Hello to @MJ DeMarco and to all my fellow fastlaners out there! My name is Nico and I am 24 years old. After some country hopping, I just settled down again, in my hometown, Vienna, Austria. Here a quick overview of what has been going on recently:
In the last 3 years, I founded 3 different businesses in three different countries. I started out with developing an actual physical product for a need I thought existed. I relied on my assumptions and was proven wrong. My next venture was based on the decision to enter the tech industry. I co-founded a web-platform. Going right into user interface design while learning how to program, we were so busy for months that we never came around to actually test the need. Finally sitting on a nice beta-version, we'd send out the link and wait for users to come aboard. Except for some free users, people saw absolutely no reason why they'd pay for such a solution, apart from us having no adequate business model at all. At that point, I concluded that I was just in the wrong industry. I started looking for new opportunities and decided to partner up with an existing company in the financial services industry that was about to form a new subsidiary. Our partner provided the product (software), while we were taking care of sales, customer relationship management and human relations. The relationship with our partner was not the best and the communication was terrible. At that time, I stumbled upon the CENTS formula and as soon as I realized what was going wrong, I decided to quit this third venture immediately.
Conclusion: three years, three countries, three different businesses and three failures! I learned a ton of valuable lessons
Key lessons learned in these 3 years
Key values
What Is Currently Going On?
At the moment, I am in my idea stage. Other than in my previous experiences, my next venture will be built on a solid need that will be proven by a pre-selling strategy. The process I am following throughout the idea stage is based on the grind (thanks to @IceCreamKid and @(zend***phin)). In order to find a relevant need/market I will follow the traffic and pick up the f****** phone. I am currently thinking of sharing what I will be learning throughout the different stages in a progress thread in order to give back to the community. I am more the happy to be here and meet all of you.Let's get it on
"To Do Is To Be" - Immanuel Kant
In the last 3 years, I founded 3 different businesses in three different countries. I started out with developing an actual physical product for a need I thought existed. I relied on my assumptions and was proven wrong. My next venture was based on the decision to enter the tech industry. I co-founded a web-platform. Going right into user interface design while learning how to program, we were so busy for months that we never came around to actually test the need. Finally sitting on a nice beta-version, we'd send out the link and wait for users to come aboard. Except for some free users, people saw absolutely no reason why they'd pay for such a solution, apart from us having no adequate business model at all. At that point, I concluded that I was just in the wrong industry. I started looking for new opportunities and decided to partner up with an existing company in the financial services industry that was about to form a new subsidiary. Our partner provided the product (software), while we were taking care of sales, customer relationship management and human relations. The relationship with our partner was not the best and the communication was terrible. At that time, I stumbled upon the CENTS formula and as soon as I realized what was going wrong, I decided to quit this third venture immediately.
Conclusion: three years, three countries, three different businesses and three failures! I learned a ton of valuable lessons
Key lessons learned in these 3 years
- Physical product: I relied on my assumptions, which is a mistake. An actual need should be verified by pre-selling
- Web-platform: similar problem concerning the actual need. On top of that, hire a programmer
- Service business: not only was our partner violating the commandment of need, but also we were violating the commandment of control as well as the one of time
Key values
- Respect: it is such a general value, yet it applies to all your daily actions. Everybody deserves respect, no matter what the circumstances are. There is no worse thing than not being respected by your clients, your partners, your friends or your family. Almost everyone wants to be respected, yet very few show respect. If you don't show respect, you won't be respected either. As simple as that. And respect is shown in very small actions, not necessarily the big ones.
- Love: have your heart at the right place. I know many people who are driven by hate and envy. What makes them get up in the morning is the hate of seeing others succeed. These people will never make it. If your drive is based on love and you show this love through your actions, you will get whatever you want.
- Honesty: do you want to deal with people that lie regularly, day in day out? According to my experience, many conflicts are generated because of the fact that the truth is not being told. You might not get the bill immediately, when you lie, but it will come sooner than later. Make it a rule to always be honest. Be honest to yourself, the people around you and the people you do business with.
What Is Currently Going On?
At the moment, I am in my idea stage. Other than in my previous experiences, my next venture will be built on a solid need that will be proven by a pre-selling strategy. The process I am following throughout the idea stage is based on the grind (thanks to @IceCreamKid and @(zend***phin)). In order to find a relevant need/market I will follow the traffic and pick up the f****** phone. I am currently thinking of sharing what I will be learning throughout the different stages in a progress thread in order to give back to the community. I am more the happy to be here and meet all of you.Let's get it on
"To Do Is To Be" - Immanuel Kant
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