Welcome to the first edition of my monthly column on startups. I will be covering the issues and challenges which startups face as they try to build out their businesses and will try to provide some insights on how these issues and challenges can best be addressed. As my primary areas of expertise are product strategy & management, business development and relationship management; I will strive to stick to issues in these areas in this column.

In this first edition I will focus on the high level motivation behind starting a new business. In future columns I hope dive deeper into specific issues faced by startups.

So why to do people venture out on their own and start a new business? I have often heard people say it’s because they like the freedom of working for themselves and flexibility of making their own working hours.

In most cases I have found that people who use these reasons for starting a business are running what I will refer to as a "Lifestyle Business". They earn a decent living and are comfortable with that but are not doing anything disruptive nor will they ever have a big exit via an IPO or getting acquired by larger company. I have nothing against this as a reason for starting and running a business, it works for a lot of people.

However, in the technology business where I have spent a majority of my career, there are two primary motivations in my opinion why people strike out on their own, they want to make a difference and/or make a lot of money.

Let’s start with the first one.

A lot of entrepreneurs I know start companies because they want to make difference in an industry and/or change the world in some disruptive way. It is the one of the main things which I love and admire about entrepreneurs. Sure they would like to make a lot of money and get a big exit, but it is not the primary motivation behind the starting the company.

This is very important if you are truly trying to build a product/service which is going to be disruptive, there will come a time when you need to focus on generating revenue and scaling the business quickly. However, at the beginning you should be focusing on the product/service you are building and how it is going to impact the market you are looking to address be it consumers or businesses.

The entire focus of company should be directed on the engineering and design of the product. Once you have a working product which you can test then you can develop product strategy which will include a revenue strategy. At that time you don't have a founder experienced in business development you can add someone to your team who can help you develop the revenue strategy and scale the business quickly.

As for the second motivation: make lots of money.

Although most people who decide to build a for-profit business get into it to make money, when the focus of the founders in driven primarily by making lots of money via an IPO or getting acquired, I think they hamper their ability to be successful since their primary focus is not on building a good product/service but maximizing revenue growth. Generating revenue should absolutely be focus of any business, however at what stage it becomes the primary driver of the founders is totally critical. By focusing on revenue generation first I feel a startup increases it's chances of failure since the product/service will suffer by not having the required focus on design and engineering.

Can you be motivated by both at the same time? Of course you can but I think the key is to focus on what you are building first followed by a combined focus on continued product development, revenue growth and customer support. I think this combination ultimately increases your chances of being successful.

Well that's it for my first edition. If there are specific areas you would like to see me address in the column please let me know. I am looking forward to sharing my thoughts with you.