Often founders start a venture out of sheer passion for a cause of subject. But while they may be driven by passion, sometimes, they lack knowledge and domain expertise. For instance, if you are excited about starting a cryptocurrency venture, do you have enough knowledge and expertise to build the necessary framework? Possibly not. So should you just give up on the idea and move to something else? Or should you stick to it and still try to work around it?
This is a classic problem of founder-market fit (or should I say, misfit). The consequences of such misfit are either of these:
1) The founder will try to learn by making a lot of mistakes and hence the time for gestation will be longer than usual. This happens because the founder is unaware of the market dynamics and instead of innovating, he/she ends up experimenting a lot. And while something works, almost everything fails.
2) The founder might try to catch up with the industry while the industry will keep moving forward. Imagine you are running in a race where everyone is already ahead when you start. By the time you reach their position, they would have already run ahead. Eventually, you may catch up and even surpass them but it will take a longer time for you to become a leader.
So is there a way to reduce the damages of above consequences? Yes.
1) Try to find a mentor who can take you through the thick and thin in these unknown woods, possibly a subject matter expert. Mail them, call them or even better — get introduced to them and ask for their mentorship. They may share with you some experience nuggets which will give you a good headstart in this lonely journey.
2) Try working in this environment before you go all in. If you are just starting up an e-commerce store, maybe you can try working at another e-commerce startup to understand the dynamics first and learn on the job.
3) Try hiring someone who has the domain expertise. This person can be the driver of the unknown markets and help you navigate your way through
the maze.
4) Find a co-founder with that domain expertise. This is even better. If you know a friend who is willing to jump on your idea and if you share a good rapport it might be beneficial to get him onboard.
If you have any queries, feel free to write to me on Rajeev@TBSPlanet.com
Rajeev Tamhankar
Twitter@rajeevtamhankar
The writer is IIT-R Alumnus, Entrepreneur of The Year’17 (Print Business) and the Founder of TBS Planet Comics