Smart Entrepreneurs Don't Leap Without Looking — Here's How to Strategically Approach Starting a Business Think you're ready to act on your next big idea? Read this first.
By Aytekin Tank Edited by Kara McIntyre
Key Takeaways
- Starting a business shouldn't be a blind "leap of faith," but a calculated step with evidence and preparation.
- Knowing your customer, building your product, having a viable MVP and reaching your target users are essential before taking the entrepreneurial plunge.
- Leveraging existing experience and ensuring product-market fit can shift the odds in favor of a startup's success.
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Founders often talk about taking a "leap of faith" when starting their business. The phrase, coined by Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, describes believing in something without rational proof — accepting an uncertain outcome despite a lack of evidence.
My opinion? This is a terrible way to approach launching a company.
To me, taking a leap of faith is like jumping out of an airplane without a parachute, assuming you'll be okay without any supporting evidence. Perhaps a well-meaning flock of birds will carry you to safety, or a strong gust of wind will deposit you gently on the ground. Personally, I'd rather pack a parachute — one that I know is structurally sound and will do its job.
Determining when it's time to move forward with your business idea doesn't require soaring foolishly into an unknowable abyss. It doesn't mean there won't be uncertainty. But if you can meet the below pre-conditions, your leap will be more of a confident step, and you won't need to rely on faith: You'll have facts.
Related: 4 Ways to Determine If Now Is the Right Time to Launch Your Business
Pre-condition 1: You know who is ready to use your product
When I started my company, Jotform, I knew exactly who would be using the product I wanted to build: Me and all of the editors at the media company where I worked as a programmer. I was constantly getting requests for forms, so I knew how important they were to the company's operations. I also knew I was tired of building them and that there had to be a better way. And there was.
As Y Combinator co-founder Paul Graham put it, "When a startup launches, there have to be at least some users who really need what they're making — not just people who could see themselves using it one day, but who want it urgently."
Jotform is a classic example of the power of scratching your own itch. In my case, it was a win-win: Even if my no-code forms didn't take off, I'd still have solved an irritating problem for myself, all while continuing to collect a paycheck at my day job.
Pre-condition 2: You can build your product
Say you have an amazing idea for a house you want to build — it will have all sorts of incredible features, like turrets, multiple balconies and a wraparound porch. The only problem? You've never picked up a hammer.
That doesn't mean it can't be done. All it means is you'll have to learn how to do it — if possible, on someone else's dime.
By the time I started working on Jotform, I'd already built a handful of products in my spare time, in addition to the ones I'd made for my 9 to 5 job. At that job, I also had the incredibly valuable experience of owning a SaaS product used by millions — it was called TheCounter.com, and it was a sort of precursor to Google Analytics. TheCounter.com was originally released as a free product, but after the stock market crashed, the company needed cash, so I was charged with building a paid version. Making big decisions and having ownership over that product was the best education I could have asked for — and I did it all while continuing to collect a paycheck.
By the time I started working on Jotform, I already had much of the experience I needed to get it up and running myself. For everything else, I learned as I went.
Pre-condition 3: Your MVP is viable
For many founders, their "leap of faith" moment comes when they quit their day job, dramatically trading in security for the freedom of entrepreneurship.
Not me. I only quit the media company after my side project — a profile tool I'd developed — was consistently earning more than my paycheck. I spent six months building a free version of Jotform with only basic functions. When I released it, I knew one of two things would happen: People would use it or they wouldn't. And if they didn't, well, I had only wasted six months, and I'd still have the income from my side project.
I had a lot of confidence in Jotform, and once I quit my job, I worked on it with complete dedication. As disappointing as it would have been if it had failed, it wouldn't have been catastrophic. I still had my other products, I still had my experience and I knew I would come up with something else.
Related: 5 Tips for Solidifying MVP, and Why It's the Most Important Aspect of Building a Startup
Pre-condition 4: You know how to reach your target users
This is a pre-condition I actually didn't meet myself, but would have had I known better.
Marketing does not come naturally to me, but when I founded my company, I was proud of my product and the technology I'd developed. Doing PR wasn't too painful.
Still, there are many ways you can drum up interest in your product, even before it's released. Figure out your audience and do outreach on social media, through forums like Reddit or by starting a blog. Even the best product will be DOA if it doesn't reach people.
Launching a business doesn't have to be a reckless leap into the unknown. By meeting these pre-conditions, you can turn a leap of faith into a strategic, well-planned step forward — one supported by preparation, data and confidence.
