Celebrity startups

Would you be willing to support a new young startup business that you’ve never heard of?

Chances are small I bet.

How about if you’d seen mention of it in the media, heard about it on the radio or heard colleagues talking about it around the water cooler?

Maybe a bit more hope for them now?

Preparing for failure

We know that new businesses have a pretty dismal rate of success. Startups are, by virtue of their newness, not generally as well known as established businesses, and so suffer from less support from the market they serve whether they deserve it or not.

This reality isn’t helped by the fact that many cultures [including most in South Africa] are quite harsh on failures.

Giving startups a nudge to encourage entrpreneurship in SA

So with this in mind consider a planned program designed to raise public awareness of startups [via whatever medium and means are most suitable]. Sure, it would require input from many levels including government, big business and the media. But the benefits could be substantial!

Here are just some of the main benefits that I can think of:

• increased awareness of the company and its products, giving the company a better opportunity to succeed;
• more comprehensive case studies available in the case of both successes and failures;
• in the case of successes, a better opportunity for the stories to be shared and celebrated; and
• encouragement for youngsters to pursue entrepreneurship after school as they see more attention on startup businesses in general.

I’m sure you can think of some others too.

I believe it would be a great thing for us as a nation [here in South Africa] to support and would have tremendous value for the country as a whole.

What do you think?

Would you agree, and if so how do you think it could be done?

Even if you don’t have time to write a whole comment, please take a few seconds to vote in this poll below. I’d really like to know what you think!

Image – “Startup 2.0 eu” by ceslava.com via flickr

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