仅凭一个好点子，能创业成功吗？

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在创业过程中，有不少人认为“一招鲜走天下”是可行的。然而，残酷的现实证明，这种想法过于天真。要知道，成功是没有秘方的。




企业家内幕网络是美国的一个在线社区，美国创业界最睿智和最有影响力的一些大咖会在这里及时回答与创业和职业有关的问题。今天为大家分享的是Podium公司CEO艾利克•利亚对“关于创业生活有哪些最大的误区？”这一问题的回答。
自从Podium公司创办以来，我在创业方面已经听说了两个截然相反的极端误区。一种看法认为，创业是一个极端痛苦而疲劳的过程，你基本上可以与创业以外的所有其他生活说拜拜了；另一种看法是，只要你起初能一炮打响，通往荣耀和财富自由的道路就将是一帆风顺的。我认为这两种看法都不是全然正确的。另外我在创业的过程中，也反复遇到过许多其他思维误区：
只要把产品做出来，用户就会蜂拥而至
科技界的创业者往往有这样一种思维误区：只要你做出一个App，然后把它放在Product Hunt这样的精选应用网站上，几乎一夜之间，你就会拥有一个巨大的用户群。然而实际上，这种情形只会发生在极少数公司身上。成功是没有秘方的。大多数成功的创业者之所以会成功，是因为他们首先做出了某种人们真正想要和需要的产品，其次是因为他们把大量的血汗和泪水洒在了日复一日的销售和推广上。
在Podium公司，我们始终坚持并仍然坚持两个观点：第一，要做出人们真正想要的产品；第二，永不言败。在过去两年半的时间里，我们实现了惊人速度的增长，这是由于我们始终将精力集中在如何为用户和我们自己创造看得见摸得着的利益上，而不是仅仅依靠运气。
你需要的只是一个好点子
如果你觉得自己有了一个好点子，那么可能还有成千上万的人也在研究跟你类似的东西。在如今的创业界，已经很少能有什么全新的、独一份的创意了。要想使自己与众不同，主要还得靠你的执行。当我和另一位创始人创办Podium的时候，我们知道，肯定有很多其他创业者也在从事帮企业搜集在线评价的工作，因为现在几乎没有哪家企业敢忽视在线评价的力量。它到现在仍然是企业的一个大问题，因为正面的评价已经成为最能给企业带来利润的营销手段之一。
即便我们自己认为我们的产品解决问题的方法比市面上的任何工具都强，它也不是能让我们的产品脱颖而出的关键因素——执行才是关键。在构建我们的这家创业公司时，我们在保罗•格雷厄姆的论文的基础上奠定了公司的基本框架。在创业过程中，我们学到了一个至关重要的经验，那就是你只需要关注两件事：第一，打造人们想要的产品；第二，拉到客户。说一千道一万，只有这两件事对创业者是最重要的。我们不会做任何与吸引新客户或改进产品无关的事。现在这种执行方针已经显现出了明显的效果。
人人都像你一样在乎公司
实际上，除了你自己，很少有人关心你究竟在做什么。你的员工花那么多时间来上班，只不过是为了薪水，并非因为他们真的喜欢你的产品。
在招聘的面试环节，我们会尽量甄别出那些不值得公司投资的人。我们经常见到这样一些求职者，他们之所以想到创业公司工作，是因为他们觉得这样很“酷”。这些人往往是阴差阳错地进入了这个领域，一旦他们觉得在创业公司工作比在普通公司更加操劳，他们就会立即跳槽。
那些不能帮助公司实现创业使命、不能追求自我成长的人，往往最容易在公司滋生浅尝辄止、小进则满的文化——这样的影响是很难消除的。如果你能在创业早期就将这些不关心你的愿景的人拒之门外，聚集起一支真正能为了你的目标奋斗的团队，那么从长远来说，每个人都会从中获益。
交际活动是成功的关键
许多创业公司很痴迷搞交际活动，忙于参加各种各样的创业节和聚会。但这些只会让你从工作中严重分心。很多参加这种活动的人往往更喜欢空谈做这做那，而不是踏踏实实地做产品或搞推广。
诚然，我们有时能通过交际活动获得一些有益的信息，但对我们的公司来说，更有益的还是老老实实做产品，多跟现有的和潜在的客户交流。毕竟去真正了解你的客户要比见几个同行重要得多。

The Entrepreneur Insiders network is an online community where the most thoughtful and influential people in America’s startup scene contribute answers to timely questions about entrepreneurship and careers. Today’s answer to the question, “What are some of the biggest misconceptions about startup life?” is written by Eric Rea, CEO of Podium.
Since starting Podium, I’ve heard two misconceptions about startups from opposite ends of the spectrum. One is that running startup is so grueling that you can say goodbye to any type of life outside of it. The second is that once you gain initial traction, it’s smooth sailing to startup glory and freedom. I’ve found neither of these to be entirely true, and have repeatedly come across other misconceptions about the startup world:
If you build it, they will come
I think there’s often a perception by those in the technology world that if you build an app and put it on Product Hunt (a curation site for web-based products), all of the sudden you will have a massive business. In reality, this works for very few companies—there’s no magic formula. Most startup success comes from building something people truly want and need, and then putting blood, sweat, and tears into selling it day in and day out.
At Podium, we’ve lived, and still live, by those two ideas: Build something that people want and never say die. We’ve grown incredibly fast over the last two and a half years, and it’s because we're focused on getting tangible results for ourselves and our customers—not just relying on luck.
You just need a great idea
If you think you have a novel concept, there are probably thousands of others working on something similar. In the startup world today, there are very few completely new, unique ideas. How you differentiate comes through your execution. When my co-founder and I started Podium, we knew that there were likely many others working to help businesses collect online reviews, because few customers think to leave them. That was, and still is, a big problem for businesses, because positive reviews are one of the most profitable forms of marketing.
While we believed our product’s approach to solving the problem was better than any other tool on the market, that wouldn’t be our key differentiator—execution would be. We used Paul Graham’s essays as a framework for building our startup. One of the crucial lessons was that you only need to focus on two things: First, build something people want. And second, get customers. At the end of the day, those are the only two things that matter. We didn’t do anything unless it helped us acquire new customers or improve our product. That execution methodology has made all the difference.
Everyone cares as much as you do
It’s rare to find people who care as much about what you’re building as you do. A lot of times your employees are coming to work for the paycheck and not because they totally buy into your product.
During the interview process, we do our best to identify the people who won’t be invested. We often get applicants who want to work for a startup because it’s “cool.” Those individuals are typically in the field for the wrong reasons, and will quickly leave once they find out that working at a startup is more demanding than your average job.
The employees who aren’t there to help drive the mission forward and grow individually are usually the ones who create a culture of complacency—something that’s nearly impossible to undo. If you can weed out those who don’t care early on, and rally those who do, everyone will benefit in the long run.
Networking events are the key to success
Many startups get obsessed with networking events, startup festivals, and meetups. But these end up being huge distractions from getting anything done—rather than building a product or marketing strategy, many people who go to these events are more interested in talking about building something.
While we did acquire some helpful information from networking events, our company benefited more from building the product and talking to current or potential customers. At the end of the day, truly understanding your customers is usually much more important than meeting someone in your industry.