It’s not just about opening a Dalgona Coffee business, but a desire to change the coffee industry and experience as a whole:
A world-class customer service
An affordable delicious coffee
A library section
A space where customers can learn how to brew and make gourmet coffees
Supports local coffee-bean farmers
So, if you will just start a coffee shop and sell Dalgona coffee
gaya ng ginagawa ng ibang coffee shop, then you just started a business venture, and not a real startup business. Startup founders dream of giving the masses something it needs but hasn’t existed yet—generating
eye-popping products that lead to an initial public offering (
IPO)
in the future and an astronomical return on investment.
A startup works the same as any other company—to create a product that customers will buy. The difference is that businesses do what has been done before, that is, they follow an existing and established business model.
Business owners duplicate what’s been done before. Example, a new fast-food restaurant franchise na kinopya lang ang template ng ibang existing fast-food stores like Jollibee, McDonald’s or Romantic Baboy. Almost the same menu and template with a different name and branding.
Startups, on the one hand, launch something new in the market. Hindi man sila bagong-bago, but they created their own products and business model with the intent of changing a category.
Example: When Apple launched iPod last 2002, Sony and other music player brands already launched MP3 players. It just so happened that they totally changed how we should experience music using MP3 players. The iPod became the standard. The same applies when they launched the iPhone, the iPad, the Apple Watch and some of their products.
Another example is GCash which literally gave almost every Filipino an online banking experience and made transactions a lot easier. Their innovation to the online banking reached almost all Filipinos, especially during the pandemic. Marami ang nahumaling sa paggamit ng GCash dahil na rin sa ito’y accessible unlike its other competition.
Obviously, the goal of every startup is to create a product that’s innovative and new: a new experience, a better service, or an actual life-changing product—that either solves major problems and concerns, or enhances an existing system na madalas na kinakaharap natin araw-araw.
A startup leader or founder would always ask themselves…
The second goal of a startup is to make sure their “new” product will be launched to the “bigger” market which requires a bigger capital, bigger team, and a bigger facility. ‘Yung dating nasa garahe lang ang production line with 1 to 2 part-timers, napunta na sa factory and warehouse with 50 to a hundred employees. ‘Yung dating nasa small-time online selling lang, partner na ngayon ng major brands and companies; and they can now be found inside the market places (like malls) and have their own flagship stores.
