Over the years I’ve spent many hours trying to figure out why some startups are successful, and most are not. The goal: distill startup success down into as simple a framework as possible. Of course, startup success is hard and messy, but it’s helpful to have a high-level context for the over-arching components of success.
Alright, let’s get to it. The three components of startup success:
- Team
- Stream
- Not a Meme
Team represents the group of people working together to achieve the mission. Some of the most important attributes are resourcefulness, grit, and determination. Startups are an environment of limited resources, repeated failure, and long odds. Most people don’t thrive in a startup. The best teams figure out what needs to be done and makes it happen.
Stream represents movement and speed whereby disruption is happening, and it’s clear that a new, better way is possible. The best streams are large, major shifts where entire industries are transformed. The more disruption, the more opportunity for startup success. Examples include the shift from offline advertising dollars to online, the shift from telephone lines to voice over the Internet, and the shift from field sales to inside sales.
‘Not a meme’ represents things that are must haves, not nice-to-haves. Memes are funny or witty quips that represent a cultural phenomenon. As an example, Chuck Norris has a number of memes around things he can do that no one else can. One of my favorites: Chuck Norris gets Chick-fil-A on Sundays.
Most startups build nice-to-have products and fail. Nice-to-have can be a product that isn’t valuable, a product that’s useful but in an over crowded market, or something that’s too far ahead of its time.
Let’s take AirWatch, an Atlanta success story that VMWare acquired for $1.5 billion. The original team was comprised of the Manhattan Associates (NASDAQ:MANH) founder and another executive that had worked together before. The stream was the rise of the smartphone and people bringing their own devices to work (major transformations). The ‘not a meme’ was companies needing to enforce security rules and policies across thousands of employees’ smart phones. All three components — team, stream, and ‘not a meme’ — were combined with a massive market.
The next time you evaluate a startup idea for yourself, or meet with an entrepreneur, ask these three questions:
- Why is this team going to win in this market?
- What fast moving stream is shaking things up and causing disruption?
- How is the product ‘not a meme’ such that it’s a must-have for customers?
Answer the team, stream, and ‘not a meme’ questions correctly to predict startup success.
David Cummings on Startups 
When it comes to the Team its all about their Steam. The force to push it forward. Their ability to Execute. Most however never execute they only Dream
David, great post! In a world where 100’s of startups are starting up every day, I believe a break down like this can help plot a path to success. From your experience, in what time frame do most successful startups go from 0% established – 100% in the market and making profit? Thanks for what you are doing, would love to connect more to discuss!