start-ups - cfagbata

Insightful Statistics you need to Know about Start-ups

Over the years, the tech ecosystem has seen a global explosion of start-ups.

While it is quite good, to be excited, at the sights of start-ups springing up, especially, in this part of the world, we must not shy away, from the reality that, more than 70% of start-ups, eventually fail, due to what can best, be described, as an untimely scaling.

My findings, over the years, as a tech advocate and a hub Co-Founder, will assist emerging start-ups, in knowing the path, to launching and maintaining successful start-ups.


You can also read, Penetration of tech start-ups in Africa


Below are the key statistics, you need to know and try to emulate, in order to stay focused and succeed with your start-up:

  • Start-ups that got mentored, have the tendency to grow, three times faster and were able, to raise seed funding, seven times, more than those without mentors.

As a start-up entrepreneur, you are faced with, so many tasks that can be quite overwhelming.

With the assistance of the right mentors, start-up entrepreneurs can receive directional focus and have quality investment, in time.

With the connections and experience of these mentors, start-ups pathway to success, usually, enjoy high probability.

  • Start-ups, or, founders, usually, come to the realisation that their intellectual property, does not come, as a competitive advantage. A staggering figure, of more than 70%, often comes to realise this, later.

Whatever a product idea that you have, if not executed, would fade into history, no matter how innovative it appears to be, even, if you have it legalized, resting on your oars, will do you no good.

One cannot, totally, throw them off, as they are, highly essential, in the case of enterprise-focused start-ups.

These types of start-ups, often require high level of performance that demands technical input, however, they have their limitations, as stated earlier.

A CTO, nevertheless, can be of great help, to execute business opportunities, for your consumer-based products.

  • Start-up ventures, founded by teams that are non-technical, perform 31% better, than their counterparts, who run consumer-based products.

The validation of a business model, often takes long, maybe 2-3 times longer, than the period that they are expected to.

It takes longer to get an idea validated, especially, when it concerns start-ups’ ideation.

You need to do more listening and research work. No matter how unique your idea may appear to be, it is required that it is subjected, through a series of customer reviews and iterations, before your target market would embrace it.

  • 42% of innovations, experience failure, due to prolonged time for development. Investment in the wrong resource often leads to this.

As a founder, you save time, by investing in, testing the willingness, of your customer to pay, rather than keeping unnecessary focus, on improving the product.

Surprisingly, founders of failed start-ups, have a 20% probability, of succeeding in their subsequent enterprises.

A significant number of start-ups that end up failing might have seen failure indicators, before throwing in their weight of investment, but most times, they often ignore these indicators.

Failing and realising, simultaneously, often help the founder, to explore new directions that promise eventual success.

For investment purposes, only a small fraction of start-ups, are backed by ventures. A good number of them, are funded, through savings and family sources.

Ventures that pre-sell their products and services, usually, round up 40% to 50%, more leads and retain a high percentage of customers.

Finally, these insights give indications of an increased chance, of growing a profitable start-up.

Get around you, mentors and team members, with the ideation and skills required.

Test your ideas, to determine the indicators for failure and get around them, decisively, as soon as possible.

These would put you in a more advantageous position for growth.


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