You have made it to the fourth and final “P” which is profit, as a recap the other three P’s were – people, passion and perseverance. Unless you are running a non-profit organization, profit is what drives a startup to exist. With those profits, it allows a startup to hire great people, acquire strategic assets, innovate, stay competitive and potentially give back to the community.
Some startups go off course when revenue is the only metric that is looked at. It’s similar to people that are only concerned about the money they will make. For individuals compensation is one aspect, there is also career development, knowledge and many other things to look at. Likewise, when startups only focus on revenue they might look for a quick deal to bring in revenue or might view an IPO as the ultimate path to the big payout. In the past many startups have IPO’d however many of them have faded away as their team, passion or perseverance was not strong enough.
Revenue is important but profit is what really needs to be looked at. You might bring in a large 2 million dollar deal but if you spent 5 million to get the deal, then there is something clearly wrong with the business model. Growing your revenue and profit organically is the best way to build a startup into a company. With the 4 P’s – people, passion, perseverance and profit you have a combination that is tough to beat and it’s the qualities that any startup should strive to achieve.
The above article was syndicated on VCCircle.com and GQindia.com.
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