What does it really take to found a startup? 5 lessons from practice

Irish Bertelsmann study Young people between the ages of 14 and 25 were asked whether they could imagine starting a business. Almost every second person can imagine it, but only one in six people between the ages of 18 and 24 actually starts a business, according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2023. Uncertainty, lack of confidence and knowledge are the main reasons why they shy away from starting a business.

Christian Steiger is the managing director of Lexware. During his studies, he worked independently as a music producer, later founded a startup and in 2012 founded the cloud solution lexoffice within Lexware. From these diverse experiences, he shares his 5 most important learnings and tips with (future) founders.

Endurance is the new courage

Often courage is associated with starting a business or becoming self-employed. And that is certainly true. However, I am convinced that people need less courage if they have perseverance. What does that mean? Of course there are frustrating moments when starting a business, but the key is to learn from them and improve. When I was aWhen I started producing music as a student, all I had was a cheap keyboard. It didn’t sound like I had imagined. But with software I found out what was possible with MIDI and samples. The first tracks were rejected by record labels, often without any feedback. But we continued to work on understanding and improving our music and meeting the labels’ requirements. After a lot of practice and perseverance, our first release came in 1997. The key was to stick with it. This key skill can be trained very early on, whether through sport, studying or music.

Personal responsibility meets agreement and discussion

Decisions can logically lead in the wrong direction. This is where the decisive competence lies: is a wrong decision justified for a long time, or do you go straight into learning mode and do it better? This is where the principles of agreement and discussion help: do you live the agreement (e.g. set goals, to-dos from the team) and thereby take responsibility? Do you conduct the discussion (evaluation of results) and have the confidence to address things, especially in conflict situations? This is where the real learning and improvement takes place. Such open and honest discussions promote growth and further development. This attitude of agreement and discussion can also be implemented very well in everyday life, for example in communication with friends and family.

Never fall in love with the prototype

Letting go is important because otherwise you can’t improve. You’re standing in your own way. That’s why I follow this rule: “Never fall in love with your prototype.” In product development (and in other areas too), a prototype is always a tool for further development – never the end goal. A prototype is there to be tested and improved. It is our job to identify and fix errors and weak points. This is the only way I can ensure that the end product meets the highest standards. I also have to be willing to make radical changes. I have to be open to new ideas, even if I have to move away from my original concept. This is where an agile way of working and feedback help. At Lexware, for example, we keep presenting results after two weeks to get feedback from all teams. After four weeks at the latest, we go straight to the customers, because they are the ones who ultimately decide whether it is good or not.

Just do it

If you want to build your own company with a clear goal, you should get fully involved. As already mentioned, entrepreneurs have to take risks and seize opportunities. But what can definitely be prepared and should be one of the first tasks: getting the right digital tools to help you. There are many things to do that don’t really move the company forward, but have to be done: contracts, notaries, insurance, and a lot of regulatory work. When I started out as a music producer, we were much further away from a digital path than we are today. I went to the tax clerk of a law firm once a week and brought all the receipts. When I asked, “Can’t we just use the invoices as a file?”, the law firm’s answer was, “It’s better if I print them out in color, the auditor likes that.” It’s shocking how cumbersome administrative processes still are today. For all the administrative work, I therefore clearly recommend a digital tool to make it as easy as possible.

Build a network

A network, partner and family as well as the clear will to make it are crucial. Because exchanging ideas with like-minded people or people in similar situations helps a lot. On the one hand, you quickly realize that you are not alone with your issues, and on the other hand, ideally, you learn new tools to better get through critical times. This makes people more resilient. In your inner circle, you should be as open as possible and not hide anything or sugarcoat anything. Only then can you recognize your own weaknesses and, for example, bring other people on board who can cover them better. This is not only good for the company, but you can also develop your own strengths and learn from others. My tip for building a network: appearing at an event once is not enough. You have to present at least three times to build a resilient network. You should also take time for this.

I am convinced that our country’s progress – economically and socially – depends on entrepreneurs. They drive innovation and develop our society and economy through new technologies, business ideas and solutions. That’s why I hope that the number of people who can not only imagine starting a business, but actually do so, will increase in the coming years.

About the author
Christian Steiger has been Managing Director of Lexware since 2019. His vision: to make business management easy so that entrepreneurs can do things easily. Together with his team, he is expanding the Lexware software offering with the help of automation and artificial intelligence to become a digital partner for the self-employed, small businesses and startups. As the founder of a startup, he knows the hurdles in the founding process and is committed to less bureaucracy and more digitalization of business processes.

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