not and here, we describe some of the top reasons that help a startup succeed based on a TEDTalks podcast video by Bill Gross. For those who are not aware, Gross has founded many startups, and incubated many others — and he got curious about why some succeeded and others failed. So he gathered data from hundreds of companies, his own and other people’s, and ranked each company on five key factors. Let’s read on.

#1 Timing

The biggest factor that decides a startup’s success is its timing. Some might argue that the idea and/or its execution is more crucial to a startup’s success, however, timing the launch and introducing your company to the public is as important, if not more. One needs to figure out if the world is ready for your idea or whether it is too way too early. There’s also a scenario where an idea can simply be early, which means the world needs to be acclimated to it. The timing could also be perfect or it can be too late if there are too many competitors in the market.

#2 Team and execution of the idea

A good team that can well execute an idea is the second most important factor that helps a startup succeed. A startup also needs to be adaptable to various situations and be highly dynamic in order to solve unanticipated problems that are thrown your way. A team’s execution is its ability to adapt to unforeseen circumstances and dealing with problems on the go. This attribute is specially tested when customers start using your product or service and react in a completely different way than what was anticipated.

#3 The Idea

Most startups are based around an idea and they worship it wholeheartedly. While an idea is obviously a necessity to get a startup up and running with a goal in mind, it is the third most important thing after timing and a good team. One can find numerous examples of startups that had great ideas at their core but still failed to succeed. Most of such startups failed due to their bad timing.

#4 Business model

While having a sound business model in place is important, a startup can survive without it too. However, there are exceptions to this. For example, YouTube started off as a simple online video sharing platform without any revenue model in place. However, its creators realised the demand for their product and steadily introduced features that would help them make money from their service. While vital to a startup’s success, a business model can be added at a later stage when your customers demand what you have to offer.

#5 Funding

If you are a startup that has timed itself correctly to enter the market, has a good team and a great idea, it is not that hard to get a good amount of funding. Many companies manage to secure a large amount of funding and if you know whom to contact and where to look, getting heavily funded is not a tough task.

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