[
Article
]
Lately, I do not know what is going on, but several start-up companies have come to consult me.
Overall, they seem to have similar problems: they cannot expand the market as they expected, so they come to me hoping that doing digital marketing properly will solve the problem.
But after talking and interviewing them to understand what is really happening with the business, it turns out the problem is not digital marketing at all. The problem begins with the product or the platform itself.
Building a product that no one wants!
Some people are very confident in their product. They copy an idea from overseas, see that it succeeded greatly there, and assume it must succeed in Thailand as well.
That is a major misconception. A business that succeeds abroad will not necessarily succeed in Thailand. A simple example is eBay, which was highly successful in America but failed badly in China and even in Thailand.
In addition, some start-ups have a strange way of thinking. They believe they should not originate new ideas, but should instead use business ideas that have already succeeded abroad, because investors will be more interested.
Raising funds from investors
Some build start-ups mainly to raise funds from investors, with the ultimate goal of exiting by selling their shares and becoming rich.
Frankly, this idea makes me a little dizzy. I am not sure which school of thought or which textbook it comes from, but I do not agree with it at all.
I believe the main purpose of building a business—whether it is a start-up or not—is to solve some problem for a target group of customers. If our product or platform can solve those problems at a reasonable price, then the business can still move forward.
It does not have to be a world-changing new idea, nor does it have to be copied from someone else.
This reminds me somewhat of Deng Xiaoping.
"It does not matter whether a cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice, it is a good cat."
Another issue is building a start-up with the main goal of making money by raising funds from investors.
I see this idea as quite dangerous.
My view is that in the early stage, a business should first try to stand on its own, and it should have a clear business model for making money from day one.
In other words, when the business is still small and has limited capital, it may earn only a small profit. But if capital is injected, it should be able to generate much greater profit.
If you can do that, finding investors will not be difficult. Investors will run toward you and want to invest the moment you say you want capital to take the business to the next stage.
You also will not have to feel pressured to rush into accepting an offer, because the business can already stand on its own and you can choose the best deal among those that come in.
Some may argue by citing cases like Facebook or Google, which at the time of founding did not yet have a clear revenue model. But those are one-in-a-hundred, or one-in-a-thousand, cases.
Most importantly, are you a genius like Mark Zuckerberg or Larry Page and Sergey Brin?
Come back to reality. If you are over 20 years old and still do not even have one million dollars in your bank account, then you are probably not a business genius on the level of Mark Zuckerberg or Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
Building a start-up is not chic or cool as many people imagine. In truth, it is often many times harsher and more brutal than an ordinary business. Many people therefore try to escape from reality and live in a dream world to comfort themselves.
