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Question answered in Quora - I have an idea and i want to quit my job, but my idea is just beginning


Building a startup is like jumping off the cliff without anything, building your wings while you are in the air and getting your wings fully done, so you can fly before hitting the ground so you won't crash onto the ground and die.

If you can build the wings before jumping off the cliff, then your chances of success are much higher, so that way you have the wings, have time to test the wings, make sure it is working, working well, may be it doesn't have to work 100% perfectly, at least you have a reasonable wing that you can rely on.

Also doing a startup because you lost interest in your daily job is a bad reason to do a startup. The good reason is you have an idea that is solving a good problem that many people have and people are willing to pay for it, so you are making people's lives better and also making money in the process.

If I were you, here is what I would do

1 - Join an incubator along with your partner - the one near my area and I like isTechnology Business Incubator | ATDC

2 - Thoroughly vet your idea - do customer validation - interview potential customers, gather metrics, will they pay for such a product? How much they would pay? etc

3 - Then build an MVP show it to customers - gather metrics - talk to atleast 100 potential customers if your idea is a consumer idea, if it is B2B talk to at least 30 potential customers

4 - Then if you have the money then invest your own money - if not work on fund raising

5 - Work on all the steps above part time

6 - Once you have some funds raised or have some traction with customers & revenue then jump full time -

So now you have your wings that are reasonably okay, you can jump off the cliff

Overall the longer runway you can get to build your idea into a product the better it is. Typically successful founders with product companies had one of these two things

1 - They worked 2 to 3 years part time, developed a reasonable 1st version of the product, won some customers, got some revenue, then went full time with it

2 - They did a Phd in a subject, where they owned some intellectual property, had issued patents - leveraged those patents, raised money & then went full time with it

Also check out my book Puga Sankara's Supply Chain Blog - that is a must read before spending Hundreds & Thousands of $$$ on your MBA or Masters Degree to get the best ROI or before starting your Entrepreneurial journey.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

Puga Sankara is the CEO and Founder of Smart Gladiator. Smart Gladiator is an ATDC Georgia Tech company, Smart Gladiator's award-winning product LoadProof (https://feature.loadproof.com/loadproof) is an Enterprise Photo Documentation System that is enjoying tremendous traction in the Supply Chain Community. LoadProof (https://feature.loadproof.com/loadproof) is a patent pending Centralized Cloud based Enterprise Photo Documentation System for Supply Chain. It is built on the premise that photos and videos are vital documentation serving as compelling proof of important operations performed in the supply chain within and across organizations. These operations may be related to fulfilling customer orders, meeting contractual obligations, or transferring merchandise across different parties taking part in the Supply Chain operations. LoadProof is as important for your organization as an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) which is an enterprise system of record for critical documents such as Purchase Orders, Sales Orders, Contracts between parties etc. that have tremendous legal ramifications, or a WMS (Warehouse Management System), that holds indispensable information related to orders shipment/fulfilment data. Just like Instagram, Facebook or Snapchat have evolved into platforms that enable individuals to showcase how pretty they or their clothes are, LoadProof is a similar Enterprise system of record that holds photos, not so much for show off, but to serve as compelling, unequivocal, thoroughly documented proof, even in the court of law when there is a dispute between organizations while they perform many facets of their functions/operations, as well as for increased visibility and transparency within the Supply Chain. The capabilities of LoadProof are discussed in detail in the next sections of the document below. LoadProof is live in 460+ Sites, 250+ corporates, 13 Countries.There are more testimonials in this link here also https://www.g2.com/products/loadproof/reviews. Learn more here on our YouTube channel,  https://youtube.com/@smartgladiatorloadproof  & also here in LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/smartgladiator/

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