Nothing about a caterpillar tells you it will be a butterfly.

An entrepreneur recently remarked that a startup is nothing more than a small business with bigger goals. Unfortunately, they are entirely misgiven. 

Proven entrepreneur and writer Steve Blank says, “We’ve discovered that startups are not smaller versions of large companies.” And he says: “The skills founders need are not covered by traditional books for MBAs and large company managers.” 

A startup is a small team finding a repeatable way to sell a product or service. They are a caterpillar - and often don’t look anything like the butterfly they will become.

They see the vision of all the kinds of butterflies they could become, but like a caterpillar, they are inching their way to get ready to transform into something that can fly. 

A startup is not a small-er business any more than a caterpillar is a small-er butterfly. 

Only once they find a customer (based on actual buying behaviors) and develop a repeatable roadmap for selling their product to that customer can they start and scale an organization. 

Check out Steve Blank’s The Four Steps to the Epiphany.