Grant is a 8 year old kid. He's seen money is nice because it allows him to buy gums, hot dogs and videogames. He's also fond in being the coolest guy in elementary school and he's up to the task of conquering attention. He realizes he needs some money. He seeks a job relentlessly, going back and forth all close shops, but Grant discovers he needs to learn writing and reading proficiently, adding fractions, calculating percentages, dealing with counters and much more.
What would you say to Grant? I bet you would advise him in being patient, educate himself and enjoy whatever he's up to right now. You would also try to let him understand there's plenty of time, dedication and money to be invested, in order for him to learn what he has to learn to be a prosper lawyer, engineer, marketer, scientist or even a retailer. Furthermore, you would insist that even if his parents are rich, he needs to manage budgets wisely.
Why not encourage Grant to keep seeking employment? Because he doesn't know many facts of life he needs to know to earn some cash. He'd be better off being encouraged to learn and educate himself about his surroundings and objectives.
3. Because we can't understand we'll always be kids in Entrepreneuring with Real Innovation
We are the Grant version of the tech startup success world. We think we can be successful without finding out what the market looks like and if we're interested in national demand for tech startups we need to find out how the colombian market behaves. We need to educate ourselves about our objectives, our surroundings, the right marketing strategy, etc... We need to be patient, we need to understand it takes time, dedication and money to educate ourselves in order to profit in the future.
It is precisely the kind of attitude we colombians are not up to. In general, the world is not up to this, but Colombia has a particular history of easy-living through commodities commercialization. For some reason, we have some of the richest and laziest people in the world. Wake up! The globe is up and running and you need to educate persistently.
Official and private funding initiatives aim to finance something that doesn't exit. There are 100 awards (something typical), say. If there's any chance of finding 3 candidates who know what they're doing and are having a nice product-market fit (and traction), we're in great luck! If we had more than 3 successful startups, we would all notice at least one of them (assuming Steve Blank's statement that 8 out of 9 startup fail), but we don't! What happens with the other 96? Money lost!
What a paradox! this is exactly what the initiatives are keen on preventing, by requiring solid traction and market research reports before funding.
Hey! Hello! This doesn't help our public funds management and investment perception. I'm glad I'm given the chance to recall that tax payment is one time-consuming, unproductive, ultra defensive endeavour, it's the reason why bureaucracy is obvious and one of the reasons why distrust is the dish of the day. Still, we're burning money! Why? Because we can't understand we need to learn first. Before shooting a rocket high in the sky, we need to try many toy experiments. Fancy a scientist for public funds ROI? Do contact me!
You can't fly if you don´t understand what jumping is, you can't dive if you don't understand swimming, pretty basic, I must say. If you've read something about Lean Startup methodology, you have just immediately been aware of the waste of money we're suffering from not learning.
Who told you we don't know? C'mon! we are ancient marketing sages!
Look, if innovation wasn't innovation, old marketing would be enough. Yeah, if this wasn't innovation, it would be rather easy: Here's our established product, for an established segment, through this well-known channels, with these resources and these well respected ancient sages.
But innovation is quite the opposite! Nothing established, almost nothing known, no history whatsoever, no old clients, nothing! We need to learn, and we need the best and the fastest way to do it! And trust me, this has nothing to do with old beliefs that may apply anywhere, but here. Just think about the pricing of truly innovative products...
Some evidence
I've been personally meeting several of the tutors who teach tech entrepreneurs get their way in the market. They're great people, with postgraduates and PMP's, with a fun job, but they lack motivation. They have consistently revealed to me they lack motivation. As soon as I ask why, I get the same sad answer: "Well, I know all the theory, but I have no entrepreneuring experience at all. I don't know how it works! This makes me feel compelled to quit".
I'm, of course, not naming these people, but they are some of the tutors of the most respected official and private institutions in question. Maybe we can find 2 or 3 experienced tutors, but we need 100, so that tech startups can really build the traction they need to apply for funding. In any case, none of these 2 or 3 tutors know the colombian market (recall these initiatives strive for local consumption).
Don't misinterpret me, I'm not looking for a mentoring job in a Tech Hub. I'm just saying project managers and product managers are not enough! They might be some of the least important people in a startup.
Now what?
Well, learning is open! For the first time value learning as a money-making strategy, do not underestimate it for not bringing short term results. You don't stop feeding a youngster for not being profitable today, you let him learn and grow. You learn about yourself with him, you change perceptions and eliminate beliefs for him. You change your approach to him, you understand you can't completely control him. In the end you become a better person.
Do I have solutions? Yes. This blog is about reasons for failure. I will write to propose some possible solutions.
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