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144 6 SECRETS TO STARTUP SUCCESS

four buckets below, using the suggested questions to stimulate and
guide your learning process. Treat these questions as starter list, re-
vising and adding to suit your situation.

FOUNDER – As the old saying goes, be careful what you wish for. Many
aspiring founders are surprised along their startup journey to learn
that the role they envisioned for themselves is not what it was cracked
up to be. To ensure that your passion and skills are aligned with your
startup challenge, periodically revisit the questions related to founder
readiness outlined in Chapter Three with an eye toward what has
changed and what is being learned.

9 What are you learning about yourself as a founder and
entrepreneur? What are you learning about your founding
team? What has been most surprising to you, and how can
you apply these insights going forward?

9 What have you learned about your passion? Do you feel
the “fire in the belly” or a “weight on the shoulders”? What
factors contribute to each?

9 Are you on a path to satisfy your core purpose for making
the entrepreneurial leap? Have your reasons and goals
shifted? If so, how and why?

9 Where is the emerging fit between your skills, experience,
personality, etc. and the requirements of your new venture?

9 How can you better deploy your strengths and cover for
your gaps? How are your core team’s strengths and
weaknesses playing out in the venture process?

9 Are you bringing your best energy, focus, and performance
to your venture? If not, what factors stand in the way and
how can you best address them?

MARKET – Without a ready market there will be no venture, so finding
your market sweet spot is the primary purpose of early iteration.
Here are a few specific questions to ensure that you hear and make
sense of what the market has to say.

American Management Association • www.amanet.org