Simplus CEO Ryan Westwood released his latest Forbes article this past weekend. Ryan sat down with Jason Holmes, president and COO of Showpad (a cloud-based sales enablement platform), to discuss the five shared characteristics of successful tech startups and how these traits position companies to become unicorns. You can catch a quick overview of the five signs below, or read the full article here!

1. Execute on a focused vision and strategy: 

“The ability to execute starts at the top. The founders and CEO must be more than just relentlessly focused, passionate, and determined. They must build a dream team of exceptionally dedicated employees.” — Ryan Westwood

2. Introduce a compelling product to an undersaturated market:

“To rise above the crowd, you need to offer a unique, compelling value proposition to your customers. You need to offer products that fulfill an unmet need of your customers, and that measurably and elegantly improves some aspect of your customers’ lives, work, and daily routine.” — Ryan Westwood

3. Create a product that is scalable:

“You want to build products that don’t require continuously more money to improve, maintain, and market.” — Ryan Westwood

4. Craft a tailored marketing plan:

“The companies that don’t hit their sales targets are often the ones that have chosen the wrong market segment or that didn’t sufficiently narrow their target market segment.” — Ryan Westwood

5. Move in perfect harmony with your investors:

“Many startups, however, struggle to cultivate and strengthen this relationship because they don’t truly understand the mindset of their investors. Consequently, they don’t make key decisions that are necessarily harmonious with the sensibilities of their investor.” — Ryan Westwood

Keep reading more from Ryan Westwood’s blog on Forbes to stay updated on entrepreneurship, corporate culture, and startups!