Webinar Recap: The Value of Startup Studios For Emerging Founders

A Conversation With Studio Hub

Welcome back, Insiders! For the past few months, the team here at Startup Studio Insider has embarked on a mission to spread more awareness about the different startup studios around the world, and what makes this model a unique offering for founders and entrepreneurs currently and in the years to come. Last week, our editor Craig Kronenberger had the opportunity to share the lessons learned from his career as a seasoned entrepreneur, founder of multiple startups, and his background in various digital and innovative industries in our latest webinar partnered with European-based startup studio network, StudioHub. In this particular episode, Craig answered questions on what to consider when founding a startup and how startup studios can support founders to succeed.

Make sure to keep reading to receive the key lessons learned on what makes startups succeed (or fail) in today’s modern era. In addition, be sure to follow StudioHub on LinkedIn and join their LinkedIn group, so you never miss another great webinar session. Without further ado, let’s dive right in:

Four Aspects of Launching Startups

In order to launch startups successfully, founders should consider four aspects. Combined, these critical elements of the entrepreneurial experience provide the fuel and direction for launching a startup:

1. Finding the right team: It is all about constructing a complementary team that fits the launch and operational needs of your business.
2. Preparing for setbacks allows founders to identify potential challenges early on and set up structures accordingly (processes, operational plans, indicators, etc.). Thus, if the worst-case scenario actually hits, structures are already thought through and in place to be implemented when needed.
3. Securing the appropriate amount of funding — not too much or too little. Make sure to build in proof points down the road to determine and increase the value of your business.
4. In addition, making a strong business plan which outlines the next three to five years enables you to determine the appropriate funding and assess whether your idea is worth pursuing from a financial perspective.

Lessons Learned from a Five-time Founder

Founders need to understand that failure is a necessary component of achieving success. As a founder, you likely have or will experience many failures throughout your career — big and small. Here are three of Craig’s key lessons:

• Building a strong system: Don’t think that you can do it all — instead, invest in the right team and design a comprehensive strategy to delegate tasks according to your team’s respective strengths. Even if you can do many things, oftentimes your idea has a higher probability of success with strong systems and processes in place.
• Conducting due diligence: Spend some time to really think through your ideas and ask tough questions. In other words, poke holes and create contingency plans. Try to consider every possibility of failure and your response. Moreover, as Steve Blank put it: Get out of the building — talk to many people and listen carefully.
• Emerging from failure: Failure is inevitable. The trick is to fail smarter each time — meaning that you are emerging from failure and moving forward strategically, having learned from your mistakes. It is important to accept failure, learn from it, and then continue in your pursuit of success.

How Startup Studios Can Support Founders

Startup studios provide the perfect opportunity for founders and team members to grow along with the business they help to build. While entrepreneurs usually identify interesting opportunities and have great ideas, Studios provide the needed structure and support to explore and exploit those opportunities. In particular, startup studios can support founders in four meaningful ways:

• Failure to Launch: Most startups fail before they even launch. Many startups fail to find their footing because they were overly optimistic with their timeframe, or they were not able to get their products or services out before their competitors. While timing is not the most crucial factor in determining a startup’s failure, timing is the most critical element for a startup’s success.
• Operational Challenges: This can be any kind of problem that arises which can render a startup less efficient, less profitable, or defunct. Primarily, these challenges put unnecessary strain on a startup’s energy and resources and can lead to failure if not dealt with properly early on.
• Wrong Team: According to Crunchbase, not having the right team is one of the top three reasons why startups fail. Entrepreneurs can do everything in their power to raise capital, choose the correct business model, and leverage marketing channels — but if they fail to hire a diverse team with the necessary variety of skill sets to handle the immense workload, they will be another statistic that could have been avoided.
• Getting Funding: What frequently goes wrong is that startup management fails to achieve the next milestone before cash is exhausted. Entrepreneurs need to know how to regulate the accelerator pedal to avoid the risk of becoming insolvent.

If you’d like to check out the full webinar version, click on the link below and watch the video of Craig and StudioHub’s conversation! See you next time!