The Evolution of a Startup

Do I want take the safe bet, or am I willing to make the jump and launch into something else, something exciting? You might be asking yourself this very same question. Startups are known for their risk/reward profile and scalability. In fact, scalability – or the evolution of the company – is at the heart of this post. The guiding principles of a startup are learning, growth, and potential for return on investment.
 

 
One of the hurdles that many Startup’s face is funding. Research is necessary to determine the validity of the market for the Startup’s product or service, strategies for growth and protecting intellectual capital, and the list goes on. The genesis of the Startup may be in the founders home or basement, or even just sitting in the coffee shop down the street. Working from the ground up might be as simple as two guys, a card table and a good idea. But a company cannot live in the founders basement forever. As the company goes from crawling on its knees to standing upright – getting financing via investment, licensing, patents, and more – the need to stretch becomes apparent.
 

 
Growing up means moving out, and that space needs to fit the business model that came with the startup genesis. It could be as small a virtual office, used to meet with clients and investors alike, or a small executive office. Of course, successful planning is at the basis of that growth, and such growth doesn’t happen overnight. But with continued success comes continued growth, and as a company moves from being considered a startup to being a profitable business, being publically traded, or to the point of ceasing to be the entity it started as, it would grow beyond the bounds of a shared office space, perhaps to the point of having multiple locations all over the globe. But it all started with how you answer that first question – will you play it safe or will you jump?