The Value of Startup Studios for Emerging Founders (Part 1)

Dear reader, buckle your seat belt and get ready to take off! In our last webinar session our guest speaker, Craig Kronenberger, 5-time founder and consumer digital strategist, shared with our audience his greatest lessons of over twenty years of experience. In particular, Craig answers fundamental questions on what to consider when founding a startup and how Startup Studios can support founders succeed.

Make sure to keep on reading to receive the key lessons learned on what makes startups succeed (or fail) in today’s modern era. In addition, make sure to follow us on LinkedIn and join our LinkedIn group not to miss the next webinar sessions. But now, let’s dive right in...

Four Aspects of Launching Startups

In order to launch startups successfully, founders should make sure to consider four aspects. Combined, they provide the fuel and direction for launching a startup:

• Finding the right team: It is all about constructing a complementary team that fits the launch and operational needs of your business.
• Preparing for setbacks allows founders to identify potential challenges early on and set up structures accordingly (processes, operational plans, indicators, etc.). Thus, if the worst-case scenario actually hits, structures are already thought through and in place to be implemented when needed.
• Securing the appropriate amount of funding  —  not too much or too little. Make sure to build in proof points down the road to determine and increase the value of your business.
• In addition, making a strong business plan which outlines the next three to five years enables you to determine the appropriate funding and assess whether your idea is worth pursuing from a financial perspective.

Lessons Learned from a Five-time Founder

Founders need to understand that failure is a necessary component of achieving success. As a founder, you likely have or will experience many failures throughout your career — big and small. Here are three of Craig's greatest lessons:

• Building a strong system: Don’t think that you can do it all  —  instead make sure to construct the right team and design a comprehensive strategy. Even if you can do many things, oftentimes your idea takes off more successfully with a strong system in place.
• Conducting due diligence: Spend some time to really think through your ideas and ask tough questions about yourself. Moreover, as Steve Blank put it: Get out of the building  — talk to many people and listen carefully.
• Emerging from failure: The trick is to fail smarter — meaning that you are emerging from failure and moving forward strategically, having learned from your mistakes. It is important to accept failure, learn from it, and then continue in your pursuit of success. 

How Startup Studios Can Support Founders

Startup Studios provide the perfect opportunity for founders and team members to grow along with the business they help to build. While entrepreneurs usually identify interesting opportunities and have great ideas, Studios provide the needed structure and support to explore and exploit those opportunities. In particular, Startup Studios can support in four meaningful ways:

• Failure to Launch: Most startups fail before they even launch. Many startups fail to find their footing because they were overly optimistic with their timeframe, or they were not able to get their products or services out before their competitors. While timing is not the most crucial factor in determining a startup’s failure, timing is the most critical element for a startup’s success.
• Operational Challenges: This can be any kind of problem that arises which can render a startup less efficient, less profitable, or defunct. Primarily, these challenges put unnecessary strain on a startup’s energy and resources and can lead to failure if not dealt with properly early on.
• Wrong Team: According to Crunchbase, not having the right team is one of the top three reasons why startups fail. Entrepreneurs can do everything in their power to raise capital, choose the correct business model, and leverage marketing channels — but if they fail to hire a diverse team with the necessary variety of skill sets to handle the immense workload, they will be another statistic that could have been avoided.
• Getting Funding: What frequently goes wrong is that startup management fails to achieve the next milestone before cash is exhausted. Entrepreneurs need to know how to regulate the accelerator pedal to avoid the risk of becoming insolvent.  

That’s it for part one of the incredibly insightful webinar! Make sure to head over to our second part in which Craig answers the questions from the live audience on the Startup Studio Model in detail. 

About the Speaker

Craig Kronenberger has over twenty years of experience as a consumer digital strategist with a concentration in global strategy, new product launches, brands and direct marketing, and consumer relationship marketing for Fortune 500 and growth organizations.

Currently the CEO and founder of Stripe Theory, a data-fueled digital agency established in 2015 with operations based in Atlanta and The Philippines. Stripe Theory was most recently acquired by Acceleration Community of Agencies (ACC) to continue its ever-growing success in implementing deep expertise in data analytics to drive relevant, cost-effective, and impactful marketing results for clients like Amazon, Nissan, and Facebook, among others.