Want to have value? Be creative in your business!

Don't hesitate to invest in customer discovery; it is a way to find value in your company.

Increasingly, entrepreneurship is a viable option for a sustainable livelihood, as well as the creation of wealth. Courtesy massive digitisation of content and communication, entrepreneurs have the ability to create and deliver value to customers independently of intermediaries.
As a result, entrepreneurs are able to create viable businesses with higher margins and lower costs. This creates the ability to focus on relatively small and niche markets from which they can capture significant share with relatively low capital investment.
Of course, this creates potential conflict with "the bigger-the-better" Industrial Age model. This model depends on improvements, efficiencies and value enhancement. The entrepreneurship model, on the other hand, depends on innovation and value creation - i.e. From Zero to One, the title of Peter Thiel's seminal book on entrepreneurship.


Finding value in start-ups
Sam Quawasmi, co-chief executive officer and co-founder of Eureeca, said: "For a startup to create value, it's not enough to see a gap in the market and steamroll into developing a solution. You need to understand whether that gap is sufficient enough not to be able to be filled by existing solutions."
"And not only does your proposition need longevity [a fad is not sustainable as a value proposition], but you need to see your product through your customer's eyes. Don't make too many assumptions on what they want. The Clayton Christensen Institute promotes the 'jobs to be done' framework as a helpful way to look at what customers actually need, rather than being too focused on what you want to sell. There are others, take your pick. But whatever framework you choose, don't hesitate to invest in customer discovery. It is the only way to find value in your startup."
Eureeca is the first global equity crowdfunding platform. It enables members of its investor network, who range from casual and angel investors to institutional firms, to buy shares in growth-oriented businesses, while providing operational businesses with crucial access to capital.
Eureeca is a multi-regulated platform, having received licensing from the UK Financial Conduct Authority and the Securities Commission Malaysia in 2015, and recently the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets. From its offices in Dubai, London, Kuala Lumpur, and Amsterdam.

The writer is director at Vyashara and a digital banking and digital payments evangelist, practitioner, advisor and consultant. Views expressed are his own and do not reflect the newspaper's policy.