Fadi Bishara is the founder and CEO of the Blackbox, a 2 week program which gathers entrepreneurs from outside of the Silicon Valley and provides an environment to connect those outside resources to the knowledge and expertise of the Valley. They select companies based on the founders and need to see an emotional connection to the solution they are creating. Fadi wants to feel their obsession. He gave a mentorship session focused on that idea at Startup Istanbul 2015. Here are the highlights.
“Product market fit means being in a good market with a product that can satisfy that market.” Mark Andreessen
Fadi uses the 4 stages to build a startup stated in “The Lean Startup” by Eric Ries -Customer discovery, Customer validation, Customer creation, Company building- and adds a previous key step. The Founder / Market fit which is about self discovery: learning who you are as a person. It is about questioning oneself to know what you truly care about and are interested in solving. The best products were built by founders who really understood and had the problem themselves. What is the pain that you feel yourself and want to solve? The more you understand the problem, the more you are likely to nail it. It’s a much more successful recipe than following trends and building what’s hot on the market. Focus on products you personally care about. What is the one product or service I want to build that is gonna change people’s lives. What is the big vision. You have the opportunity to make a difference by building something. And you have access to the knowledge and all the information you need because of the technology makes it available to you. Having a big vision means that it takes a lot of work and it means you will need a lot of help. Along the way you will build experience and failures become a learning process.
“Vision without execution is hallucination” - Thomas Edison
The biggest your project is, the more help you will need. And sometimes big breaks will come from random places, this is luck. How to get luck on your side? Get the more help possible. Human beings enjoy helping but we all prioritize this help to the people we care about first so the more people know you, the more people will help you. Talk to people and stop worrying about people stealing your idea, the chances are low and you need input and from others. Tell people your story in a compelling way. Tell them why do you care and what is it gonna take. Understand and show your level of commitment.
You can Watch the full mentorship session right below.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVteEWu8_tQ[/embed] ]]>