By Ashley Gibbard

After pitching our startup ideas, I think it was important that we read an article like this. We’ve been reading about the best way to go about getting ideas, but what happens when you actually pursue the business. I like that the writer of this piece was very straight forward about the negative side of startups, especially in the first chapter.

While pursuing a startup does take guts, I think there is an idea out there that startups are an easy way to make money and that creating an app or something of that nature is easy. It was nice to hear personal examples of just what all goes into the startup business and what we would have to endure if we followed that path. I think it’s important to know before going into something like this, that it will consume your entire life for a period of time and you have to be able to way that with what your life is like and what you want it to look like. With all the different components it seems as through hard work is secondary to timing. It is not enough to simply work at something long enough, the market has to be right for it or else you’ll fail not matter what.

The fourth chapter really tied into our reading last week: The product has to be fixing a problem that exists; a product will not succeed if there isn’t a market for it. It has been interesting to learn about this approach over the last few weeks because for me up till recently when it would come to creative ideas I was always thinking about the product and how it could be sold, and not if there were really any reason for it to be sold.

I think it is important we learn how to look at market trends because in a way that seems to be the be all end all. The writer tells us you don’t need the perfect team as long as the market is right for the product. This was also reassuring because for many of us if we were to start pursuing a startup business in the near future we may not have access to the highest level of people to put together a team, but if we learn how to read the market we can still be successful.

It’s rare that the first idea you put out into the world will be the one to succeed, but you learn by doing. You have to figure out what works and what doesn’t. Hearing about other people’s journey to success is very motivating. Even the most successful people went through tough times to get to where they are. It is important that we learn about failure and the downside of things, so we have a better understanding of the work it will take to have a shot at success no matter what your definition of success may be.

Links: http://pmarchive.com/guide_to_startups_part1.html

http://pmarchive.com/guide_to_startups_part4.html