What percentage of startups fail? Arbitrarily, that figure maybe put at 95% in the Nigeria startup scene, meaning only 1 in 20 startups succeed.
But “Bobby Martin believes that too many start-up founders pivot too early, quit too soon, and expect rapid takeoff.” He describes this in his book “The Hockey Stick Principles” released about a year ago which followed a research project of 172 successful startups.
So what is Hockey Stick Growth?
The stages are summarized in this article on Forbes.
And it is amazing to find out that almost all the successful startups - from Amazon to Google to Facebook - followed the same growth pattern as shown in their Hockey Stick Growth Charts.
Most important lesson from the Forbes article? "Plan to bootstrap for longer than you think you’ll need to, and expect to earn little to nothing in the meantime."
The rate at which products are being launched [even here on Radar] is alarming! I often wonder how long they will last and sooner, we get to hear nothing about them. You visit their website, only to find out they’ve been parked. Starting a business generally is a long and often boring process. It might take you months or years before you actually start making money. That is why you should try to follow the “Lean Startup Methodology”: start small with building an MVP, then measure and learn.
In my opinion, you shouldn’t launch a startup if you don’t have the funds to persist for at least 3 years or ideally 5 years without revenue or investor funding. That is why it is advisable for you to get a job first before starting a [part-time] business (the “Tinkering” stage). The mistake is often that you think your startup will generate enough revenue for operations (break even) as well as be your source of livelihood which is often not so. But we can understand that, given the economy we live in.
You can find more details about the book as well as the Hockey Stick Research Project (free PDF) here.