How to start a tech startup?
It’s been 9 years since I started my Professional Journey. I started my career as a mathematics teacher in an engineering college. As a teacher, I saw many startups coming and diminishing in the dust. Some of them got succeeded but most of them got failed. Due to this, I got a curiosity to find out the actual cause of failure. A couple of years later I started working with a small startup to understand how they actually work and how they keep themselves going. for past 6 years, I did spend a whole lot of time and money to find out the exact recipe to make a successful startup. A couple of weeks ago one of my friends ask me this question “How to start a tech startup from Scratch?” This question led me to write this Article so that I can help everyone to start a Tech Startup.
What is a technology company?
A technology company (often a tech company) is a type of business entity that focuses primarily on the development and manufacturing of technology.
Take Uber, the ride-hailing service based in San Francisco. The heart of Uber is a smartphone app attached to a database that instantly matches passengers with nearby drivers. It is technology aiding a real-world transaction. Travis Kalanick, Uber’s chief executive, often describes Uber as a “technology platform.”
Get an Idea to start a Tech Startup!
If you are thinking for your own startup, but you don’t know what exactly you want to do for this you need to spend your time reading books and explore your knowledge firstly.
you can start with your passion, your area of expertise and interest so that you can think about it like designing, programming, and software development. Investing in your own knowledge and skills means investing in your power.
Assuming it’s a software tech company, you can write code and build the foundation of your company.
Related: COMPANY REGISTRATION IN USA. MY EXPERIENCE AS NON-US RESIDENT
Get Started with your Product Development
Step one for a tech startup is Product development. We first need to develop the product. For this, it is essential that we should have the technical knowledge or we should hire/partner a person who has this technical knowledge. Best thing in tech company is that you don’t need money to develop the product. A code written for any particular work could be the product which would involve your time or developer time whom you have hired/partnered.
While developing the product, startup can sell their concept. It means they can sell potential customer on their solution. Startup needs to contact target market and pitch them on your idea as if it’s already built. Are people interested in what you are building? If so, don’t hesitate to ask for money.
Once you know the product which you need to develop, break it down into steps:
1. Clearly define your product and goals:
Create a document which has all the details about product few of them are product features, functions, size and target retail price.
2. Hire an electrical engineer to design the electronics:
After this, we need to select components for which we may need to hire an electrical engineer. We need to select all of the components (microchips, displays, sensors, etc.) based on the features and specifications in product definition.
3. Produce the prototypes:
Once the product goal is defined and components are finalized prototype need to be developed for testing.
4. Evaluate, program and debug:
Once the prototype is prepared evaluation should be performed. Any problems identified during evaluation need to be corrected.
Any problems found with the electronics during programming will need to be fixed on the next PCB version. The hope, of course, is there will be no problems.
5. Develop the case:
This step should really be performed in parallel with the development of the electronics. If appearance is critical for your product, then you need to hire a talented industrial designer to make your product look really amazing.
How to find talent for your tech startup
In order to have good talent, it’s important to have a clear employer branding strategy to show why people should work for us and how our company is different. As a startup, we are in a unique position to provide transparency and to include team in every step of the process.
We need to be clear about the opportunities we are going to provide to team as the company grows. People join startups to be a part of something bigger, dynamic and growing. We need to understand the dreams of individual and link it with company’s goal. So that they can understand that company’s growth will ultimately lead to their individual growth.
Where should you look for expert to start a tech startup?
For Start Up’s initial funding is important, they do not have enough funds. Thus it becomes very important that they should spend it in most efficiently.
One way of hiring which is Orthodox is by taking face to face interviews. These individuals could be connected through advertisement in newspaper, website or through HR consultants which could be very expensive from a start-up point of view.
Another method of hiring is Freelancers. Freelancers are people who can be hired anytime for online works. Now the kind of services they provide varies to a great extent from something as creative as content writing to things that can get as technical as android app development.
100s of Startups are hiring Freelancer at Truelancer on a regular basis. You can also hire an expert in here. Now there are a number of reasons why they should be hired. But the simplest answer to this question is “need”. When one has to get a work done but does not have the required set of skills, a freelancer can be hired. The requirements for the same kind of work can be different for different clients.
Now taking a deeper peep into this, one can easily understand the difference between hiring an independent freelancer and the one we hire through the different websites available. While hiring individually, the number of options can be limited. Also, one doesn’t get the guarantee of quality work. The rates are negotiable as the interaction between the client and freelancer is direct but they are still high as these freelancers face less competition.
Benefits for Hiring Freelancers are:
1. Office Facilities Not Required: Freelancers do not need accommodations in the office because they work from home. Generally, startups are small not only in terms of revenue but also space. It can be difficult to fit in so many people in a small office. It’s not just about space but also simple things which an individual could need like a chair, a desk and a computer to work on. A lot of money can be saved if these expenses are cut off.
2. No Training Required: Startups generally cannot afford to provide training to each individual they hire. A particular work can be little different from one company to other. In general, individuals are not so well versed with the nuances of different industries. So a basic training is required for such employees. But the case with freelancers is different. They keep working with different kind of industries and know the nuts and bolts of their work very well. They do not need training and can deliver the best without any such investments.
3. Can be Communicated Easily: Almost all freelancers are available on platforms like hangouts, skype etc. So communicating with them is very easy and they respond to the instructions and feedbacks really fast. This also saves the amount of money one would spend to explain the things on call. This might seem a small thing but it does count.
4. Can be Changed Frequently: Even if a permanent employee is able to just deliver an average work, he/she cannot be fired. There is some affinity that develops for a permanent employee. However, the case is not the same as a freelancer. Even if the work is okay, switching to a different freelancer is not at all an issue. There is always an opportunity to switch to someone else, even just to see the quality of work and this will in no way affect the relationship with the previous freelancer. This also allows working with a multiple of people from the same niche.
5. Payments are done only after the completion of work: One does not have to worry about the wastage of money. In freelancing, the ball is always in the client’s court. If the work is done, does not appeal to the client, the payment can be denied. This assures not only quality work but also checks the wastage of money.
So these are some of the ways in which freelancers can act as catalysts for the growth of a startup.
Prepare yourself to become a Manager
The road from being a founder, to becoming a CEO or a manager is a very long and bumpy one. Most good founders somehow are crazy, in a good way. They often have ridiculous work ethics, are naive, and ignore what others say. They are often simply not the ideal person to work with. It rarely ends well if those founder attributes meet the pressure of a young company trying to survive.
Being a manager and being a founder are two different things. We need to learn this very quickly. A founder often sets the tone, the mission, the speed, the ethic, the culture. Being a founder — a programmer, or a designer, or a salesperson — requires a totally different skill set than being a manager. Being a founder means to work — being a manager means to think. The job of a manager is to carefully make decisions, easy ones and tough ones. You need to define the business strategy, recruit people, build teams, motivate employees, set and measure goals, empower ownership, create partnerships, take care of financials etc. These skills are hard to develop, many founders actually decide to hire a CEO at a later stage. Becoming a CEO is not for everyone, it’s a huge challenge in addition to the challenges you already have as a business.
When a founder has technical skill they love designing the product and defining the marketing strategy. Founder had a seriously hard time to reduce himself from the actual work and focus on the business side. The additional pressure as being “the person in charge” didn’t make it easier for founder to deal with that transition.
Who are the Investors, Mentors & Advisors
Investors are often wealthy individuals or organizations who invest in your business, with the clear goal to have a great financial return. At the early-stage, investors are also often your mentors, but it can be hard to connect with investors as much as you can connect with individuals who respect you and are simply interested in your personal success. Investors are usually more interested in building and scaling up the business and less in your personal development.
Mentors are focused on helping you to grow as an individual and a leader. Mentors invest time in understanding your business and challenges and more importantly, in you. Especially as a young or first-time founder, it’s incredibly helpful to get mentorship from experienced entrepreneurs.
Advisors can add strategic value to your business (e.g. if you want to enter new markets or work with big corporations). They help you to understand networks, markets and try to advise you to make the right decisions. You can have advisors for every part of your business (like partnerships, or product, or marketing).
Be Ready for Constant Change
Constant changes in startups happen everywhere. You are constantly adjusting and optimizing internal processes, adapting your development strategy due to changing markets, modifying a fundraising strategy because of a financial crisis, replacing managers because of bad performances — this list just goes on and on and on.
Prepare to Failure
After companies begin to start and execute, it’s important to allow for fast failures. With failure comes the opportunity to make changes, and then win.
Work Hard and Be Nice to People
Becoming successful will change your personality, either in a positive or in a negative way — it’s your decision. When Steve Jobs got asked what his biggest weakness was, he answered: “I think all of us need to be on guard against arrogance, which knocks on your door whenever you’re successful.” So every founder should work hard, take risks — and always be nice to people.
The time has never been better to take action and start building the companies and products you want to exist.
So, this is how anyone can start a tech startup with the minimum chances of failure. If you follow these guidelines, I believe you are going to have a marvellous career.
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