Startups Stack Exchange Archive

What things to focus on when building a new startup?

• posted by: titan on 2016-08-11
• tagged: business-plan, e-commerce
• score: 1

I need some mentoring from experts regarding starting a new business. I am a developer myself. I have a potential tech powered business idea, but i don’t know where to start. Should i focus in technical terms first or business terms? All kind of opinions are welcomed and thanks in advance.

Answer 10918

• posted by: Ted Taylor of Life on 2016-08-11
• score: 2

This is not a yes or no question.

“As crazy as the might sound, I think you should focus on turning whatever “idea” you have in your head into “reality.”

What I mean by reality is POC, Proof of Concept.

Prove that your idea works.

What you might actually find is that your idea may not be as ideal as you once thought. If not then great!

When you have the proof of concept then you can talk about the feasibility.

Your question is so general that it is very difficult to even answer.

Do you think any inventor of a social network thought to himself, “ you know what, I am going to build the network like this because it will make more money?” Most likely, they just built the damn thing. They just did it, though with a purpose. The crazy thing about just doing something, is that it can lead to other ideas.

• There are three things in this world that are rewarded. The first two I list are things that you can work on and control.

  • Execution
  • Your ability to sell or in the business world, getting people to use your “product.”
  • Timing

I struggled with a question like this myself. You can have the best idea in the world, but ideas are worthless. Make it. If you are technical, then focus on what you do best so you can spend more time learning things that you do not know so well. The beauty and failure of this space is so many entrepreneurs fail to realize that very few people do things on their own. They had some form of help along the way.

Just buckle down and focus.

Ask the why questions.

• Why would doing x be good? Is there a need for what I am doing?
• If your thing already exists, can I do it better and if so what cost?
• Does that mean going for broke while gaining market share like amazon or does it mean giving the competition competition by introducing something that has been not done before and immediately gaining significant market share?
• How does what I am making add value?

Hope this helps!

Short and sweet:

• Carefully plan,answer those questions, but do not over analyze things because that is called “ paralysis by analysis”

Bottom line, just do it.

Answer 10930

• posted by: Ryder on 2016-08-14
• score: 2

I don’t think this question is not answerable. It happens with everybody who wants to start something on their own. There is a lot to know when you start something and honestly I belive sometimes you dont know what you are looking for.

I would try to explain how did I go about my idea -

• I have an idea that I wanted to make to solve some problem
• Questions:
  • how do I know that what I am making is really solving the problem?
  • Do other people face same problem?
  • If no, are they aware of the problem or they just don’t have that problem?
  • If yes, how many people are facing this problem? Who all are they?
• Create a list of hypothesis from above questions
  • Go out in the field and talk to them
  • Don’t interrogate them, let the people talk as much as they can
  • Don’t do Q/A survey like multiple choice questionnaire
• Once you get you hypothesis validated or invalidated take these steps
  • Validated
    • Create a prototype [Minimum Viable Product] and test it out with users
    • Take their feedback [not opinion] and improve on your product
    • Beware, never ask questionn like what else they want [features] because you can’t add all the features asked by different users.
  • Invalidated : Drop the idea. Time to find something else to work on
• Okay, Now time to raise some money to polish your product
  • Plan a business around your product
  • Create a pitch deck, follow airbnb pitch deck style
  • Find investors though your network
  • Contact them and ask for the first meeting. Of course you aren’t going to close the deal in first meeting. There going to be a lot fo pitching and meeting.
  • Prepare yourself and go for pitching
  • Improve your pitch according to the investors feedback

Become Billionaire,… Just kidding :) I am stuck at planning my business

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