When it comes to entrepreneurship, it usually sparks debate: Is it a science which is grounded in data and structure? Or is it an art driven by creativity and intuition? From my journey with Textdrip, LandlineRemover, and PositiveIntent.AI, I’ve realized that it’s neither. In reality, entrepreneurship is a practice. It is refined through constant adaption, execution, and learning.
When we developed Textdrip, we aimed to automate SMS marketing. However, we didn’t follow any strict formulas. Instead, we learned from our experiences, tested various approaches, and iterated based on user feedback. And guess what! This approach led us to build an ecosystem that improves SMS marketing automation.
Why Entrepreneurship is Not a Science
Science is all about predictable formulas, controlled experiments, and predefined outcomes. However, in entrepreneurship, the scenario is completely different. Usually, entrepreneurship thrives on uncertainty. Science does not come with an ultimate playbook that guarantees success.
Let’s take an example of Textdrip’s evolution. When we started, we didn’t start with the predefined SMS automation formula. Instead, we tested, iterated, and improved based on real-world usage and feedback. Now think and give me an honest answer – if entrepreneurship were scientific, every business that has a “perfect” plan would succeed, right? However, it is a rare case.
When we built positiveintent.ai, no initial market research could have predicted the demand for AI-driven intent detection. However, we researched customers’ pain points, and in response to that, we built positiveintent.ai, not because the data told us to do it.
Now, let’s understand the flip side of entrepreneurship in the next section.
Why Entrepreneurship is Not an Art
Art is all about personal expression, perspective, and conveying emotions. Of course, creativity is important in business, but success hugely depends on problem-solving, execution, market fit, user needs, and delivering tangible impact.
The creation of LandlineRemover was not just a burst of creative inspiration but also a direct response to compliance challenges in SMS marketing. When we developed it, our aim was clear cut – to help businesses identify mobile, landline, and VoIP numbers. It ensures that SMS campaigns remain compliant.
If entrepreneurship were an art, businesses might overlook customer behaviour and data. And eventually lead to potential failures. For example, we didn’t create Positiveintent.ai solely based on our grand vision. We built it and trained it through real SMS responses to make sure it accurately detects customer intent.
So, what I want to conclude from this debate is that entrepreneurship is a practice.
Entrepreneurship as a Practice
You can hone a practice over time through learning, iteration, and action. In fact, entrepreneurship is all about it. In entrepreneurship, you develop systems, test ideas, and improve them based on results.
We’ve built our ecosystem on this approach.
With Textdrip, we’ve tried to automate SMS marketing. LandlineRemover has addressed compliance and number verification challenges. With Postiveintent.ai, we introduced AI-driven intent detection intelligence for user response to make SMS campaigns smarter.
This progress didn’t happen overnight. It was the result of the constant cycle of iteration and adaption.
For example, when we launched Textdrip, we quickly identified compliance challenges. To resolve this challenge, we developed LandlineRemover. It filters landline numbers and reduces compliance risk. As customers’ demand for better response tracking was in demand, we developed Positiveintent.ai to analyze users’ SMS response intent.
In short, the entire growth cycle was interconnected. It resulted from practical and hands-on execution, not from any fixed strict formula or pure creativity.
Key Elements of Entrepreneurial Practice
Let’s check out the key elements of entrepreneurial practice.
1. Experimentation and adaptation
Understand that when a business initially launches something, it’s not a perfect product version. With the changing demand, businesses should tweak and improve continuously. For example, we introduced a new carrier verification feature in LandlineRemover after realizing that a better compliance filter is in demand, and that’s what many businesses need.
2. Discipline and Consistency
Success does not happen overnight. You need to execute daily, learn from your failures, and continuously improve your processes to achieve them. For example, Textdrip’s SMS automation feature evolved as we constantly studied real user behaviour and optimized engagement strategies.
3. Decision-Making Under Uncertainty
Entrepreneurs never hesitate to make bold decisions with incomplete data. When we built Positiveintent.ai, we were not 100% sure if AI-powered intent detection would work across all industries. However, we took the risk, tested, adapted, and refined our process and strategy according to real customer interactions.
4. Customer-Centric Learning
User feedback plays a crucial role in business success. Businesses must listen to user feedback to thrive. Initially, the early Textdrip users requested better lead filtering. This feedback inspired us to integrate LandlineRemover in Textdrip to ensure businesses only target valid mobile numbers.
5.    Flexibility and Grit
In the entrepreneurship journey, every entrepreneur has to face challenges. However, what matters is how we hinge and push ourselves forward. When we launched Positiveintent.ai, some customers initially didn’t see AI’s value in SMS. However, at that time, we didn’t scrap Positiveintent.ai. Instead, we improved its accuracy and trained it on more industry-specific datasets.
The Power of Building a Product Ecosystem
Great entrepreneurs are those who just don’t build a product but build a product ecosystem.
Our Textdrip, LandlineRemover, and Positiveintent.ai work together and offer users a seamless SMS marketing experience.
For example,
A company that is using Textdrip first runs their contact through LandlineRemover and filters invalid numbers. After that, they run the campaign, and Positiveintent.ai automatically detects user responses and segments leads based on their response.
This ecosystem was not planned from the first day. It gradually evolved by solving real problems step-by-step.
The entire journey taught me that if you want to make the best business, you need to solve the interconnected pain points instead of chasing a single big idea.
Concluding Remarks
Entrepreneurship is not about strict formulas or artistic vision; it is all about constant execution and adaption.
Our journey from Textdrip to LandlineRemover to Positiveintent.ai demonstrates that businesses can succeed by constantly improving their practice.
In a nutshell, the best entrepreneurs don’t just start businesses, but they build solutions that improve over time, connect, and create lasting value.
As an entrepreneur, if you want to be successful, don’t just focus on ideas. Concentrate on execution, continuous learning, and improving daily.
Author Bio: Philip Portman is the Founder and CEO of Textdrip, a business texting platform catering to industries such as Solar, Travel & Tourism, E-Commerce, Insurance, Hotels & Hospitality, Car Dealerships, Real Estate, and Healthcare. He has successfully launched several startups including landlineremover.com , positiveintent.ai, argosautomation.com. With expertise in SMS marketing and digital automation, Philip is also an esteemed member of the Forbes Technology Council.
