Innovation and failure go hand in hand. Sometimes you have to get it wrong, so you can learn how not to do something. The key is to fail with minimal impact, ensure you learn from your experience and having the resilience to pick yourself up and try again. Yes, the startup voyage isn’t always plain sailing, and businesses can expect to hit turbulent waters at times. But while there will be storms that whip up out of nowhere, there are equally some squalls that can be weathered of avoided altogether, simply by being better prepared.
What’s the leading challenge in the cloud for startups?
GA: Businesses wanting to move into the AWS Cloud need to find out how best to leverage the different offerings within AWS, and to then stay on top of new features and capabilities. At first, the AWS platform may seem somewhat overwhelming for startups and that’s where we are trying to give structured pointers and provide relevant case studies from similar companies in the same industry. Taking up the Training and Certification provided by AWS for new startups is a no-brainer, and will help businesses take control of their environment and leverage services effectively to their advantage.
GA: AWS hosts a lot of events such as information summits, development summits and webinars, all of which help to educate the audience who are looking to adopt the AWS Cloud. You can dive deeper with training courses that range from our free digital courses to our classroom based training. Whatever your level of interest, AWS has this well covered, from just starting out and becoming familiar with AWS to becoming a certified expert in a specialist role.
GA: Common mistakes include not ensuring optimum utilisation and security levels as they scale their businesses. Utilisation is important for cost efficiency – because no one has money to throw away unnecessarily – and security, well that speaks for itself.
Another error some startups make is failing to take advantage of all the help that’s on offer from AWS. We have rich resources, support and partner networks and a complete Training and Certification regime that can help you go from just meeting the platform to achieving great things much more quickly than just working it out yourself.
GA: You could leverage AWS Trusted Advisor reports on cost optimisation, security, performance and fault tolerance. It’s also important to educate yourself, and your team, so that you understand the environment and the tools available. There are lots of resources available, including free digital training that can get you started or give you the background on just about any AWS service that you’re trying to understand. AWS is a self-service environment, which means that whatever you need to learn, you just need to explore the AWS Training available and you’ll be able to find your way.
GA: AWS Activate provides startups with the resources needed to get started quickly and easily on AWS platform. This includes AWS Promotional Credit, AWS Training and premium AWS Support that gives startups access to support engineers 24x7 through phone, chat, email. We also run regular technology workshops and office hours in collaboration with our Activate Partners (including Venture Capital firms, Accelerators & Incubators) to provide guidance for their portfolio of startups to improve their technology stack implementation. It’s all good advice, tips and support to help startups learn from the collective experience of all our customers who have built their success on AWS. Getting the right knowledge into your startup is crucial and investment in training can be really worthwhile. If you picture the time spent trying to work out something challenging yourself, you’ll realise that the equivalent time spent training and getting the right information into your startup pays back pretty quickly.
We have got encouraging feedback from the startups and investors alike, hearing that it allows the startups to focus on their core value proposition in their initial days of scaling the business. The AWS credits can also provide enough leeway to experiment with new ideas and explore a better product-market fit before they scale out.
From our perspective, the AWS Cloud has enabled startups to experiment more with less risk of seriously damaging their long-term prospects, even when they stumble a few times on the journey.
Thanks for reading the third part of our Startup Masterclass with Gaurav Arora. If you missed the first two interviews, look back and read them here:
Startup Masterclass Part One: Finding your way in cloud: How startups get set for success on AWS
Startup Masterclass Part Two: Winning the race with cloud: Driving efficiency and innovation in your start-up
To learn more, get started with free digital training from AWS.
