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Uncertainty is a natural part of starting a startup. Questions about market demand, economic stability, and whether you’ve assembled the right team can keep you up at night. Uncertainty can be a source of stress, but it can also be a key driver of innovation and creativity. This is because it forces founders to think outside the box and come up with new solutions to problems. Navigating uncertainty is an ongoing process, and sometimes incredibly difficult. But a healthy approach to uncertainty encourages experimentation, fosters resilience, and leads to new opportunities.
that’s this lesson etiquette Co-founder and CTO Raluca Crisan was happy to share when I spoke with her recently as part of a Techstars conversation. She hopes to inspire other startup founders. Founded in 2019, London-based Etiq builds tools to help companies validate data and test machine learning pipelines. Her Data After starting her career as a scientist and spending some time in the corporate world, Larca began to feel constrained by that environment. The time has come for change. But with the change came some surprises.
“I thought I had some idea of how a startup founding would play out, but I didn’t,” says Raluca.
Leap into the world of startups
“Before joining Etiq, I worked for a consultancy firm and worked on projects for a variety of companies (medium to large enterprises),” says Raluca. The shortcomings she encountered during her corporate career helped push her towards something else. Someone made a small coding her error and wasted weeks trying to figure out what happened. ”
Co-founding a startup and making the leap to serving as CTO was a learning curve. New business moved much faster and Laluca had to wear many new hats.
“I started in the specific field of data science,” she says. “So I had to pick up other tools in my toolbox because I didn’t necessarily have the experience with them. You start a company and I think you have all the answers. But , just looking for something, and if you’re used to being uncomfortable all the time, I think that’s enough.”
One area where Raluca had no doubts was Etiq’s technology. The startup’s solution allows everyone on the team, from business people to data his engineers, to make sure the algorithms are working as expected and reduce any inadvertent bias that can occur. increase.
“We use our tool because we need to test whether what we’re doing works before we actually release the project,” says Raluca. “Starting with fairness and bias issues, we made the tool more comprehensive to address a range of issues including drift, performance and data issues.”
make the most of relationships
In times of stress and uncertainty, it’s important to remember that no one has to go through the process of starting a company on their own. Seek advice from experienced founders, mentors, or industry experts can help gain valuable perspective on how to manage startup uncertainty.
“Being surrounded by founders has made a huge difference for me,” Chrisan says of the Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub. “I have had a lot of advisors come from the community. The level of trust that exists in these relationships is very important.
Ultimately, your way of dealing with uncertainty may just be zeroing in on your highest priorities at the moment, says Chrisan.
“It was very important for us to cut back and get to the point where we needed to focus.”
The entire Raluca interview series is Microsoft for Startups YouTube Channel.
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