The Reason for the Failure of Startups in Thailand

Abstract

           Startups were one of the vital organs in driving Thailand 4.0 to achieve its goals because of their business model that were different from traditional business operations by adopting technology or innovation that could meet the needs or expectations of today's consumers were used to drive business. In addition, it was found that Startup businesses could replicate for a fraction of the cost and also had the potential to expand the market quickly. Another important highlight of startups was that they were able to pass on real value to meet consumer needs, resulting in better quality of consumers, for example, getting faster service or have a lower price, etc. Even though startups were small businesses but it could grow quickly and leapfrog, designed to be repeatable and able to expand without excessive time or cost (scalable) by applying technology to create innovation that was conducive to business operations and benefits for their own products or services. Therefore, startups could be the cornerstone of the country's economy in the future. But for Thailand, it was found that most of the startup businesses, 75 - 90 percent, could not run their businesses successfully and most overseas startups were unable to operate as successful as well. The reasons for the failure of startups in Thailand included 1) the product was not marketable, 2) start-up businesses still had financial problems to support the operation and inefficient cost management, 3) the operator had no knowledge of actual customer needs, 4) entrepreneurs lacked of determination and inspiration in running the business, 5) startups lack strategies to drive organizations to be successful, 6) the laws related to startups were not yet clear and 7) Startup businesses did not have a business network that had sufficient knowledge to join together to support successful and effective start-up operations.

Recommendations for conducting start-up businesses were as follows: 1) entrepreneurs, innovation should be applied to help develop products or services to meet customer needs in a concrete way, 2) business sector, technology should be applied to drive the organization effectively so that it can be successful, creating a competitive advantage; and 3) government agencies, they need to build confidence in driving startup businesses to become more concrete.