You have a startup idea, now what?
“I accidentally started another company” were among the first words I shared with my family and friends three weeks ago as we wrapped up the first UNLEASH gathering. 1,000 people, 129 countries, 200 brilliant co-created ideas. Our result: SmartWrapr. 6 complete strangers from 4 different continents coming together to create a reusable pallet cover that can reduce our environmental impact and save companies money. Since then, we’ve all dispersed to the far reaches of the world, but we’ve all decided that this is something that needs to be pursued. Now, the hard work begins. I’d like to share 4 quick pointers on what I have been doing since since UNLEASH and hope these steps can help you implement your idea.
1. Talk to people and get more feedback. We had less than 4 days to do research and we generally created problem statements that were broad and at a very high level. Get on the ground talk to users to understand what the problem is from an individual’s level. Some sample questions: What has stopped adoption before? What are some of the incentives you’ll need to overcome? Who is the final decision maker?
For us: We spoke individuals who manually wrapped pallets to understand their pain points, today’s process, and what part of their work would they have changed.
2. Determine your leadership going forward. The power of UNLEASH is we are global, but that also creates difficulties to maintain momentum since everyone is located in different time zones. Determine the exact skills your idea needs and add those people to your team.
For us: I’m the leader taking the idea forward and a mechanical engineer with design and legal experience is what we’re looking for
3. Develop a project timeline so you have a plan. Set deadlines and responsibilities because it is so easy to lose track of things, we all have lives before UNLEASH!
For us: We have a 4 month timeline until the end of the year and our milestone is prototypes to product development.
4. Find mentors (the UNLEASH experts and mentors are a good 1st start) and send updates. Keeping momentum and engagement is critical. I’ve been lucky to stay in Copenhagen to speak with mentors from UNLEASH and send updates approximately every 2 weeks (or 4 weeks).
For us: My first update was 4 PowerPoint slides that included: what have I done. What will you do next. What is my ask for them (be concrete and concise).
Bonus: Be resilient and persistent. Being an entrepreneur is hard. But know that there will be good days after your bad days.
Next steps: I am en route to New York City through Saturday with the Danish Delegation to share about UNLEASH, SmartWrapr, and all the momentum we’ve created at the United Nations General Assembly! Otherwise I’ll be in Nairobi and Copenhagen through the end of this year. Please reach out if you are there and stay tuned for some new updates!
Grace and peace.
Kevin
