All entrepreneurs have something in common: The desire to create. However, what really motivates them to carry out their projects? It is important to know what motivates the energy to undertake an entrepreneurial project, as this allows to anticipate possible problems that may arise. The motivations of an entrepreneur are different and therefore we can differentiate 5 types of entrepreneur:
Index of contents
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1. Customer-centric_entrepreneur_type:
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The entrepreneur wants to bring any type of product to a specific type of customer, customer segment, group of people or type of business.
The entrepreneur wants to bring any type of product to a specific type of customer, customer segment, group of people or type of business.
This type of entrepreneur and the business to be undertaken, focuses in this case on generating value and solving problems to a specific type of customer, regardless of what the solution or technology that brings value. The way these companies grow will start by solving a specific problem and will find more needs during the relationship with the customer, needs for which they will create more solutions and consequently more business volume.
An example of this type of company can be wedding planning portals. Their goal is to help couples to organize weddings in a simple way, from there they create other services such as sale of dresses, personalized advice, bride and groom community, wedding ideas, etc. The customer-motivated entrepreneur builds the business by strongly understanding the customer or segment, then looks for which problems hurt the most and devises a solution with them that relies on technology that is well suited to their needs.
In these types of entrepreneurs, it is important that the customer segment you decide to serve is large enough, or wealthy enough, to derive a business from it.
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2. The problem-centered entrepreneur
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When an entrepreneur decides to start a company because he has experienced a problem firsthand that he decides to solve his source of motivation is the problem.
When an entrepreneur decides to start a company because he has experienced a problem firsthand that he decides to solve his source of motivation is the problem.
They may have observed the problem from third parties or from complaints in their environment. This can be a good starting point although you have to be careful about several things, for example that the problem is shared by a sufficient number of people and that the solution is not conditioned by your needs, i.e. that you propose a solution that is equally sufficient and effective for all the people who experience the problem.
An example of this type of entrepreneur is that of an entrepreneur from Seville who suffered from speed bumps on the road on his way home and devised an adaptive speed bump system using liquids with non-Newtonian properties (Liquids that harden depending on the speed of the bump – Cornstarch with water for example)
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In this case the entrepreneur starts with the problem, defines the customer segment that suffers from the problem in a stronger way to finally define the solution and the technology to be used.
3.The product entrepreneur:
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In this type of entrepreneurship, the promoter, has a product in mind, whatever it is , sees it. It is the most common type of entrepreneur and also one of the most risky. The question to be asked by the entrepreneur who has a product in mind is how important is the problem it solves and whether the solution given by the product is sufficient.
And it is possible that the entrepreneur may have a product in mind, but he or she may not be able to solve the problem.
Also, it is possible that the market he was thinking of does not even exist.
The product-oriented entrepreneur first defines the product and inherently the technology associated with it, then defines the problem it solves and finally the customer segment.
4. The technology-centric entrepreneur type
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When an entrepreneur is moved by a technology it means that he has invented a platform or an invention for which an application must be found. An example of platform can be a new material with certain properties for which there is no application yet, a platform for generating web pages like wordpress, facebook is also a platform, ebay, google market, twitter, Apple’s app store, istockphoto are more examples of platforms and technologies.
When this type of entrepreneur has created a platform or an invention for which an application must be found.
When this type of entrepreneur has created a technology he is looking for problems to solve, which leads him to define the customer segment. Typically, the business model is based on selling licenses to use the technology or selling access to the platform.
When this type of entrepreneur has created a technology, he is looking for problems to solve, which leads him to define the customer segment.
5. From sales
Finally, there is the sales-driven entrepreneur. This is an opportunistic entrepreneur, as he or she has spotted an opportunity, and is going to exploit it. The product, the technology or the customer segment are not as relevant to him as the fact of making sales. Normally this type of entrepreneur comes from the commercial world, closing deals and sales is what makes him/her generate the adrenaline that motivates him/her to continue. This entrepreneur generates sales channels in the form of on-line commerce or through direct sales of existing products and with known customers.
This classification is intended to serve as a guide to become aware and better know what type of project we are carrying out.
I found this classification in the book The Lean Entrepreneur and I thought it was important to share it to avoid making the mistake of jumping from one type of company to another in the same project, know the operation and process of each type of entrepreneur, helps us to focus and undertake the processes of entrepreneurship and innovation with greater focus.