Why Most New Businesses Fail - What I saw at Collision 2024 in Toronto

When you put 37,000 techies in a room you get a good idea of which trends are emerging (fintech) and which ones are over-blown (AI).

?Toronto’s #Collision conference boasted 1,834 exhibitors and 37,832 attendees from 117 countries (sometimes described as Glastonbury for techs). It's mainly a forum for start-ups and small companies to test their ideas, attract financing, and gain traction. Unfortunately, most of them will fail. And why they fail is a lesson for all of us.

They will fail because they lack clarity about what they do and who they want to do it for.

Each booth had a message that was supposed to explain this. Far too many said something like, “ Synchronous integration of multifaceted sub-systems to streamline workflows”? or “AI-based customer support directories enabling retention and cross-marketing”.

WTF?

Every one of them had two simple questions to answer;

1.??????? What do you do?

2.??????? Who do you do it for??

Clarity is hard. Focus is hard. We don’t want to limit our options – we want to be attractive to everyone. And then, instead like too many of the companies at Collision, they end up being meaningless to everyone.

As they say, it’s hard to read the label when you’re inside the bottle.

I can help you be clear about what you do and explain it succinctly in the language the people you want to sell to will understand.

I can help you to focus on who you do it for by nailing down a well-defined market segment and owning it. The tighter you focus, the greater your probability of success.

Send me a note if you want to talk about this.