5 Things to Know Before Investing in a Business


People tend to work out problems with two different strategies. Either they work through some evidence and make a point of it, or a solution pops into their mind along with a feeling that the answer is right and they choose to believe their gut. 

The first problem-solving way is what we call the use of insights. They can save you lots of work and can influence you to get more productive, creative, and effective. Mark Beeman of Northwestern University found that 92-94% of insight answers were correct compared to 80% of answers produced logically. 
When it comes to startups, insights can really size down your margin for error. Whether you want to find startup companies to invest in or you’re in a management position at a startup, well-analyzed insights can save you a lot of time and resources.

What are insights and why are they important?

Insight is a market and competitive intelligence tool which gives out a thorough analysis of the startup landscape. Insights deliver valuable information regarding a variety of use cases. An entrepreneur seeking an investment/startup opportunity can find answers to many questions using insights. 

For an investor, who is exploring startups for investment, it’s important to use the features of insights:

  • Profound technology tools quickly determine similar startups and potential competitors from other startups.
  • Download reports on similar startups and sort them by the various parameters of interest. Share these reports between founders, board members, and colleagues. 
  • Get all information about a startup. Age, location, founder information, supporting incubators, angels, and venture funds invested. 
  • Get interactive insights on startups, their funding trends, average valuation, business models, and keywords used to describe their offerings. 
  • Insights in sector agnostic and caters to the requirements.

What is insight development?

Insight development is the process of critical user research that comes before customer expansion. The development will gain you insights into true outcomes and core needs that drive your potential customers.

How will insight development result in bringing out good results for a startup? This is why a startup should be linked to core human needs. People don’t just buy products or services, they buy the outcome and experience that they desire to see from your product or service. The most compelling startups or products are the ones linked to the 6 core human needs:

  • Certainty. The need for security, stability, and reliability.
  • Variety/Uncertainty. The need for change, challenge, and simulation.
  • Significance. The need of feeling acknowledgement, recognizability, and value. 
  • Love and Connection. The need to love and feel loved, a connection with others.
  • Growth. The need to improve, grow, and develop. 
  • Contribution. The need to help others and make a difference. 

Common features of successful startups

While it’s a tough process for a startup to succeed, the stars must align and crucial questions must be answered. According to Forbes, there are a few questions that should get answered in order for a startup to have a shot at entering the 10% of early-stage companies that survive long-term. 

  • Passion. Are you passionate about the idea? It’s all in the execution. Even a first-class concept can fail to draw in its audience if you or your team aren’t ready to do everything to support and develop it. 
  • Expertise. Do you have the domain expertise? As a founder, you should know everything about a concept for it to operate. This is where the help of quality insights comes in. 
  • Efforts. Are you willing to put in the time? Early startups often have intense work schedules. A survey by MetLife found that startup owners log 14-plus-hour workdays. The team should be willing to devote their waking hours to an idea. 
  • Relevance of the idea. Why this idea and why now? Is this a new idea, why hasn’t it been tried before? Be sure that you researched enough and are able to crack the code and not wind up broken. 
  • Size market. The size of the market defines the scale of opportunities. Too small of markets can lead to too small of financials to survive, while the big markets might be too tough to outcompete.  

What helps to make a startup more successful?

Here are some key aspects from experts working in various industries that are common among successful startups.

Fast and calculated decisions

For a startup it’s crucial to make important decisions every day and regularly adapt to new learnings, sometimes pivoting from initial plans or goals. Learn to be relaxed when adjustments happen, embrace changes and take a team-oriented approach. 

Don’t worry about how the changes will differentiate a particular journey, they will build a new even better journey. 

Ability to take on different roles

Working in a startup requires that you get comfortable with greater involvement. Even with a certified role, at some point you’ll need to play multiple ones, whether it’s developing brand strategy, taking customer calls, writing codes, creating marketing material, or running reports. 

Lack of structure is intentional

Understanding the difference between small and large organizations is crucial. Large organizations have set rules, procedures, and practices that have been in place over time. Startups on the other hand, as small organizations, build out these rules when they get more experience. 

A good balance between revenue and profit 

The intensity you feel in a startup is insane because of the limited capital you have to deploy. The first monthly burn rates on cash have a definite impact. Successful startups recognize that you can’t just grow revenue, you need control of bottom-line success. 

You can’t just ask sales to sell more. Success can be brought in other ways like conducting branding sessions that include your startup. It unlocks a whole different opportunity to market the startup in a way that creates top and bottom line success. 

Conclusion

Rooted in innovation, a startup aims to develop existing products or create entirely new goods or services. That is why startups need the right insights to understand what actions to take for further growth or how to make a product succeed. It’s important for startups to heavily rely on insight development and data analysis to be able to grow faster and identify more opportunities in the market. 



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