Often as entrepreneurs, especially for those of us who come from a technical background, we come up with an interesting idea that mashes together some technology in a way that would be really cool. “It’s quora plus facebook local social mobile on demand coupons with a sprinkle of yelp.” Sounds interesting, but where are the customers? In other words, “Who wants this, why, and are they willing to pay for it?”

Although we have passed the dot com bubble 1.0, there are many MANY startups who are still following conventional wisdom at the time ‘get big fast.’ This has its own merits, and for every time I say ‘How are you going to make money from this’, I get a dozen examples of Twitter-like viral growth thrown in my face. Well, those guys are cut from a different cloth, and could get funding without a clear path to revenues.

Usually, startups fail because they run out of money. It seems obvious, but when we peer into the inner workings of any given startup, what we see is a group of people passionately focused …on the wrong things. The focus should be on the customers, what they want, and the MONEY. I know it seems a bit taboo to discuss money and startups in that way, and we spend a lot of time talking about changing the world and disrupting an industry, but we have to keep our eyes on the big picture. We are building a business, and businesses, by definition, exist to ‘create value’ (Make Money).

So who are you selling to? Why are they buying it? What value do they get from it? What is so special about your offering vs the others? What are the problems your product solves? Do your customers see the solutions to these problems as ‘must have’? If not, can you convince them that they must have it? How big is this problem? The list goes on, but my point is that there is an inward focus that needs to be asking these questions as you outwardly execute. At that point, you have effectively derisked the endeavor.