Risk, or specifically risk tolerance is one of the factors that has enabled innovators for centuries; it is risk or specifically  risk tolerance   that has progressed human development, not its avoidance.

More recently, however, risk or risk assessment has become the byword for sound and prudent judgment - not the kind of judgment one associates with an entrepreneur operating in the vanguard of an emerging market. The act of setting up your own business is a radical act of commercial self-expression and by its nature incredibly risky – few can do it – but the ones that do all have an innate understanding of the risks involved and are not scared but empowered by said risks.

So often one hears people use the phrase “de-risk” in relation to a multitude of business operations and can end up going down the rabbit hole of assessing every variable to the nth degree involved in a decision. This a luxury. A resource-intensive activity and one most pre-revenue businesses cannot waste too much time on. I am not making the case for shooting from the hip; merely balancing between controlling what you can control, not concerning oneself too much about what you cannot and always knowing what your technology enables for your customers. The power of a nimble start-up is that it can be a critical link in a much larger ecosystem and can only effectively do that by moving quickly and being comfortable operating on limited information and having to change tack quite often. This is a risky activity, but well within the threshold of any entrepreneur worth their salt.