Checklist for Startups - Are you a Co-founder - Evaluate now
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I was having a chat with founder of another company and we came across a question : How does one know by himself that he is a worthy co-founder? There are two points to note here: Know by himself : I don't think anybody else can (or should) do the assessment, including other co-founders. This needs to be done by the one who thinks (s)he is a Co-founder. Worthy : Just putting up "Co-founder" tag will not take you anywhere. You need to know what it means, earn it and then keep living up to the expectations. Alright, so let's get back to find out if you are worthy co-founder. I would recommend to go through the questions below and find out where you stand. You would get the answer. The blog post can be found at - http://sujaymaheshwari.netcurate.com/stories/are-you-a-cofounder-lets-find-out
Transcript of Checklist for Startups - Are you a Co-founder - Evaluate now
- 1. Can you explain (pitch) your startup in 30 seconds, 2 minutes and 30 minutes? Can you handle the question - "Ah, so you are like ABC" or "How different are you from ABC?" or "Why are you wasting your time doing this as ABC has already done it?" Do you have a clear idea why you are into this startup? Does it match with your other co-founders?
2. Have you reached out to every single LinkedIn, Facebook (and other social) contact and invited them to use your product? Irrespective of your job function, do you "sell" - selling could be pitching for signups, feedback, money, partnerships, support or simply evangelism? Is the above (selling) regular and measurable? Do you take pride of talking about your startup in public/ friends or any opportunity you may get? Do you think selling is as important as building? Do you tweet, write new blog post, create content for marketing your company? 3. Do you try to "recruit" new team members every single day? Do you find out from other startups how they get interns, junior team members, senior team members, advisors to come and join them? Do you ask other team members why they are not participating in other job functions, beyond their role? Do you believe that for a successful business, you need to work with "A" team players? 4. Do you know the product roadmap? Do you use the product regularly and report back usability issues and bugs back to your team? Do you take part (or question) the priority of features? Do you participate in a smoke test after every product release? 5. Do you know when is the next release and what's changing in that release? Do you know the competitor landscape in depth? If someone asks you - how different are you than "xyz", do you know to answer that? Do you look at the analytics (metrics) of your product? Do you understand the areas you are not doing well based on the data? 6. Are you aware of fund-raising plan? Do you question or feel irritated if other decision makers end up spending a lot of unnecessary money on external services which you think can be done without with? (e.g. hiring an expensive Law Firm very early on) Do you think you can spend all your life, if required, doing what your startup is getting into? Do you know how your business will make money?
