In our experience, to build a successful business takes a combination of factors. A talented team is important, but a business that focuses on real market niche, with solutions that will make a difference to people is paramount. Success comes from identifying a really strong need for which you have the solution and then turning it into a product or service that is easy to deploy to the market.
Successful start-ups, more often than not, have experienced advisors to help them find the right capital at the appropriate stages of growth.
Early on, it’s best to have strategic capital as well as people who can actually bring real world advice to join your Board of Directors (or an advisory boards, often a better solution during the early stages).
In the next stage, you’ll be moving on to venture capitalists, where you’re purely looking for money. If you have talented people, you have good advisors, and you have intelligent capital, then the business development process runs smoothly and increases the likelihood of success and financial returns.