Be a Successful Young Entrepreneur
– Musings of Dr. Jamie Hsu, 4.15.2019
Recently, I had the honor of judging a young entrepreneurs’ business competition. It was a rewarding and exciting experience to see these talented and enthusiastic young people pitching their dreams and ideas. The business start-up proposals ranged from education and cloud software to entertainment and medicine.
All the teams were well-prepared and had very professional and poised presentations. Their deliveries were to the point, well-timed, and creative. They had the confidence and enthusiasm required for all entrepreneurs.
What eventually set the winner apart from the other teams was the possession of more of these key ingredients for success:
- The proposed idea is able to solve real problems in people’s lives or businesses. Better yet, the product, service, or tool being offered can empower the clients to create their own new solutions and products. When people can imagine the new possibilities with your offerings, they become your most loyal clients.
- The new idea is unique and can’t be copied easily. Ideally, the technologies or tools are patentable to fend off future copy-cats in the market.
- The software, service, or product has more than just the first-mover advantage. It must be upgradable and sustainable to stand up to growing competitions.
- As the business grows, the products and services must be scalable to meet new volume and demands in order to maximize the impact on society. Many good start-ups fade away because of their inability to jump over the high hurdle of scaling-up.
- Lastly, the team must be multi-disciplined and possess all the skills required for a successful business. Engineering, marketing, finance, and human factors are just a few such examples. A single-disciplined team of experts can’t tackle all the challenges facing a new business.
Hope this checklist is useful to inspiring entrepreneurs. Good luck.
做一位成功的青創家
–作者 許俊宸博士
–中譯 薛乃綺
最近我剛好有幸擔任了年輕創業家競賽的評審。這是個有意義且令人興奮的過程，能看到這些充滿熱情的年輕人投放他們的夢想與理念。創投的提案規畫範疇包括了教育、雲端軟體、娛樂及醫療。
所有參賽團隊都做好了充分準備，也都給了相當專業且從容的演講。所準備的報告不但恰如其分、時間也抓得剛剛好、充滿創意。對所有企業家而言，這些參賽者擁有自信與熱情。
最終從眾多團隊中勝出的隊伍在於他們具備了更多以下的關鍵成功素：
- 提出的想法能夠解決人們現實生活或業務上的實際問題。更好的是，所提出的產品、服務或工具，可以使客戶能夠創造自己新的解決方案和產品。當人們可以想像你的產品有新的可能性時，他們就會成為你最忠實的客群。
- 這些新的想法是獨一無二、不易被模仿的。理想的情況下，這些技術或工具可以用來抵禦未來市場上的模仿者。
- 軟體、服務或產品具備先發優勢。它們必須是可升級且可以持續的，才能適應不斷增加的競爭。
- 隨著業務的增長，產品及服務定是要具備擴張性的，以滿足新的規模與需求，從而最大限度地提高對社會的影響。畢竟，有許多優秀的創投企業因為無法跨過擴增規模的門檻而逐漸式微。
- 最後，團隊必須是多分工的，才能提供一個成功企業所需要的所有技能。工程、設計、行銷、財務和人事都只是其中的一些因素。一個單一領域的專業團隊是無法解決遇上新業務時所面臨的所有挑戰。
希望這些檢視項目，能對激勵青創家有所幫助。祝你們好運！
