Five factors that determine a startup's success: Interview with Raffi Kassarjian

Every day, hundreds and thousands of new startups appear in the world, but only a few of them succeed and bring profit to their creators and investors. What determines the success of a startup? What criteria should it meet? How important is the experience of the team? NEWS.am Tech talked about all this with the head of the Sensyan consulting company, Raffi Kassarjian, who is holding mentoring sessions during Sevan Startup Summit 2024.

What does a startup need to succeed?

A good startup, according to Kassarjian, should offer a solution to some problem, whether it’s global (like climate change on the planet) or small, local (pet services, food delivery, etc.). And if the problem is relevant to a sufficient number of people on the planet, there will probably be users who will be interested in the solution offered by the startup.

If this problem is relevant for the startup founders themselves, this, according to Kassarjian, is a big plus, because they will better understand this problem and the value of its solution, moreover, they will not spare time and effort on their project, and this will significantly increase their chances of success.

It is also important to note that the solution offered by a startup must be unique, original, even innovative in some sense. And if you do the same thing that others do, but, say, cheaper, it is unlikely to be successful. What is needed, as the specialist emphasized, is a truly new and unique solution.

The third factor for a startup's success is a clear understanding of how it will maintain its sustainable competitive advantage. After all, if a startup offers an interesting and effective solution to a pressing problem, many others will likely start doing the same, copying its idea. How does a startup plan to retain its customers, develop, and attract new ones? How will it maintain its place in the market? Without clear answers to these questions, a startup is likely to be doomed.

The next factor that will determine the success of a startup is the team working on it. How interested are the employees in their project? What experience do they have? Have they founded or worked in startups before?

In response to the question of who will have a better chance of success – an inexperienced team or one with many failures behind them, Raffi Kassarjian said that experience, even negative, is very useful and shows what not to do and what is best to avoid. On the other hand, the lack of experience, according to the specialist, does not mean that the team cannot succeed. Much will depend, one way or another, on the efforts made and the coherence of the work. In addition, you can always ask for advice from more experienced people: the atmosphere in the startup ecosystem in Armenia is very friendly, and many people are willing to help others.

The fifth factor, according to the expert, is a clear understanding by the startup team of its financial and business model. What is their target market? How exactly will they make money? How will they expand? All this is important in order to be able to convince potential investors that this project really makes sense to invest money in.

Seven days of mentorship 

Sevan Startup Summit 2024, whose media partner is NEWS.am Tech, is held from July 21 to 27 and is one of the most important events of the year in the IT sector. The informal business forum, held in a tent city on the shores of Lake Sevan, attracts hundreds of startups from Armenia and several other countries every year, giving them the opportunity to present their ideas to potential investors and mentors, listen to speeches by famous guests, participate in panel discussions, workshops, campfire talks, entertainment events and much more.

At previous Sevan Startup Summits, Raffi Kassarjian gave lectures, but this year he focuses on the role of mentor: throughout the summit, he consults startup founders in 10-minute meetings and helps them understand how promising their idea is and what needs to be done to promote it.

Today is the fourth day of the forum, and during this time, according to Kassarjian, he has already met quite a few interesting startups, although they are all at different stages of “development”: some have only a good, promising idea, but they have not yet done anything to implement it; others already have a completely ready product, and they know what to do with it next.

"The biggest problem I face is that people may have a great idea, an interesting technical solution, but they don't know how to create a business based on it and how to start making money on it. They are looking for investments, but the problem is that investors need to be shown why they should invest in this project. And inexperienced startuppers who only have an interesting idea so far cannot do this," the specialist said.

Sevan Startup Summit, in his opinion, can provide such startups with an excellent opportunity to understand what to do with their idea, how to improve it, how to present it to venture capitalists to increase their chances of success.

Raffi Kassarjian himself is also ready to help all interesting and promising startups - with advice, and useful contacts and connections.

NEWS.am Tech is the media partner of Sevan Startup Summit 2024.