Call us: 1.405.235.2305
info@i2E.org
  • Events
  • News
  • Resources
  • Library
  • Love’s Cup
i2Ei2Ei2Ei2E
  • About
  • Entrepreneurship
    • Venture Advisory Services
    • Love’s Entrepreneur’s Cup
  • e3
  • Concept Fund
  • iMCI
  • Portfolio
  • Contact

Well-timed pivots can make a project successful

    Home News Well-timed pivots can make a project successful
    NextPrevious

    Well-timed pivots can make a project successful

    By sarah | News | 0 comment | 18 July, 2019 | 0

    By Scott Meacham
    Copyright © 2019, The Oklahoman

    I set a goal for this summer’s series of columns to reflect on and write about my lessons-learned during my past six years of immersion in entrepreneurship. Our focus at i2E is on high-growth technology or life sciences businesses, but startups of every stripe are vital to Oklahoma’s future. In many regards, what is true for high-growth entrepreneurship is true for Main Street.

    First and foremost, starting a company is much, much more difficult than anyone who hasn’t done it can imagine.

    My No. 2 lesson-learned is that, yes, there are many great ideas for new businesses in Oklahoma. These ideas deserve attention and support; however, with all due regard, only a small percentage of those ideas will eventually be scalable to high-growth companies. And that leads me to my No. 3 “aha.”

    Like the road to the Promised Land, the entrepreneur’s path is neither straight nor without bumps. Invariably, in the companies that we work with, there will be unforeseen challenges that rear up and create a pivot point.

    On Day One, entrepreneurs don’t know what they don’t know. They are ready and eager to do the back-breaking work to turn their passionate ideas into successful companies. Once they get out into the marketplace exploring their solutions with real potential customers, they learn very quickly that some (or most) of the assumptions they made about the market’s willingness to adopt and pay for their product aren’t 100% correct.

    It might be that the cloud platform that held out possibility as a breakthrough solution for high-growth is actually more of a niche business for a narrow segment of an industry. Or it might be that a solution with a medium-size impact on one industry pivots to become a game-changing tool for a different industry. That’s part of the story of WeGoLook, which started out as a service to visually verify big-ticket items sold on eBay and pivoted the core technology to become the world’s first gig economy platform for enterprise customers.

    In biotech, emerging drug therapies may initially focus on treating one condition, but then, with more testing and discovery, they pivot to a different patient population. An Oklahoma example is Selexys, Oklahoma’s largest exit. The company started out working on a therapeutic to deal with inflammation related to transplants and was acquired by Novartis for more than $600 million as a drug for treating inflammation related to sickle cell disease.

    Top-performing management teams differentiate themselves from the not-top performers by how well they navigate the pivots on the way to success.

    Pivots are the reason that market validation is such an important cornerstone of our Venture Assessment Program. We provide services and a framework to help entrepreneurs recognize that their solution needs to be tweaked or that they need to match their new product to a different market segment or industry, or a different aspect of a well-identified problem.

    To paraphrase Oklahoma’s cowboy philosopher, Will Rogers: Nothing makes a man [or woman] broad-minded like adversity.

    Scott Meacham is president and CEO of i2E Inc., a nonprofit corporation that mentors many of the state’s technology-based startup companies. i2E receives state appropriations from the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology. Contact Meacham at i2E_Comments@i2E.org.

    entrepreneurs, pivots, Scott Meacham, Selexys Pharmaceuticals, WeGoLook

    Related Posts

    • A race against time for building a company

      By sarah | 0 comment

      By Scott Meacham It is hard to start a business — very, very hard. This is true on Main Street, for information technology businesses and in biotech. For all entrepreneurs, building a company is aRead more

    • Entrepreneurs, startups, and organizations that support them deserve our thanks

      By sarah | 0 comment

      By Scott Meacham Copyright © The Oklahoma Publishing Co. Every year around the middle of October, I start writing in my head at least one holiday-focused column before the end of the year. I tryRead more

    • i2E Inc.’s nearly 20 years of supporting Oklahoma’s entrepreneurs

      By sarah | 0 comment

      By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2017, The Oklahoma Publishing Co. It’s been almost 20 years since i2E first began providing business expertise and funding to Oklahoma’s emerging small businesses. In that time, we’ve supported moreRead more

    • Oklahoma is fertile ground for high-growth entrepreneurs

      By sarah | 0 comment

      By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2017, The Oklahoma Publishing Co. Last week, speaking at the Oklahoma Venture Forum’s chairman’s luncheon, I caught looks of interest, and perhaps a little surprise, when I told the audienceRead more

    • State-supported funds draw private investment to fledgling Oklahoma firms

      By sarah | 0 comment

      By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2017, The Oklahoma Publishing Co. The state stepped up almost two decades ago to help Oklahoma-based startup companies bridge the investment gap and leverage other private, federal, and institutional sourcesRead more

    Leave a Comment

    Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    NextPrevious
    i2E-300dpi-Trans-Light
    • Events
    • News
    • Resources
    • Library
    • Love’s Cup

    Oklahoma City Office

    840 Research Parkway, Suite 250
    OKC, OK 73104
    PHONE 405/235-2305
    Click HERE for printable map with directions.

    Tulsa Office

    618 E. Third Street, Suite 1
    Tulsa, OK 74120
    PHONE 918/582-5592
    Click HERE for printable map with directions.
    Copyright 2021 i2E, Inc. | All Rights Reserved
    • About i2E
    • Services
    • Investments
    • Development
      • Love’s Cup
        • Forms
        • High Growth
        • Small Business
        • Timeline
    • Portfolio 3
    • Contact
    i2E