Establishing a startup that’s raring and ready to hit the business stratosphere is a precarious venture. Make too many wrong moves and you’ll end up on the wrong side of bankruptcy.
More startups will fail than succeed – but there are many that will hit the stratosphere of consumer confidence, breaking the bank with their stunning products and perfect PR.
For hundreds of years, there have been businesses that have progressed from having one penny to one million.
To give you some inspiration, here are some businesses that have stayed their course and hit the big time in a short time. Take a look at these successful startups, heed their lessons and maybe your startup will go from SME to a monolithic enterprise.
1. Penmann
Climatic systems might not sound like the sexiest choice for a startup, but it’s a product that’s vital for one of the largest industries in the world.
The food and drink sector is gargantuan and, especially in the UK, is set to grow exponentially over the next few years.
In the British Isles alone, Market demands will require 140,000 more people employed in the food and drink industry by 2024 (according to the Food and Drink Federation).
Brands like Penmann have tapped into this global need, supplying climatic systems to major brands like Nestle and Budweiser.
What you can learn from Penmann: a successful startup taps into a vital need.
2. Taboola
Advertising on the internet can be a tricky business. Do you want to pay for a greater social media presence or for Google Display Advertising? Will you rely on an excellent PR team for your ads or would you prefer to run things yourself?
Internet advertising platform Taboola has capitalised on the simplicity of advertising through their site, allowing your ads to surface on a huge variety of sites.
It’s a business venture that’s worked out – revenues are expected to hit $1 billion in 2018.
What you can learn from Taboola: making the complexities of the internet easy is a sure-fire winner.
3. Imgur
Anyone who’s tried running their own blog knows how difficult it can be to source an appropriate image for a new post. Stock imagery from Google Images is fine, but it’ll make your website look exactly like everyone else’s.
Sites like Imgur hit the scene specifically to counteract this problem, reducing the homogeneity of the internet by providing users with thousands of unique images.
At the time of writing, Imgur had over 300 million images available on its site and received funding of $40 million from investor Andreessen Horowitz in 2014.
What you can learn from Imgur: Users will flock to a site that’s useable and useful.
4. Atom bank
Atom bank wants to disrupt the banking industry. The mobile banking company wants to make it easier, intuitive and better for anyone to have a bank account without boundaries.
Atom Bank is arguably the most recognisable app-only bank today. Atom offers fixed savers accounts rather than personal current accounts.
Atom bank is one of the first modern banks in the last five years. The mobile bank raised £149 million from investors early this year.