Being an Intrapreneur can be very challanging. Here are the top challanges for taking an idea and turning it into an Intra-startup based on my experience as the Intra-foudner of INTENTclick.
1. Develop and qualifying your idea - there are many ideas out there but the process of taking an idea and making it into something that is going to worth your time and energy requires a lot of effort. Moreover, it requires speaking to a lot of people and getting invaluable feedback that will help you evelove the idea. Doing so inside a company requires a lot of courage.
2. Locking management commitment - unlike with external ventures an Intra-startup doesn't raise capital. However, in order to start executing on your ideas as your full time job inside a company and to be able to get additional resources you will need to get management buy in. The process is very simillar to pitching to a VC, at the end of the day it's all about making the busienss case for your venture.
3. Not giving up - preseverance is a big piece of the puzzle in entrepreneurship but it's actually harder for an Intra-founder to push through endeavors as the alternative of going back to the comfort of the corporate world is relativly easy.
4. Crossing the chasm - once you have reached a few market successes you need to start rolling your product out. Intraprenuers are faced with 2 alternatives - going through the existing sales department or developing it's own sales and marketing.
5. The internal sale - Sales orginzations are success driven and tend to focus efforts where the success is easy and rewarding. New products usually represent the exact opposite as they require more effort and are initially harder to succeed with.
6. Market Cannibalization and Territorial Conflicts - Developing an alternative sales organization can be very challanging as it presents the risk of internal competition between the two organizations. Doing so requires a clear differentiation between the markets that each organization is pursuing.
7. Corporate alignment - Startups usually have to figure this one out only when they are getting acquired but an Intra-startup has to constantly check it's alignment with the overall corporate vision.
8. Hiring employees - Intrapreneurship is very rewarding but at the same time it is very demanding and requires a pesonal sacrifice. This is also true for anyone who will come to work on your venture so you need to make sure they are able to enjoy the rewards by allowing them to identify themselves with the venture.
9. Maintaining focus - keeping an eye on the target is key to succeeding with any venture. An Intra-startup is exposed to a great deal of distractions from various internal sources which makes it all that harder.
10. Aiming High Enough - comparing my role as Intra-founder of INTENTclick to CEO in a VC backed company. The latter one is forced by his investors to aim high while an Intra-founder sets the bar for himself in many of the cases.
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