How to turn an idea into a company

I sometimes wonder what skills I actually have.

I don’t see myself as an expert in anything other than being a “get it done” guy. This is imposter syndrome, and I know that. Most founders I know wrestle with it, and for good reason. When you found a company, you have to wear a lot of hats and none of them seem to fit particularly well. 

But generalists often do well with early stage startups. Generalists are competent enough in a lot of fields to figure it out, and they know when to ask for help.

This week, someone told me about a business idea they have, but said they had no clue where to start. I get these messages or emails often. As a generalist who got it done before, I’m taking the time today to tell you how to put on your generalist hat and do the same.

Let’s talk about how to turn your idea into a company. 

It starts with an executive summary

The best way to get started? It’s to get started. It’s that simple. But what’s that mean?

In 2012, I started working on a side project. I was working with two cofounders, Zack Grimes (my cofounder at GoWild), and Jacob Knight (now GoWild’s Director of Strategic Partnerships). We were meeting at a brewery one night to discuss the concept, and Jacob encouraged me to look up the S.C.O.R.E. Business Plan. 

S.C.O.R.E. has a network of mentors and resources to help people found companies, including a great business plan template. Jacob’s advice was pivotal in helping me get started with that side hustle, and it was this same template that helped me get started with GoWild.  

I encourage you to check out the S.C.O.R.E. resource, but I will say, I think it’s too much. I’m going to simplify it and add to it today. I built out a 27 page business plan that no one else ever read, but it did help me get through the initial step of getting started. 

The first step to founding a company is just thinking. You need to think through everything—what is it, who would be a customer, what problem does it solve for them, what’s the competition, what’s the model, and more. 

If I started another company today, I’d built an executive summary that looked like this:

1) Overview of the business
No more than 3 sentences explaining the concept.

2) What is the problem your customers are facing and you’re solving?
3 sentences describing the problem as you understand it.

3) How are you going to solve this problem with your product?
3 sentences describing the solution as you see it, hitting no more than 3 solutions. Don’t overdo it. 

4) How big is the target market?
3 sentences explaining the target market. One sentence describes your ideal customer. One describing your first market and size. The last sentence describing the expanded market and size.

5) Who is the competition?
You have competition. Who is it? Explain your unique selling proposition (USP) briefly. 

6) Who’s on the team?
What does your team bring to the table? It’s OK if you haven’t filled out the team yet. Explain your own skills. 

7) What’s the financial model?
How are you going to monetize? This will take much more work, but briefly explain how you plan to make money. 

The whole summary should fit on one page. You now have the core of what you need to get started. As you evolve, everything else you do will fit into one of these seven buckets. This sets up the framework for you to start working on your business. 

Next steps

The S.C.O.R.E. model would have you dive into things like Mission, Philosophy, Vision and Goals next. I think this is too much for the first few weeks of building out your concept. If you do it, keep it light. I’ve written missions for dozens of companies while working in branding, and I’ve seen so many companies get hung up on finding the right wording for these guiding beacons. 

Don’t let yourself fall into that trap. You’re not trying to be JetBlue with something like “To inspire humanity — both in the air and on the ground.” What’s that even mean? Many mission statements are branding swill. Don’t get hung up on it.

At most, you need to build out Goals. What are you trying to accomplish? The rest can come as you work on the actual company. 

What are your goals?

Define three goals. Set a 6 month goal, 1 year goal, and 3 year goal. It’s critical to outline goals because this is the foundation of your financial model. If your goal is to build a product to 30 customers in 6 months, how are you going to do that? Will you need a sales rep? You’ll need to pay for that. What are your hard costs going to be for 30 clients? If you plan to triple in size by year one, how are you going to meet that aggressive goal? We’ll circle back to figuring out the financials, but everything going forward will be based on the goals you set. 

Market research

S.C.O.R.E. also dives into defining your products in the business plan, but I think it’s too early in the process. The first thing you need to do is research the market and talk to potential customers. All too often founders build products they think people want, and build a waterfall-style project that takes months of building in pursuit of perfection, only to launch and realize it’s not aligned with the customer’s problem. I have done this. It’s a mistake. 

You need to be agile, but before you build anything, you need to research your market in detail. This means finding and talking to your potential customers. And this doesn’t mean getting on the phone with them to explain your idea and why it’s awesome. In fact, you really shouldn’t get into what you’re building because it distracts the conversation. Instead you need to ask questions about their problems. By working through a consistent series of questions with potential customers, you can find the real challenges they’re facing, and build to solve the common themes. 

Once you’ve done your customer research, build out some simple personas. I find it helpful to name them, even. If you’re chasing IT directors, name them IT Tim, and list out their average age, household income, education, and most importantly, what their daily challenges are. By understanding your customer as a person—including what problems they face every day—you can better solve these problems.  

Competitive research

Before you map out your product, it’s important to understand your competition. Competition is not a bad thing—it shows there is a market for your concept. But bringing a product to market that’s simply better is not enough. It is rare that a newcomer wins by simply being better, because consumer momentum will maintain purchase behavior with a brand they’re comfortable with.

You need to be different.

Do not neglect to spend time researching competitors. This is a trap. List out your top 3-5, and look at how you compare across:

• Price

• Quality 

• Ease of use

• Positioning

• Solutions

Your exact problem you’re solving for will likely add two or three more to this list. That’s to be expected, but start with at least the above and make sure you’re finding opportunities to build a different product, not just better. As I’ve mentioned several times recently, the book “Play Bigger” is a critical read for designing your category. 

Product conceptualization 

Once you’ve done some market and competitive research—taking care to talk to your customers—you can start product planning. Yes, you need to map out your product’s unique features and how it solves the problem, but you also need to really think through your barriers to entry. What could keep you from winning? This could be high costs in development or production, marketing a complex product, or poor margins. 

Product design needs to go well beyond just the concept and end result of the product. You’re building a business, and you have to think through the costs associated with building. Don’t make the Shark Tank mistake so many companies fall prey to and think, “Well once we’re growing like wildfire, I can get costs down.” It doesn’t work that way—your costs could kill you before you scale. 

You’ll often hear people say you should do things that don’t scale. I’ve said this, too. There is a time and a place to do this, such as delighting someone with personalized customer service. But in building your product, the whole point is to build something that can scale. Having a good prototype is not enough—can you afford to scale it? And can you scale it into profit?

Marketing

I have seen so many pitch decks that assume viral growth. Don’t. Just don’t. You need to have an actual plan (and budget) for how you’re going to get the word out about your product (top of funnel) and how you’re going to close customers (bottom of funnel). 

Think through what marketing tactics you have at your disposal, and where your customers live. Reading LinkedIn, you may see endless content about how newsletters are taking off or how TikTok content is booming. That doesn’t mean those tactics are right for your audience. 

If you’re not a marketing minded founder, I highly encourage you to consider finding a marketer as a cofounder or at least advisor. This is not the Field of Dreams—just because you build it, does not mean they’ll come. 

This book is a great read on marketing a new product.

Profit & Loss

Part of designing out your product is pricing it. Once you have an idea of where you’re going to start, and you have some idea of how you’re going to promote the product (an idea that doesn’t include fairy dust and happy endings), it’s time to build some rough projections.

I had never built a profit and loss before founding GoWild. I could barely work a spreadsheet, but I figured it out. Tap into the resources you have with Google, ChatGPT, mentors and whatever you can drum up. Start building out sales forecasts, and talking through it with as many advisors and business leaders as you can.

This is not the time to get hung up on NDAs and private information—you haven’t built anything yet, there’s nothing to steal. Get the advice of smart people who have been there, done that. Ask them what they think. Once you’ve spoken to 6-10 people or so, you’ll start to find trends where the feedback is “this is too aggressive” or “I don’t think you’re thinking through your Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) well enough.” You’ll never get consensus on your P&L projections, but this process will at least you get closer to reality. 

Build the supporting cast

Now you’re starting to have a holistic picture of what you need to do. Where do you see the gaps in your own skills. I had many—it’s why I got three cofounders to come along for the ride with me. You may not need cofounders to supplement you, but you should find advisors who specialize in the areas you’re weak in to round out your leadership. No one can do it all. And when it gets going, you’re not going to be able to focus on it all anyways. 

Build out lists of those pillars that need help, and start looking for mentors, advisors or cofounders in those core competencies. 

Next up

That’s nearly 2,000 words on how to get started, and I haven’t even touched supply chains, legal documents, production, or a long list of other concerns. At this point, though, you have checked the box of getting started, which is my only goal for today. You are now getting past the concept of idea, and you’re ready to start building. 

My parting advice is to remember that taking action is more important than taking the right action. You just need to get started. You can always change how you’re doing something, but endlessly analyzing data for fear of making a wrong first step is the surest way to never get this thing off the ground. 

Found an LLC with your state, and go (if you know you’re going to raise capital, you may consider going ahead and starting with a C-Corp—but talk to your attorney). 

It’s OK if you’re not an expert. I’m not either. As a founder, focus on being a generalist, and making good enough decisions, not expert decisions. Speed is an asset. Move fast, test early, and iterate often. 

If you have questions, drop ‘em in the comments or post this on LinkedIn and get the community involved! Please tag me if you share on LinkedIn so I can thank you!

One last parting thought - So many first-time founders get worried about people stealing ideas. No one is stealing your idea. Do not come at investors or advisors with NDAs, unless you are truly sitting on an IP goldmine that is an incredible medical or technical discovery that has yet to be patented (hint: you probably aren’t). Asking investors to sign NDAs is also like screaming “I don’t know what I’m doing.”

Who I’m listening to: Wille Tea Taylor & The Fellership

What I’m reading: “Moby Dick” by Herman Melville (srsly)

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