What are the most common reasons for the failure of Internet startups, and have you successfully avoided these problems?
The success and failure of the Internet is actually somewhat related to luck. It's not a superstition, it's a more or less tacit topic in the entrepreneurial process. Under the same production level, there may even be different production processes.
Of course, in a real entrepreneurial environment, we still specialize in financing and have been exposed to many entrepreneurial projects. We will also give entrepreneurs some sincere analysis and advice from the perspective of startups. If you're ready, your "luck" will increase; anyway, it's the same.
The team factor
Team factor is the internal factor and foundation of enterprise formation. "Human" energy is everything.
- The configuration is unreasonable
An obvious difference between entrepreneurship and part-time employment is the difference in staffing and skills requirements. When you work, you only need to master the skills corresponding to the job, and when you start a business, you need to master not only one skill but also marketing and so on. Some entrepreneurial teams mainly focus on advanced technology products, and almost all The members all come from the same technical background; but because the team composition is too simple, it only has technical advantages, but lacks an effective understanding of the market, and marketing is also a shortcoming, so it must not be able to develop in the long term.
When the configuration of the team is comprehensive in all aspects, whether the team's own capabilities and the project match. This needs to be analyzed in combination with specific projects, which is a higher requirement for "gold content".
- Inexperience
In the post-95s and post-00s, due to various factors, many entrepreneurial teams are young, which will make them not have much experience in this industry. They don't know much about the development of this industry, because they don't go deep into this field. They don't even have enough accumulation to understand the latest industry trends and developments. Without comprehensive, systematic and profound skills training, it is naturally impossible to output valuable industry views.
What are the most common reasons for the failure of Internet startups, and have you successfully avoided these problems?
- Poor execution ability
Sometimes the CEO's ideas are good, but strategically perfect planning doesn't make up for tactical laziness. Sometimes core things don't do well. For example, product-driven projects don't do well and don't allow their own ideas and creativity.
Sometimes the reason is slow product development. For example, under the premise of a good market, there will be many players in this field. At this time, whoever moves fast and big enough, the higher the efficiency of attacking cities and regions, the more likely it is to quickly occupy the market and eliminate opponents. Among them, nothing more than who is more "agile". Teams with strong execution capabilities have a set of strong plans. They can complete the task in the least amount of time. Once you slow down, you immediately lose market opportunities.
- Team iteration does not match company development.
The premise of team iteration is to reasonably judge the development level of the company, which is divided into two aspects. On the one hand, it cannot keep up with the development of the company. When a company expands rapidly, but recruits at a significantly slow pace, or fails to find suitable and capable talent to keep up with the company's ability to grow, the company will be unable to continue to grow or quickly fall into crisis due to internal hidden dangers. In this process, the transformation of the team from small to large also involves the transformation of management mode and the test of management ability.
On the other hand, on the contrary, it is the rapid and blind expansion of the team. The goal is too big, but the foundation of the company is not laid, or the company thinks it is a superstition of authority, and does not consider the degree of development ideas and business operations according to the actual situation; at this time, paying high human resources costs will lead to huge internal friction, which eventually led to the collapse of the company.
- Business Model
From a market perspective, the main issue is the understanding of the market and its competitors.
- Intense competition, the direction of the Red Sea
Some projects are already in the giant field. For example, WeChat is in the social field of acquaintances. If we continue to dig in the field of acquaintances, it is like hitting an egg with a stone. Or, there are already many players of similar models in this field. Even if this model still needs to be verified by the market, there are few new players to share. There is also a case that this field has become a battlefield for later players.
- Pseudo demand
Generally speaking, the direction and mode of entrepreneurship should be derived from the situation that some needs of the real society cannot be well served and satisfied, but many people start their own businesses. At first glance, their chosen direction appears to be in demand. However, it can be a pseudo requirement or a way to satisfy a requirement. From a business model perspective, this is an untenable business model. However, it cannot make money. Of course, there will be no good results. For example, in the past two years, a large number of o2o companies have gone out of business.
What are the most common reasons for the failure of Internet startups, and have you successfully avoided these problems?
- Collision with big companies
This reason bears a slight resemblance to the direction in which the giants occupied the Red Sea. For example, some startups want to be in the payments industry. Although the payment industry still has a large market size, because Ali has a tradition of payment and the "bottom line" is relatively good, Ali is likely to overwhelm start-ups with its rich resources.
- Financial factors
Money seems to be the most "non-subjective" factor, but it is sometimes the deciding factor. This is the legendary "capital power". In summary, there are problems in the following aspects:
No funds to start.
The rhythm of capital and development is not good, and it is affected by the rhythm of other companies' financing
Blindly raising the valuation leads to the failure of financing
The founder misses the best opportunity for financing and financing success due to lack of financing experience and financing ability.