HOW MUCH DO YOU THINK MY AWESOME IDEA IS WORTH?

Not much.

Hard, painful truth but there you have it. NOT MUCH.

Every day I get numerous emails from entrepreneurs describing their newest ideas.

Because what you think is your brand new, exceptional, magical, out-of-this-world idea that no one has ever thought of ever before- is in fact, not as groundbreaking as you wish it were.

Every day there are emails in my inbox from numerous startups and entrepreneurs with vivid descriptions of their newest ideas. Sometimes the emails are mysterious, that is, they hint of an idea, or the potential of it without really talking about it but those are rare. What I do often read, fortunately, are ideas that are backed with deep rooted passion bordering on obsession. They dream big, really big, to the point that there’re plans for massive global expansion even before they’ve secured their very first customer.

Renowned, respected businessmen and entrepreneurs, whether during media interviews, conferences or seminars, speak easily about the very first deal that they signed, or the very first customer who walked into their shop, or the very first user of their services.

And that’s the whole point, that a dream stays a dream until it reaches its first committed user.

Venture capitalists aren’t going to invest in ideas and dreams. Take it from us. We work with some who represent the biggest firms in the world. They are constantly seeking out great entrepreneurs who offer out-of-this-world ideas, some even bordering on the bizarre, yet, when presented with a plan that focuses on implementation and execution; they value these individuals enough to listen.

Part of what they tend to look out for is not merely obsession. Every entrepreneur is obsessed to a relevant degree, but whether one who is obsessed with the idea alone or obsessed with executing the idea determines whether they pay attention. That’s not all, show them the carefully-thought-out plans, show them the beautifully-drawn-out graphics, show them the neatly-assembled statistics and collaterals and prototype, and then there’s always that one question that they throw out.

The one question that nearly all entrepreneurs hate, refute, defend or deny.

“What happens when all this, all these plans you’ve made, screw up?”

“What happens if no one wants this *fiddles with product* thing you’ve made?”

“What do you do if you get this *jabs at product* out and your market thinks it’s crap?”

 

Great entrepreneurs don’t waste too many hours talking and talking and talking about their ideas. That doesn’t mean they are less passionate. What they do is to spend their time translating that passion, that obsession, into your obsession. You- the one who never thought you wanted this thing. You- the one who didn’t even know you needed it. You- you’ve probably fantasized for a solution as this and who is now grateful that the product has at long last been created. It takes a certain real effort to do it, to execute it and these guys have their real users to show for their work- users who validate their product, users who want what they’ve done. They don’t stop there. They think about building upon it. They think about sustaining what they’ve built and they acknowledge that they’re ready to rinse and repeat over and over again until their product reaches the quality that their users demand, until their product satisfies the practical needs of their users and turns them into loyalists.

So to answer that question about how much your awesome idea is worth?

Not much.

What then should I do to increase its valuation?

Get busy.

 

 

REALITIES

You can read as many management, marketing and financial texts as you want. You can go earn a diploma, an advanced diploma, a degree, a postgrad till you achieve an MBA. But nothing will prepare you enough for the shock when you realize that despite after all those years of mugging and churning and examinations, the reality of doing a business needs you to get back to the basics.

Right from the bottom where you’ve got an idea and right there and then you’ve got to accept, like it or not, that the idea itself is meaningless. Debunks the entire spirit of entrepreneurship, doesn’t it, when everyone says that you ought to dream, ought to think big, ought to be steadfast, ought to look at matters out of the box and ought to do this and that.

But the basics hold true.

Attaining that MBA qualification I haven’t (maybe I will… and I should) but what I do know is that when I was building my first startup, a good number of years were spent clinging fervently to the original concept of that idea, protecting it vehemently and ignoring with donkey-like stubbornness the signals that the market pulsated out- each sign, each signal warning me that the mission needed to evolve and change.

Simply because I believed that my idea was at the very least 50% of the value of my company.

It hasn’t been too bad. Much could have been done better, faster, more effectively, more strategically, but the Media & Entertainment Industry is a highly competitive, frighteningly cut-throat one, and we’re still around.

Experience teaches you quicker, faster and more instantaneously than the academia, that’s a fact, and one of the earliest lessons I picked up was that an idea is nothing more than a theory or theories that needs to be proved, or disproved. Basically, gut feels and beliefs do need to be tested and if they make it through the fire, let’s set it down as an idea. If I thought I knew it for sure, to be proven wrong did not take long and it was not until I chose a factor for trial testing and then having it pass did a new direction take place.

I suppose I’m the sort that well, attempts (doggedly) to enter new territories. Or at least I try to do things differently. So I chose to enter a market providing a niche that others were less likely to pursue. If the competition wanted a job in Media & Entertainment for the all-fun-and-no-work perspective and the celebrities and the parties and were going around sharing that dream job of creating games apps, I realized I needed a collaborative effort to talk about the real jobs involving artists, grips, lighters, set painters and set builders, of long hours, intensive game programming and obsession with details which had its own sort of rugged charm. My business was never a means of social validation anyway.

 

When execution is the key to building your business, you recognize that whatever ideas you’ve had need to be verified. Everyone can nod their heads and offer you praiseworthy statements, but seek them out for their honest opinions, place them in an idea evaluation group and you might just get a smorgasbord of opinions and suggestions that significantly differ from what you thought. Point is, share the idea openly with the right mix of people and you can choose afterward whether you want to take on their honest, unadulterated opinions. Better to have some, than to have none. Choose the right mix of people though. You’ll need smart, passionate people from diverse industries with a deep understanding of entrepreneurship and the processes themselves. Charge them with identifying and solving problems and encourage them to be candid by leaving the responsibility and authority part entirely out. That decision effectively changes the dynamics of the group. They’ll find themselves at liberty to offer expertise, to discuss, to debate, to expand, to revise, to agree or to disagree. If they’re actively challenging each other, well, you’ve got the right team.

The second time the concept for another niche product came to mind, I was ready to acknowledge that though in my head, whatever I was wanted to launch seemed insightful, there was the certainty that others too already had the similar idea. But I was determined that it was not going to remain at that initial phase. I wanted the idea to reach the roll-out phase and so since I was going to reach out to a specific market, it would deem wise to listen to the market. No more clinging on to the “perfect” idea, and no more waiting for that “perfect” idea to materialize at an unforeseen time, no more digging in and sticking to the plan despite repeated suggestions and feedback from the market. Instead I was going to do what I wish I’d done earlier that first time. I was going to be as introspective as I had learned to be, be open to whatever was being told to me, check it with the original idea, evolve it if needed and as had happened, there would emerge opportunities that this new startup would be able to capitalize on.

Every industry has competition. No matter how significant, how niche you believe your idea is, there will be competitors, if not today, then tomorrow, if not tomorrow, then the day after and the day after that. You can change, pivot, and react as much as possible but they’ll be there. And they won’t be going away.

Try negotiation with the competition instead- the art of which many seek to attain and which title many attempt to claim. To do that, toss away any cliché that you’ve been told about your idea, your business, your concept, your product. Slim possibility there will be that that whoever’s lauded you knows full well what’s out there in the market. If you’re a new business in a very new industry, or as they call it, a burgeoning one, your competition could well become your partners. Not everyone, perhaps, but at least one or two. Market intelligence and research on all of the competitors come first, determine your weaknesses, prepare your statistics and data and presentation plans and get ready to convince them that it’s mutually beneficial for everyone involved Because all of you could have the same goals and the same vision, but if both of you have no leads, no customers, you’ll face an upmarket task pursuing the customers who’ve no idea what you’re talking about and wear a look of utter disbelief because simply they’ve never heard of you and what you do before, they don’t think they need you and there’s no one to vouch for you anyway. You don’t want to wait a decade long before your customers finally realize that you’re legit now, and that oh, you were legit when you talked to me years ago.