Is jumping into a purpose-driven start-up right for you?

Start-ups are increasingly a hot ticket and maybe you’ve been tempted to leave your corporate job and take a spin in the start-up fast lane. But what about the risk? Depending on your source, between 60% and 90% of start-ups fail, funding is a continuous worry and hard-core start-ups ask people to work 90 hour weeks, including all-nighters and weekends. 

Aren’t start-ups just for techies?

Daunting myths aside, aren’t start-ups for techies? What if your skills lie outside social media, coding and AI? Fear not! The start-up space is ripe with opportunity and one of those might be tailor-made for you. While the core focus of the business may not be your area of expertise, it is still a business and if you have been working in a commercial organisation, they probably need your skills somewhere.

Do I need to have a great idea to join a start-up team?

You don’t need to have a great idea to join a start-up. If you do, then you probably aren’t reading this article anyway. Founders believe they have discovered an amazing solution to an intractable problem and will throw everything at it to make it happen. To borrow a Matrix analogy, ‘It’s like a splinter in their mind, driving them mad’. But every Morpheus needs a crew and there is always demand for talented crewmembers.

Do you want to attack ‘business as usual’? 

Since 2018 I’ve worked with more than 40 impact-driven start-ups (for-profit businesses that also have a social or environmental mission) through the accelerator programme that we run at Impact Central. Whether selling a product or service, B2B or D2C, specialised or commodity, start-ups all have one thing in common - they attack business-as-usual. It’s not just crypto, tech and AI. Think Dollar Shave Club, which disrupted a massive market by reconfiguring the delivery of men’s grooming products.

How will you sort the ‘hope’ from the ‘hype’ of an impact-driven start-up?

How should you weigh up a start-up employment opportunity? Well, the perks of corporate life won’t exist (no free lunches or gyms) but in return, you get an opportunity to join on the ground floor of a world-saving business. Seriously, how do you sort the hope from the hype? Like any job, a good place to start is from the employer’s perspective. Why do they want to hire you? 

The 6 areas start-ups need to focus on to survive

In our experience, start-ups need to focus on 6 key areas to survive. In which area (s) will you deliver value and make a real difference?

1.   Business Model

 The first area is the business model. To survive, a business needs to make more money than it spends. While start-ups are tricky to evaluate because the revenue machine is not yet running on all cylinders, you need to get under the hood to convince yourself the engine is sound. And while you are down there, make sure at least some of your work is increasing revenue. When the rubber hits the road, cost centres get squeezed first.

2.   People

Second, people. While in real estate the three most important things are location, location, location for a start-up it’s people, people, people. Great teams need to be compatible, and they also need to be complementary. Creative tension gets resolved when team members with different expertise knock heads and discover the optimal outcome. Groupthink is bad. Isn’t that why you want to leave your corporate job in the first place?

3.   Finance

Number three, finance. I know, lots of people put this first but it’s third. Here’s why: a solid business model executed by great people gets funded. In contrast, undisciplined founders will burn through their nest egg and crash in no time. Money is oxygen but it is crucial to know when and where to spend it. 

4.   Communications

 The fourth area is communications. Products and services don’t sell themselves. Customers will purchase an inferior product they have heard of, over a great product they know nothing about. Every start-up needs a tribe to get the word out. Who are the supporters and how will the start-up swell the ranks to grow the business?

5.   Customers

 When it comes to customers, the overused consultant speak is ‘product/market fit’. In plain English, is the product or service necessary to solve a problem for customers? Vitamins are nice to have but pain relievers are a necessity. Is the start-up selling customers vitamins or pain relievers? Tricky but essential for a start-up to get right.

6.   Impact

 And finally, impact. Pushing impact might seem self-serving from someone running an impact accelerator but I know this audience - if you are currently thinking of leaving your corporate job, it’s likely because you’re unhappy with your company or role. The world is in a tough patch and there are basically two kinds of people: those wanting to do something about it and those who don’t. Safe corporate jobs pay more money with lower risk. Unless you have a compelling reason why your new start-up job is more gratifying, you shouldn’t leave.

What are the next steps?

So if you want to: expand your skillset, are an all-arounder, willing to try things but focus on getting up the learning curve quickly, are a self-starter who finds things that are not working well and makes them better; then jumping into an impact start-up might just be your next step.

For more information on matching your skills to a purpose-driven start-up, register for our webinar on Wednesday, January 26th at 1.00pm GMT.

We'll be joined by Impact Central co-founder, Gordon Eichorst, to help you understand how your skills fit with a start-up career, and the importance of having the right mindset when looking for roles in this sector.