Does Your Business Have The “It” Factor?
The “it” factor that makes certain startups shine more than others.
There are a lot of startups being brewed at any given time, led by plenty of entrepreneurs who are building them without tact.
This is where you see terrible products, experiences, and sloppy execution come to light. It’s usually a result of wanting to build the business quickly so that you can make money as soon as possible.
When money is at the forefront of your concerns, you tend to speed through the important stuff that gives a startup that edge, the “it” factor.
The “it” factor is that glimmer that some startups have, where their business model is completely refreshing in its novelty or every angle of their design, values, and execution are beautifully packaged.
These are the startups who give you hope and inspiration that you can one day build something as beautiful too.
There are the entrepreneurs who will care about this conversation and others who won’t.
If you’re one of those entrepreneurs who want to create a swoon-worthy brand that completely mesmerizes anyone that crosses its path, here’s how you can build a startup with an edge.
Deep Market Immersion
Startups that offer a product or service that’s a dead-on answer to their customers’ prayers and most strenuous pain points arrive at this place after deep market immersion.
Startup founders behind these types of businesses spend a lot of time immersing themselves in the social and emotional brain space of their customers. They explore what gets their customers up in the morning, what pisses them off, and what compels them to take action on certain things versus others.
By adopting this understanding, these startup founders are eventually able to act, move, and speak as if they’re one of their customers. This is a special state of mind that allows startup founders to anticipate what their customers want before they even know they want it.
Steve Jobs drastically changed the trajectory of consumer tech products with this ability.
To become an entrepreneur with an edge, take market research super seriously, to the point that it may become a multi-month side project that you explore because you’re obsessed with creating a product or service that truly changes your customers’ lives.
Slow But Urgent
When you drive at high speed, the scenery around you becomes a blur and you become less privy to the details around you. Similarly, when you speed through the startup building process, you miss all the smaller details that would give you the data to address your customer’s deepest needs.
Customers are happy when they get their pain point resolved through your product or service, but they are absolutely delighted when it also addresses a nuance that bothers them.
Slowness allows you to experience your customers’ journeys with your product at the speed at which they’re digesting it. If you only receive the best hits by speeding through the experience, your solution will feel that way too.
Style
The inspiration behind a stylistic spin to what you’re offering doesn’t arrive until you’ve spent a lot of time ruminating on an idea or after you’ve seen a lot of other variations of that idea.
Style is the next level of the startup “it” factor that has the dual effect of fostering cult-like admiration for your brand. If you execute on your product in a style that’s all your own, you have an immediate identity and potency that’s hard to resist.
Arriving at style comes after you’ve explored every corner of your idea, and played with it in many different ways. Most often, our first attempts at an idea aren’t our best — it’s the reiteration and revisiting process that scrubs off all its dirt and creates something worth looking at.
Similar to the first two points raised above, to hit your edge, leverage time and research to your advantage to discover what kind of stylistic touches you can add to your business. It takes time, but it’s worth the effort.
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