Startups aren’t defined by Tech: How a Beverage Venture can Change the World
Why is Coca-Cola a super successful company even though its main product does not solve any world problem?
The question caught my attention for two reasons:
- Much of the world seems misled to perceive that startups and technology go hand in hand, as though something can’t be a startup unless it is in tech.
- Too many founders are misled to believe that their venture should be focused on an idea solving a specific problem.
How ever can it be that Coca-Cola, Tito’s from Austin, Red Bull, or any other non-tech venture would be a startup disruptive and innovative?? How does a drink solve problems in the world?
On May 8, 1886, Dr. John Pemberton sold the first glass of Coca-Cola at Jacobs’ Pharmacy in downtown Atlanta. A startup in 1886, we’re today too easily led to believe startups are a result of Silicon Valley, Venture Capital, or the innovations of electronics or The Information Age. Arguably, Silicon Valley’s first startup was in fashion, thanks to a man by the name of Strauss in 1848.
A local pharmacist, Dr. Pemberton, produced the syrup for Coca-Cola and carried a jug of the new product down the street to Jacobs’ Pharmacy, where it was sampled, pronounced “excellent” and placed on sale for five cents a glass as a soda fountain drink. Carbonated water was teamed with the new syrup to produce a drink that was at once “Delicious and Refreshing,” a theme that continues to echo today wherever Coca-Cola is enjoyed.
Innovation.
Thinking that “the two Cs would look well in advertising,” Dr. Pemberton’s partner and bookkeeper, Frank M. Robinson, suggested the name and penned the now famous trademark “Coca-Cola” in his unique script. The first newspaper ad for Coca-Cola soon appeared in The Atlanta Journal, inviting thirsty citizens to try “the new and popular soda fountain drink.” Hand-painted oilcloth signs reading “Coca-Cola” appeared on store awnings, with the suggestion “Drink” added to inform passer by that the new beverage was for soda fountain refreshment.
Marketing.
Later observed to be the most valuable things a venture does, economist Peter Drucker argued in the 1970s, “Because the purpose of business is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two-and only two-basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs. Marketing is the distinguishing, unique function of the business.”
It’s from this startup that Coca-Cola didn’t just invent and sell a beverage, they truly launched a venture that would go on to change the world, by being founders who, perhaps unintentionally, prioritized the most valuable things YOU should be doing: being innovative and marketing.
Startups, notably, aren’t new businesses ready to sell a product, and they aren’t dependent on tech. I think Steve Blank characterizes them best, According to Steve Blank, a startup is a “temporary organization designed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model.”
I build and run incubators for cities because the process of searching for that repeatable and scalable business model is itself repeatable and scalable. It’s teachable, as long as it is recognized that it is NOT teaching how to start a business nor be an entrepreneur, it’s teaching the process of turning your temporary venture into a sustainable, competitive, and valuable company.
If you can impact the life of one person, you change the world.
One person, not everyone’s problem.
Despite the challenges of corn syrup in Coca-Cola *today* or the big gulp 64-ounce cup with free refills, Coca-Cola was once a startup like any other. What problem did they tackle?
Well, we can’t say for certain so let’s just spitball:
- Life back then was pretty bland with water or tea, maybe lemonade; a pretty limited set of options with which to experience a little enjoyment.
- Or what about the affordability of soda drinks? Before mass-produced soft drinks, soda was either concocted by a pharmacy or mixed by a soda jerk. It was, relatively speaking, costly.
- Or maybe another way to look at it entirely, the consumer isn’t the problem solved… the U.S. has an incredible supply of inexpensive Coca (or whatever is in the drink) and trade partners who want to supply more of their stable crop. But no one knows what to do with all those extra ingredients sitting in warehouses.
- What about the problems of delivery, mass production, or refrigeration, or bottling…?
In any one of those cases, there is a problem to solve. And with just one or some who agree, and pay for solutions, we have a company that creates value through innovation. And that company MAY merely supply Coca-Cola as a way to make money solving the other problems they’re tackling.
That’s critical for Startup Founders to appreciate (and few do); that how you make money, how you succeed, and how you grow, may have nothing to do with what customers actually want or need. The notorious Problem/Solution Statement in startup communities is grossly misunderstood. There is nothing about it that means you must be in business because: there is a customer, that they have a problem, and you have the solution.
Entrepreneurs and startups are in the business of NEW solutions. Meaning, they compete and create value not by solving that obvious problem people have, but by always solving various problems in better ways, so as to exist.
Maybe the founder just sold Coca-Cola because he wanted to and enjoyed it. And so too did people who would pay for it.
Maybe the problem solved is that people were simply thirsty, and that bottled cola was a better option than water.
Coincidentally, a study was just released showing that, in fact, Coca-Cola is better at hydration than water. For real. “Which drink is best for hydration? Hint: It isn’t water”
So maybe the problem solved, unexpectedly, is that people needed a better means of hydration.
I don’t think that’s the case … and I’m pretty sure from my recollection of the history of Coke, it probably was just a drink popularized because people wanted it.
And thus, the reality of being a successful company: they aren’t in the business of seeing a problem and solving it… they’re in the business of addressing many problems, more effectively and efficiently than others; marketing to determine how and where to do that. And in the process, their product or revenue model might be nothing more than a means to that end.
[ Image via The Birth of a Refreshing Idea Coca-Cola History]
Originally published at https://seobrien.com on October 9, 2022.
