Symba Goes to Prague & Lessons We've Learned in Our Startup JourneyBy Nikita GuptaI was recently invited to the Czech Technical University in Prague to give a talk on Symba’s journey and startup culture in the United States. My good friend and fellow entrepreneur, Brooke Wingo, founder and President of Zone Swimwear, and I spoke to an audience that was eager to learn about startups and take away some tips for starting their own ventures.Here are some tips for entrepreneurs based on our talks and personal experiences:
1. When coming up with an idea, think about:
• Is there a particular problem that you are passionate about? Whether it comes from personal experience, friends/family, or personal interests, try to find a problem that people would pay money to solve. The Symba team experienced some pain points during our personal internships, and after speaking with hundreds of HR and intern managers, we realized that there was something to fix in the internship experience space.
• It is OK for ideas to evolve during your journey. Symba has pivoted multiple times, and there’s beauty to it. We learn each and every single step of the way from our diverse team and mentors and speaking with our users.
2. Create a demo first to get user feedback and build your MVP based on feedback.
• We used Sketch and InvisionApp to build a demo of the Symba platform. Once we saw what potential users were saying about it, we started to develop our own MVP. Diving straight into an MVP without getting some user input will cause some trouble. In the end, it’s your users using the product, so getting their feedback is very important.
3. Some personal tips from me:
• Don’t let the possibility of failure or rejection stop you from pushing forward. Beyond the risk, there will always be more wisdom and growth.
• Stay humble and hungry. Don’t get comfortable with your achievements.
• Dream big and go for it! You never know until you try.
4. Brooke’s 5 Don’ts of Startups:
• Don’t worry about failure
• Don’t look like you’re working
• Don’t fall in love with your product
• Don’t quit
• Don’t lose perspective
A huge thank you to Veronica Valeros, Radhika Gupta, Sebastian Garcia and the Stratosphere IPS team at CTU for showing me an amazing time in Prague and for this wonderful opportunity to share Symba's journey. We are excited to give back to the startup community and exchange ideas and advice with fellow entrepreneurs.
Check out the entire talk here: https://www.pscp.tv/verovaleros/1OwxWWnygznxQ?t=2m37s.
