Dear defties,
the summer is definitely over, wild geese can be heard on their journey to the south and you’ve probably dug out the warmer jacket from your closet already. Time is flying (3 more months until Christmas) and the world is spinning, especially for entrepreneurs.
Over the course of the last few weeks, one particular thought crystallized in my mind and I picked it as the first thing to share with you after the loooong summer break.
Take a deep breath.
Are you ready?
…
Nobody’s waiting for you!
…
It hurts a bit to hear that, right?
You might wanna take another deep breath because:
It’s the truth.
In two senses actually.
1) As a startup founder, in the vast majority of cases nobody has been waiting for your idea/product/service to launch. Consumers’ needs are quite saturated and they are usually reluctant to change their behaviour for a slightly better solution. So the go-to-market will be a hard earned journey and some will never even make it.
2) As a human being, you will see opportunities go by, chances that you miss, events that you won’t attend and again, nobody’s waiting for you, life just goes on.
Alright now, where is this going? More depressing thoughts when it’s already rainy, grey & windy outside and getting dark earlier and earlier?
Well no.
Let’s see it this way: Knowledge is power.
When you realize that besides building an awesome product you also need to reach your audience and speak to their desires (which maybe they didn’t even know they had), then you can design the marketing & sales strategy accordingly. You are in control. You can prepare, ask the right questions, find the voice of your brand and try new channels for communication and distribution.
Nobody has been waiting for you. And still you will manage to catch their eye!
When you are aware that you can’t dance on all the weddings at the same time (we literally have this as a proverb in German) and there’s always something else that seems like fun too, you’ll be much more aware of your choices.
What brings you energy, where do you want to be present because it’s important to show up, when do you need space for yourself? Take these decisions and then be fine with them. Regret and fomo will make you bitter in the end.
Nobody’s waiting for you. And that’s okay, because you chose to be exactly where you are.
Oh and actually, there’s someone who has been very patiently waiting for you (to read until the end) 😉
#defty pad
Let’s all celebrate and congratulate our fellow defty Fabiola Munguia, the co-founder of Secfix, who recently raised a six-figure pre-see round to help SMEs automate their IT-Security and Compliance 🥳🎉
The winner of the Grace Summer Accelerator 2021 is Isabelle Guenou, the founder of theblood.io which analyses menstrual blood to detect deficiencies and determine your overall health🩸💡
Btw the red droplet emoji was introduced in 2019 and finally this month in Germany, the blue liquid got replaced with red liquid to end #periodshaming in advertisements. We’re (slowly) getting there!
Resources & Events
createF - The Female Founders Show
The producer Franziska Pohlmann decided that something needs to be done about the visibility of female founders and the idea for createF was born. The show will document the journey of 10 women founders and 2 aspiring investors (one of them being me) over the course of 12 weeks - and all the episodes will be available on Youtube. Subscribe to their Youtube channel and watch the first part go live on September 30th! *waaah* 💃🔥
Product & Tech Office Hours
The CTO and CPO at Project A offer free office hours on September 28th where you can pick their brains about any product or tech startup challenge that you have.
Apply here!
Find investors
DueDash is a platform with 50.000+ Investors multi-stage investors to make your fundraising experience easier and track the status of all the conversations you’re having.
Virtual Pitch Event
CashWalk is an initiative by German Entrepreneurship and offers exclusive virtual pitch events for startups and investors only. Startups can apply for the next event in Spring 2022 and when selected pitch in front of 100 investors simultaneously.
Photo credits: Preview Image
Great timing for another great post, thank you Karla!