You have an idea.
So what comes next?
For many first-time founders, their thoughts and the ‘shopping list’ looks something like this:
- Find a developer.
- Get a co-founder.
- Build the product.
- Start marketing.
- Raise money.
- Or some order of these.
It sounds logical. It also relies on the order of things done historically.
It also assumes every startup needs the same things in roughly the same order.
They don’t.
A developer might be exactly what you need next.
Or it could mean spending £20,000 on building something that might not work.
A co-founder might transform the business.
Or you might give away a large chunk of your company before any aspects are proven.
Marketing might unlock growth.
Or it might simply send thousands of people to a product they might not need.
Funding might accelerate everything.
Including the mistakes.
The problem isn’t the shopping list. Developers, marketers, co-founders and investors can all make a startup dramatically stronger.
The problem is treating them as automatic steps. It is how some startups succeed. It is also how a lot of them fail.
A startup shouldn’t go for things simply because successful startups have them.
It should go for what it needs, and when it needs it.
Imagine a founder building software for independent retailers.
Her instinct is to find a developer.
But before doing that, she spends two weeks speaking to potential customers, really trying to understand their needs.
She discovers that the problem she thought mattered the most, barely registers (I had a client that discovered the original problem they were planning to address accounted for only 2% of their audience - but another one popped up high, they barely knew existed!)
So another issue comes up as a much more important problem to solve.
That changes the product - sometimes dramatically.
But it’s real, urgent and often painful for the customer. (One of these would do - if you get all 3, consider yourself lucky!)
She then hires the developer. But now that developer is joining a startup with a stronger chance of working.
So, ask a different question
Instead of: What do startups normally do next?
Ask: What does this startup need next?
(Or better still, talk to one of Vestara’s startup mentors.)
Those are very different questions.
There is no universal startup shopping list.
There is only the next step that can make your startup stronger.
Make it stronger. Then make it real.