This post will help you to understand if you are running your startup the right way or not. By the end of the post, you will be able to evaluate your startup and know whether you will be able to raise funds from the investors or not.
Table of Contents
Method
1) Can you explain your startup in 60 characters, max 9 words?
2) Can you make a pitch deck with 9 slides, each slide containing exactly the above pattern?
3) Have you spoken to 100 customers/potential customers?
4) Tea Seller Model:- Do you have anything that you can sell for 10/-, making an 8/- profit? (If you can’t sell something for 10/-, you can’t sell your startup idea at $1Million. Make no assumptions).
5) Have you done research on 100 potential competitors who are in a similar space? (We have no competition kills it right here, right now)
6) If so, what is the one metric where you are better than all 100?
Ex:- a) Production cost b) Unit Economic c) Web Traffic d) Social Media followers e) Users f) Existing money g)Anything where you are better than the rest 100.
7) While talking to your customers/potential customers, have you gathered the one keyword at least 70% have said?
8) If (7) is yes, what is the CPC value of the keyword in the Google Keyword Research tool?
9) Can you survive for 1 year without any money from your startup, and without having to do part-time?
10) Your CBIL>750?
11) Can you?
a) Create a website in 1 day?
b) make an App in 1 day?
c) make a video in 1 hour?
d) write a research paper in 1 day?
e) make 100 posters a day?
f) write 10 blogs each day for 7 days?
g) sell a cup of tea to a tea wallah? (you got the idea)
[3 or more means YES]
Evaluation
- * Each question answer is 1
- * Question 8 refers to your immediate market size.
Market Size=CPC*Search Volume*0.1
- If Market Size>12 Lakh, then you answer (YES) to (8)
Ranking
1. No to (10) reduce your chance of fundraising by 70%.
2. No to (11) increase your failure by 63%
3. No to (3) doesn’t classify you as a startup.
4. Scores>=8 are ready to raise funds.
5. Score <=3 means you have a limited possibility of surviving for 1 year.
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** Datasource:- Lyfas Startup dataset of 921 startups, crunched from tofler, crunchbase, ycombinator.
** If you are not yet above the cutoff, work towards crossing the cutoff. Else you won’t be able to raise or grow.
Not Applicable for:-
1. IIT/IIM/MIT/Howard
2. Ex Corporate Superstars
3. From a family business background.
Conclusion
A startup is a technology-driven, highly scalable business that solves a large problem. The startup is a little different from the traditional business, because here the opportunity, scale, and volume are way higher than the conventional businesses. Almost 90% of the startups do not get to raise any funds. Even though there are several blogs and internet resources as to how to build your startup, the information is scattered. This blog will help you to check your startup’s validity, direction, and findability. You can make the necessary changes.
Do let me know your feedback about this article in the comment section. Do share with us your score and let us know if we can help you in anyways to improve your startup. All the best for your startup. Wish you all the success and glory.
