From PhD to a successful startup: The 3TP Strategy

Transitioning from academia to entrepreneurship is a unique journey filled with many adventures, roadblocks, learnings, and experiences. As someone who has made this shift, I have come to rely on a framework that can help guide aspiring entrepreneurs. This framework is called the 3TP strategy, which stands for Team, Timing, Traction, and Product. In this article, I’ll break down each of these pillars and share insights into how they contribute to building a tech startup from scratch.

1. Team: The foundation of success

Building a startup is very much a team sport. The founding team is the foundation of the company and plays a critical role in its trajectory. When assembling this team, four key aspects must be considered:

• Work ethics: Startup life is filled with challenges, learning curves, and a lot of trial and error. It’s essential to have co-founders and team members who not only respect each other but can also work at a compatible pace and adapt to the inevitable ups and downs.
• Vision alignment: The entire team must share the same long-term goals and vision for the company’s growth. A clear and united vision ensures that decisions are made in the company’s best interest. It also ensures that decisions taken by each team member contributes to the larger vision of the company.
• Personal goals: While the company vision should be shared, each team member will also have personal career aspirations. Ensuring that their personal goals align with the company’s mission helps sustain motivation within the team and consequentially, sustains the growth of the company.
• Complementary skills: Each team member should bring their own unique skills to the table that can complement the skills of the other members. What one lacks, the other can fulfil. This ensures that every critical aspect of the business - whether technical, operational, or strategic - has a leader with the expertise to move it forward.

As startup ecosystems evolve, investors also emphasise a strong team as a critical factor. A diverse and experienced team is often seen as a key reason why startups succeed where others fail.

2. Timing: Capturing market readiness

Timing plays a pivotal role in a startup’s success. The idea of market timing revolves around introducing your solution at the right moment - when the market is ready to adopt it. If you’re too early, consumers may not yet recognise the need for your product. Too late, and the market may be saturated with similar solutions.

For entrepreneurs, timing involves understanding broader market trends and customer behaviours to gauge when to introduce their product. Analysing market data, trends, and competitor actions are crucial in fine-tuning your product launch.

3. Traction: Proof of demand

Traction is one of the most important indicators for early-stage startups, particularly when seeking investment. It shows that your product or service has measurable commercial interest. Whether it's through early user engagement, partnerships, or letters of intent, traction demonstrates demand for what you're building. In fact, traction can often be the deciding factor for investors.

Startups can measure traction through:

• Early user engagement: Verbal agreements, waitlists, or initial sales are tangible indicators of interest.
• Partnerships: Collaboration with other businesses, industry experts, or investors can also serve as social proof.
• Feedback loops: Interacting deeply with early customers not only helps validate your product but also refines your go-to-market strategy. It creates a feedback loop that helps you improve both product-market fit and your sales processes.

The goal in the early stages is to establish a foundation for scaling later, so focus on deep, meaningful customer relationships rather than trying to grow too quickly.

4. Product: Beyond just technology

As a PhD transitioning into entrepreneurship, you might be tempted to see your research or technology as "the product." However, a true product is much more than just technology - it needs to be desirable, feasible, and profitable.

• Desirability: Ask yourself who the users are, what challenges your product solves, and how often they will engage with it. Understanding these factors helps determine if there’s a sustainable market for your solution.
• Feasibility: Align the technology with concrete business use cases. You may need to adapt it to fit the needs of the market, making sure it is scalable and user-friendly.
• Profitability: A product that saves time, money, or creates efficiency for your customers can demonstrate clear value. Tracking these metrics will ultimately lead to product-market fit and profitability.

Achieving product-market fit means understanding your users' needs deeply and iterating on your product to meet those needs effectively.

Conclusion

The 3TP framework - Team, Timing, Traction and Product - offers a holistic approach to building a successful startup. Whether you're transitioning from a PhD or beginning a new entrepreneurial journey, these principles provide clarity on how to strategically approach early-stage challenges. By focusing on these pillars, entrepreneurs can build stronger foundations for their startups and increase their chances of long-term success.

Feel free to reach out if you have any questions or want to dive deeper into any of these concepts. Stay tuned for more insights as I continue sharing my journey from PhD to entrepreneurship !