Start Me Up

Many large and successful companies will often look at smaller enterprises with an envious eye.

The flexibility and freedom afforded to them can often lead to the pronouncement that we need to "think like a start-up", but what exactly is the state of mind were trying to instil?

And conversely if you're a start-up what are you trying not to lose as you grow and hopefully become successful?

Risky Business

Start-ups have a healthy attitude to risk, this is not to say they are irresponsible or reckless but that they realise some details will need to be figured out along the way.

When working in technology as a small company time is not always on your side, their just isn't time to come up with a full-proof plan, instead you have to have faith that the core of your idea is sound and you and your team are smart enough to figure the rest out.

In a similar vein you need to be able to recognise when a decision isn't working out and find a new way. 

Whats most important is to anticipate this potential for failure and be prepared to re-think things and have a plan B in the wings.

Open to Innovation

Many start-ups have limited resources or are at least are trying to maximise the return on what they do have.

This often means they are willing to be active participants in the technology community where many cutting edge technologies are available for free in the form of open source projects.

This openness to innovation, coupled with an accepting attitude towards risk, can lead to very impressive things being achieved on limited budgets.

The majority of start-ups realise that they aren't selling secret sauce, they aren't in the business of producing code they're in the business of providing solutions.

Buying a Ticket to the Game

The most successful start-ups realise its better to be in the market place potentially making mistakes then being on the outside looking in with amazing plans for success but no execution.

To do this these start-ups embrace the concept of a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and the speed of advancement that comes from rapid iteration.

If your start-up is to be successful then the core of your idea needs to be what users want, without bells and whistles, if that doesn't deliver value adding more and more on top wont rescue the situation.

The only way to validate your idea is to have it in the market place being used.

Your healthy attitude to risk means your accepting of the fact their will be some element of failure in your idea but by iterating and introducing more innovation you will progress.

Thinking like a start-up should mean accepting that not everything can be solved in advance

A healthy agile mind set means embracing the fact that this means not everything we ship will hit the mark with users but that its more important that we're heading in the right direction and evolving at pace.