StartupAZ Newsletter: Issue 12
“You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” ~Martin Luther King Jr.
When it comes to starting a new venture, there are countless paths one can take. And every individual is different. Some may start with domain expertise and a very clear problem they want to solve based on first-hand experience. Others start with a hypothesis for a problem they think exists in a relatively unknown industry. And then there are those who simply yearn for a career change and a desire to work in a new industry.
So, how do you know whether to dive into the deep end and figure it out as you go versus study the industry first? Some founders, like Jacob Findlay, took the latter route. He started with a problem and potential solution for an industry he knew little about. To better understand it, he decided to spend time working in it first — leaving a prosperous role at WebPT to be a manager of a heavy-duty truck repair shop. The result: Fullbay, the fastest growing software company in the heavy-duty truck repair industry.
Then there are others who built a solution based on their own need but in an industry they knew little about. They just started with the mentality that the faster they could test their hypothesis, the quicker they could realize if the solution was viable.
Perhaps the key is just starting in whatever way that looks for you. Whether you choose to apprentice in the industry first or build an MVP to test, just start. Either way, if you go in with a learner mentality, you’ll gain the insight you need.
And love him or hate him, Mark Zuckerberg had it right when he said, “Ideas don’t come out fully formed, they only become clearer as you work on them. You just have to get started.”
In this month’s by the numbers, we explore how many founders decided to “just start” in 2021 vs. what the startup landscape looked like even five years ago.
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Of course, in some cases, timing is everything and that certainly has been the case for HALEE founder and CEO Tyler Lyman. Though he had the idea for solar roof tiles nearly 20 years prior, he decided to shelve it for a while. Many years later, the idea was still percolating, but now the timing was right. Despite not having a background in engineering, Tyler was determined to jump in and find the resources to help him along the way, which he shares in this month’s “Collective Conversation.”
Business growth in the Phoenix metro area has been on a steady incline over the past decade — attributable to a number of factors including our population growth, favorable business climate, cost of living, and the list goes on. But one other major contributor is the flywheel of performance and generosity. As businesses have started up and grown, talent has spun out to start their own ventures, founders have given their time to mentor up-and-coming founders, and others have given back through investment. This has all contributed to our ever-growing, ever-giving ecosystem.
Here’s a quick (and fun) look at some of the startup numbers.
Tyler Lyman has started, built and successfully exited several businesses across a variety of industries and even continents. He seems to possess the uncanny ability to see a market need and build the resources and team to execute a solution, and now he’s doing the same with his latest venture HALEE, a home energy management startup. In this case, Tyler not only identified a need to rethink the products in that market, but also the model. In this interview, he shares how HALEE came to be and how they’re approaching solar in a new way.
Watch the full interview (or check out the Q&A).
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