Lots of people talking here about execution, but what actually makes "execution", execution? Let's say for example you are the founder of Vitamin Water and you

Lots of people talking here about execution, but what actually makes "execution", execution? Let's say for example you are the founder of Vitamin Water and you say "Our secret sauce is that we will compensate celebrities to promote our brand by offering them equity in the company". Great! But do you have the means to pull that off? How can you convince an investor that you have the ability to convince 50 Cent (or most likely his accountant) to take equity in your venture? This is execution. It's immeasurable, subjective, and is the most important part of executing a startup. It's also extremely hard to articulate (convincingly, mind you) without actually seeing it happen right in your face. I "give away" my strategy to Compete Hub (my startup) all of the time. It helps me validate my market. My competitors could easily analyze this and do the same thing. The reality is - they know more than me, but they simply don't have the execution capabilities to do so.