STARTUP

A STARTUP is a [temporary] “organization built to search for a repeatable and scalable business model” –Steve Blank

A mature business operates well through excellent execution of the business model (which is how all the pieces of business plans are interconnected), but, however well the business operates today, at one time it had to be a STARTUP.   And growth in new areas, where a business model is not established to be repeatable and scalable, requires a STARTUP.  Many large businesses and business schools are focusing more attention to STARTUP concepts.  I am even finding the same concepts we use to improve on execution for a mature business (lean, agile) being applied to STARTUP methodology.

You could say my experience with STARTUP is limited – perhaps I got lucky once.  I started a company in 2001, did it with no external investors, and sold it in 2005 (though I sold it to EBSCO where I now work – I never did learn the phrase “exit strategy”) and it has scaled to support > 100 jobs and thousands of institutional customers with hundreds of thousands of clinicians using it while they care for millions of patients.  Competitor startups in the same space typically invested 2 million dollars over 2 years from creation to selling to a large company, and are not providing serious competition today.  But doing something once does not make me an expert, just someone with some experiences.

However, if I reflect a bit more on my past experiences I only created a company once.  Many times before, during and after, and many times within EBSCO since joining I have collected virtual teams and searched for repeatable and scalable business models.   Such things have advanced selling DynaMed in new ways, developing other products, and creating unique partnerships.   A lean, agile approach to searching for repeatable and scalable business models has been rewarding and productive.

We can apply STARTUP thinking to many of the things we do:  Can we find resources to meet our needs in new ways?  Can we produce new products or services as a derivative from what we already do?  Can we partner with others to do things that neither can do alone?   We can apply STARTUP thinking within our organization as well:  Can we find resources to meet our needs in new ways?  Can we produce new derivatives that add value to others in our organization?  Can we partner with others in our organization to do things we cannot accomplish alone?

There are many STARTUP opportunities that require no funding or contracts at the earliest stages.