Tidbits from Founder's Journey

Over the last few months, I have had the privilege of engaging with several incredible founders, especially in the healthcare space, thanks to the East Africa Biodesign fellowship.

Ps..I hope you applied for the fellowship.

What is my cumulative reaction to all these interactions? Incredible! Just incredible.

These sessions which we call "Founder's Journey" here at the East Africa Biodesign, have become among my favorite things to do. I am in love with hearing Founders' journies.

Hey founder, I'd love to learn about your journey. Please hit me up, please, please.

I'm sorry if I barge into your inbox uninvited. I'm very sorry in advance.

What was my biggest takeaway?

There are a finite number of foundational underlying principles for successful innovators. Good stuff, basic.

However, the combinations and permutations of these principles are endless. And that is where the story gets interesting.

Here are some highlights from the founder's journey;

The Love Languages

Experts in matters of the heart agree on a number of ways that humans express and receive love. The secret to success is knowing how to speak your partner's love language. I will spare you the love lectures. I am no expert.

Side note: Mine is writing. Is yours subscribing and sharing, by any chance?

I will let you in on a secret. I have found the love language for all users and customers.

Drum rolls... It's VALUE.

Communicate with clarity the value your solution brings.

A well-knitted value proposition creates a pull for your solution. It will save you much hustle with the pricing too. Value will get you into their pockets faster and easier than arm twisting ever will.

Build Future-Ready Solutions

The Earth's orbit around the sun takes 365 days, 6 hours, and 9 minutes, says NASA. A year is quite a long time, a lot could happen in a year. A village without power a year ago could be well lit up today. Then what happens to all those innovations that depended on that village remaining in darkness?

A future-mindful solution combines the optimism of a better tomorrow and the reality of a difficult today. When the optimistic tomorrow comes, a future-ready solution will remain relevant. Unless the goal is to keep the village in darkness for eternity, look for trends indicative of future pivots.

Building with the future in mind looks into market dynamics, which direction government policies are facing, technological advancements, and overall where the world is going.

The Winning Team

On the 4th of September 2011, Daegu Stadium was ready for a great showdown in the men's 4 x 100 meters relay final. The world's greatest 100-meter dash runners were going head to head making this the only time the margin at the finishing line was greater than 1 second.

Nesta Carter put Jamaica in the lead at the start but was immediately toppled by Justin Gatlin by the end of the second leg. Yohan Blake recovered the lost gains on the third leg handing it off to Usain Bolt to seal the deal in 37.04 secs.

The following year, the face-off took to the streets of London where the Jamaican team beat their previous record to set the current men's world record, 36.84 secs. This time Nesta Carter fell behind the USA in the first leg leaving the Jamaicans falling second until Yohan Blake turned the tables before handing over to Usain Bolt for the last nail in the coffin.

Before we get carried away by the Olympics, consider these few nuggets;

• the start-up team may not necessarily be the dream team
• there are great starters who aren't as good deal sealers
• there are innovators good at navigating the bend but quite slow on the homestretch

So?

Build the dream team. The Hipster, Hacker, Hustler theory is a good place to start.

Know your market, then your market will know you

The deliberate effort to know your market inside out brings returns of your market getting to know you. Since innovation is about problem-solving more than money-making, it is intuitive to build a solid understanding of what the problem is and who it affects.

I have found that market segmentation delivers amazing insights into key determinants that will drive adoption such as;

• it helps to determine willingness to pay for different segments of the target market and therefore inform the business strategy.
• for innovators driving towards impact, it informs where to intervene to generate sustainable and significant impact.
• it sheds light on the characteristics of each segment, their love language, and the barriers to be overcome to deliver the solution to them.

Build beautiful

Frugal solutions can be beautiful. Solutions for low-resource settings can be made inviting.

It takes deliberate effort and initiative to interweave beauty in the design of your solution, but why not? Who does not like beauty? There are many places to integrate appeal in your solution such as the design, the colors, and the packaging.

Hey digital solution designers, beyond interactive add beauty to the user interface. Pretty does not have to be sophisticated either.

Make the customer feel special in small creative ways. Make your solution appealing.

Let the product decide the market or the market the product

I wanted to write too much about this, but I ran dry. I am still debating with myself, not a good place to be because I keep talking to myself.

What do you think? What decides what?

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