Cyprus Entrepreneurship Ecosystem - Food for thought ....
1. We should stop referring to startups and Cypriot start ups in the same sentence. If you want to build a startup you should think globally/internationally from the beginning
2. If you want to move quickly bypass (legally) the government or government entities
3. Have a sustainability plan so you do not have to run after money every time you run out of it... cash flow and burn rates are the two most important financial instruments when building a start up
4. Not everyone is built to become entrepreneur. As a mater of fact, only 20% of the people have the "DNA" to become entrepreneurs. My speculation is that most people in Cyprus are not successful because their objective is to get public funding to play around and do not have a Purpose that solves a critical market/society problem
5. Have a purpose when you are building a startup
6. Have the determination and the drive and work 25 hours a day (I know there are only 24 hours in a day but for fucks sake you are an entrepreneur - figure out another hour
7. Put things in perspective; there isn't ANY successful startup that came out of Cyprus - think about this - there are reasons for that. Figure out the reasons and fix it... don't expect others to fix it for you
8. You can't copy another successful "ecosystem" and expect the same results
9. Doing business and building startups is difficult as shit; that's why the success rate is really really really small
10. Stop listening to wanna be mentors, experts, specialist etc. The first question to ask to any of those people is; How many startups did you build (successfully or not)... the less they did the faster you run away
11. Ideas are a 1000 to a dime; they do not mean shit. I have 10 ideas every morning while taking a shower. Ask the difficult questions; is there enough market willing to pay the price I command for the unique/different product or service that I want to build? .. .and many more
12+1. Have a team around you who knows what they are doing, have the drive to do it, the patience to see it through, whose purpose and commitment are aligned with the rest of the team...
1. We should stop referring to startups and Cypriot start ups in the same sentence. If you want to build a startup you should think globally/internationally from the beginning
2. If you want to move quickly bypass (legally) the government or government entities
3. Have a sustainability plan so you do not have to run after money every time you run out of it... cash flow and burn rates are the two most important financial instruments when building a start up
4. Not everyone is built to become entrepreneur. As a mater of fact, only 20% of the people have the "DNA" to become entrepreneurs. My speculation is that most people in Cyprus are not successful because their objective is to get public funding to play around and do not have a Purpose that solves a critical market/society problem
5. Have a purpose when you are building a startup
6. Have the determination and the drive and work 25 hours a day (I know there are only 24 hours in a day but for fucks sake you are an entrepreneur - figure out another hour
7. Put things in perspective; there isn't ANY successful startup that came out of Cyprus - think about this - there are reasons for that. Figure out the reasons and fix it... don't expect others to fix it for you
8. You can't copy another successful "ecosystem" and expect the same results
9. Doing business and building startups is difficult as shit; that's why the success rate is really really really small
10. Stop listening to wanna be mentors, experts, specialist etc. The first question to ask to any of those people is; How many startups did you build (successfully or not)... the less they did the faster you run away
11. Ideas are a 1000 to a dime; they do not mean shit. I have 10 ideas every morning while taking a shower. Ask the difficult questions; is there enough market willing to pay the price I command for the unique/different product or service that I want to build? .. .and many more
12+1. Have a team around you who knows what they are doing, have the drive to do it, the patience to see it through, whose purpose and commitment are aligned with the rest of the team...
AND YES, I have been building startups for the last 34 years in the US
and Europe ... some of them failed and some didn't ... overall pretty
good for me
so, I think I know what the fuck I am talking about... BTW, yes, this
is a complicated issue and cannot be addressed with one posting or one
seminar or one of anything but at least it can give people interested an
idea of the basics ... lost of Love to All...
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