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Every startup founder has a Hollywood-style fantasy that they’ll wind up in an elevator with a rockstar investor. As the fantasy goes, over the course of that 30 second elevator ride they successfully pitch themselves millions of dollars of investment and set their startup on the fast path to billion-dollar success.

It doesn’t matter what sector or vertical you’re entering, your startup is going to have to deal with competition. Your business idea should be a game changer in some way, but you’re also going to have competition and for this reason you will need to do a competitor analysis early on in the startup journey.

The Classical school of Economics chanted, "Supply, creates its own demand!” Fast forward to the modern era, the “supply first'' days are long gone. We live in an age of abundance, and new age entrepreneurs must find the customer demand before creating supply. In modern entrepreneurship, this saying has reversed: "Demand, create its own supply."

When you think about a startup, the words that come to mind are words like “potential,” “growth,” “opportunity,” and “ambition.” Startup founders have latched on to an idea that can change the world… but first they need to get their business accelerating, and to achieve their ambitions, they need to do it quickly.

Wondering what personal and professional qualities you need to launch a startup? Serial entrepreneur, Erik Jonsson, discusses the ins and outs of being a founder.

Building a startup is going to be the most rewarding, but challenging thing you will ever do. You’ve identified a significant gap in the market and an opportunity to make a difference. There’s a potentially successful business and lucrative exit at the end of it for you. But know that this is a marathon, not a sprint, and to get there, you’re going to have to move through several stages of funding.

Navigating equity splits with co-founders can be tricky. Here's expert advice from Bryant Galindo, a Founder, Mediator and Coach on how to do this fairly.

Defining your revenue model is one of the most important decisions for startup founders.

Ask most people involved in startup culture, and you would find that the consensus is that you’re going to be far better off finding a co-founder or founding team for your startup than trying to go it yourself.

Having a great idea will only take you so far on your startup journey. At the very earliest stages you’re also going to need to have some way to articulate the vision and galvanize investors and partners behind your idea. This is where the pre-seed pitch deck comes in, as a way of visualizing the idea behind the startup and focus people’s attention on why it is important.

Finding the Problem-Solution Fit for your first product is not easy. You have no bearing on the right customer problem, no paying customers, and close to zero customer input while building the product. Unsurprisingly, one of the key reasons startups fail is “trying to build and sell solutions that customers don’t want.” According to a CB Insights report.

In recent years, entrepreneurs have been able to find funding earlier in the startup process. It was not long ago that pre-seed funding was a rarity indeed. Even when a startup founder was able to secure it, it was usually a “friends and family” arrangement, with a parent or sibling chipping in to help kick things along, as much as a favor as anything else.