The Frightening Gamble Table

This article is written by Mohammad Eslim, a Contributor Author at Startup Istanbul.

At Startup Istanbul 2015, we had 3 panelists talk about startup founders and why they made the decision to put their startups together. These panelists include Ahmed Baya, Founder of Startup Mauritania, Nofal, Founder of Scorify, and Patrick Bosteels, Co-founder of Stage-Co & CoderDojo.

To address the issue I’m trying to express in this essay in simple words in order to understand more about this poker game people play when it comes to startups, and I would rather you forget about numbers of startup events and how many startups gets to be companies. 

When people are not sure of success one-hundred percent they hesitate to try to actually do it, it’s the humans’ nature that we are stating. Of course there is this minority who are willing to take the risk and jump head-first but it’s a minority. Ladies and gentlemen, the opportunities we find in our lives are not a one-hundred percent failure proof, so taking choices and making decisions are two things people find very hard and risky…for them, it’s like sitting on a gamble table.  

May I remind you that gambling is fun with its thrill only as a game, however if the stakes are all your money or the comfortable life style you are living then it’s no fun at all. That’s probably why a lot of people, even entrepreneurs with ideas, avoid doing startups; and we understand that the failure is something that is not welcomed in our life and we all hate it for it makes us want to wrap ourselves in our blankets and cry, but it’s a must to realize that failure is a part of every startup and we have to move forward in order to rid ourselves of that feeling and eventually we will succeed.

The other thing that discourages people to innovate even out of startups is what the corporates’ system entails when a project of a new idea fails. In these cases the employee responsible of the project is ninety-nine percent to be fired. That right there is what makes it comfortable for people to work but entrepreneurs would walk on their toes regarding any new or innovative idea they want to suggest. Jittery I tell you! 

For big guys who have their names spread in the whole market, they see startups as a big risk, so we don’t really find investors or corporates quickly willing to put their money investing in them. Startups which might succeed are monitored and studied, then when some are founded as companies are still not quite attractive until they prove to be of benefit to the corporate or investors who would invest. 

So to say, businesses don’t speak startups language. Startups are gambling games right their and if you want to get in that world you shall go into disruption and innovation knowing failure is a part of the whole experience, and if you want to build up experience go as a company to a vertical, which means you have to be the first to come with the idea to start in a vertical, and find people who are really into it. Gain the knowledge and translate it into business, because if you didn’t do it or didn’t have the courage to do it then people in the business wouldn’t take the risk to do it for you.

https://vimeo.com/141892491