Towards a model for startups' resilience in ICT industry (Case study approach)

With the advent of the Internet and the IT revolution in recent decades, startups can create new business opportunities around innovative ideas. As startups are tied to technology, they have become a driving force in the economies of nations. However, their high failure rates indicate that failure is part of the startup ecosystem and they are inevitable, and because of the limited resources and time of the startups, a failed project can get them out of business. According to recent research, most startups are more vulnerable in the early stages of their life-cycle, and investigating the factors affecting the resilience of startups throughout the life-cycle of innovation can reduce their failure rates. By conducting a multi-case study of PayPing, Achareh, Ubaar, and Keshmoon that have successfully played out their startup life cycle, analyzing the content of the data collected through interviews by Atlas.ti, the startup resilience model in the ICT industry was extracted. The findings show that the startup resilience model has three dimensions of challenge (with product, market, team, financial and legal challenge components), action (with pivot, value proposition, lean customer creation, platform building, internal action and external action), and progressing factor (with team key capabilities and startup ecosystem).