What does the DNA of a startup look like? While almost every startup believes that it is building something entirely unique, there are some defining characteristics that dramatically increase the probability of startup success.

Shane Snow – the Chief Creative Officer of Contently – lists some excellent points in his post. Here are a few of my favorites…

• Rather Than Planning, Doing
• Looking For 80/20s
• Split Testing And Iterating

Bias for Action has got to feature among the top of any list you see on this subject, since a startup is essentially about getting started with the idea, and not just making elaborate plans on paper (or on a spreadsheet!).

If you are planning to launch a startup soon, be wary of collaborations with key stakeholders (partners, vendors or even senior staff) that do not exhibit this trait. You will regret it if you don’t, and waste precious time in the bargain.

Pareto’s Principle of 80/20 will definitely apply to your ToDo list, once you start your journey on the road to entrepreneurship.

Yes, the list of things to do will be long, and every item on it will seem important. But, every entrepreneur has limited resources and limited time at his/her disposal. And, in the end, what will matter is that you did the things that mattered most – and ignored the ones that didn’t.

Finally, Testing and Iteration will get you further than most, and also ensure that you get bang for the buck.

Should you advertise on Facebook or Google? Should you use subject line A or B in your introductory email? Should you go with logo option 1 or 2? Very often, we don’t know what will work in a particular context, but can ascertain our course of action based on data, as long as we are willing to learn from the experiment, and iterate as needed.

If budget is a constraint – as it often is – you need to run carefully though-through experiments to see what works better. Discard what doesn’t, and scale up what works by putting more resources behind it. If budgets are generous, run even more experiments!

May the force be with you.