The Startup Dynamics

The cardinal rule with most startups : the technology/product development can be an iterative processes; but business plan shall remain anchoraged. The tale of Riya, an internet start-up, is a good one. Riya's Munjal Shah, has published the iterative approach they’ve taken to developing Riya’s business plan - read all the five parts. Peter Rip,an investor in Riya, discusses the change in business startegy in a post titled “The Riya Pivot”: I particularly liked his writing - Riya “launched with one thesis, but went back to the drawing board to re-invent the business a mere six weeks after the launch.” He adds, The Riya 2.0 is nothing like the Powerpoint seen an year back and it iwas very different from the few quarter old whiteboard discussion notes. But this is the nature of early stage consumer. Change Happens. Iterate. Pivot. Evolve He describes a number of areas that got clearer in 18 months after launch. Surprisngly, most of the chnage happened on items integrated within the businessplan. Frankly speaking, this is not bad at all . Its part of a rightly focussed startup organization - there won't be any well defined path for getting business and growth.
Look at it closely : most of the improvements relate to things that need to be catered to as things move from an ideation stage to business lauch phase. This may support the idea that sometimes, it may be prudent to raise additional cheaper money at this stage rather than raising around 20 million early enough. Entrepreneurism brings out so much of discussions and action..