Been actively reading and re-reading the
Lean Startup book by
Eric Ries. Something that I pick up again and again in the book is the fact that it is becoming very easy to start a
business, given the availability of many resources. I have
written about this before. But it also begs the question, yes, we can build whatever we set our minds to but should we build it? Will the business be sustainable? what is the
opportunity cost of the time, money and effort if the business is not sustainable? Eric talks a lot about how we waste resources because we don't put values on them. Will the idea really solve a problem that exists in the world? How do we know? how do we engage with our customer before we embark on this journey? I don't believe we ask this question often enough. I participated as an observer last weekend in the
Startup Weekend event held in
University of Iceland by
Innovit. I met the teams that were working round the clock and I shared with them my experience and strategies while they were working on their
business idea and
business plan template. On sunday, I also participated in their pitch and one thing that I felt was missing is the question "Should we build this?" and "How we plan to engage with our potential customers and get feedback before we start our venture?" I did not get a conclusive answers but then again I was there for 2 hours and each pitch was 5 minutes. The teams did a very good job, of course it was all in Icelandic so could not get all the facts but overall there was a lot of energy. Over 100 people participated in this event in Reykjavik, very similar to the numbers in
Northern Kentucky,
West Michigan,
Seattle and
Beijing where this event was held last weekend. This once again proves that there is enough and more people in Iceland who want to start something new and take control of their future!
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