What are the qualities needed to launch your start-up?

Galo A. Vargas. – “Passion, commitment, perseverance and the ability to not get demoralised fast by staying self-motivated. Starting up is a rollercoaster worth the ride, but it has its ups very high and its downs very low. Embrace the journey, and focus on creating a product that your customers will adore without getting too carried away on the big wins and without getting depressed or upset by the lows. 

Do you have any advice to give to those who are still hesitating to launch?

“There will never be a perfect moment to start. There will always be some sort of thing happening in life that at the end could be used it up as an excuse. Putting excuses to yourself for not getting work done, which is a mentality thing, it’s something that works against you preventing you from doing the things you want to do. If you believe in what you want to launch and you have a passion to commit to the cause of solving that big-BIG pain, do not hesitate, because there will never be ever a better time to start than today. Just, never test the depth of the river with both feet at the same time!

We often hear that it is essential to make mistakes. What do you think about this?

“The reality is that nobody can predict the future outcome of your start-up, so in essence, your second nature has to be risk tolerant and mistake open: it’s basically a trial and error phase, at least the beginning. Once you fully embrace that a lot of mistakes will be made, just make sure that they happen fast and in the cheapest way possible. A bit of advice? Measure what you are doing with numbers and stick with the metrics. They could be user acquisition, conversions, sales, engagement metrics, letters of intent, etc. Numbers do not lie and can help you to make decisions earlier. As basic it may sound, you may be surprised how many first-time entrepreneurs do not do it.”