Public-facing startup culture can appear shiny, glamorous, and pumped full of hype. But the reality for the majority of startups (the ones that don’t hit the headlines) is very different: launching and scaling a tech business is less about high drama, and more about hard work and incremental growth.
Entrepreneurs are loudly celebrated for their courage, their risk-taking, and their big ideas. And all of this is absolutely worth celebrating – but we want to remind you that steadiness and resilience are essential qualities for long-term success in the tech industry.
Steadiness doesn’t sound so exciting. It’s not a quality that’s going to get you on the cover of a business magazine any time soon. And yet, the ability to remain steady and consistent as you build a business is critical; it allows you to keep working towards success.
How do we define steadiness in business?
When we describe an entrepreneur as ‘steady’, we mean:
- They work from a place of clarity – a clear idea of what they’re working towards.
- They value small steps towards their goals just as much as major leaps, and recognise the long-term power of incremental progress.
- When they hit setbacks, they’re able to absorb the lessons from those challenges, adjust their strategy, and continue working.
- They don’t get overwhelmed by the competition – instead of worrying they’re falling behind, they concentrate on running their own race and building their business piece by piece.
- They establish and maintain productive habits that enable them to keep moving towards their goals.
Steadiness allows you to handle the toughest obstacles you face while you’re growing your business
When we interviewed Wiktor Schmidt (Executive Chairman at Netguru), he said: “Building and scaling a business is tough, and not in a glamorous ‘Forbes cover story’ kind of way. I've learned the importance of focusing less on bulletproof processes and more on establishing the right habits and incentives for the team.”
For some startups, steadiness becomes a part of the growth strategy out of necessity – when they don’t secure early funding, and opt for bootstrapping instead. Travel tech platform EaseMyTrip, for example, embraced the opportunity to grow in a slow and sustainable way.
When we interviewed Prashant Pitti (Co-Founder of EaseMyTrip), he said:
“For us, getting no funding was a blessing in disguise. Because today, we wouldn’t have the kind of freedom that we have to navigate through the decisions in making the company what it is. We slowly grew through the ranks, and in fact, a lot of VCs who rejected us initially came back to us in 2014 when they saw our exponential growth. By then, we were already growing profitably right from our first year, so we did not even have the need to raise funds.”
Offering his advice to startups struggling to secure funding, Pitti added that “if anyone is having hurdles in raising money, they should know that the best businesses are made out of ideas and best practices. Success will not necessarily be dependent on the kind of money you raise.”
Instead of early-stage investor capital, success is determined by your ideas, your resilience, and the steadiness that allows you to keep working towards your goals.
Don’t worry if your startup hasn’t won awards or been featured by business journalists. Those are markers of publicity, not necessarily markers of success.