Building a startup is not an easy task. After “The Social Network” movie came out, many people, especially the college age population, were deeply inspired to also enter the world of startups (that’s another blog post to be written later), thinking it will be as simple as the movie made it seem. But trust me, it isn’t, and statistically, nearly all startups will wind up failing. But there are things that can make it less painful – things that either we did not do well or things we did wrongly.
Here are some lessons I learned the hard way while building an I.T. startup:
1. Take time during the “idea phase” to plan and think things through really well. Research what is already out there and what has been done and how will yours be different or better. If it is a website, go through processes and scenarios of how things will play out. We rushed through this stage, but it is actually one of the most important stages. Not planning well could lead to more expenses and time lost. This happened to us.
2. Have lots of patience. No matter what you think, you will likely have delays on projects. Sometimes things are out of your hands, people quit, get sick, are busy on other projects, etc. , and if one is too impatient, it could make things worse. For example, once we outsourced a task that was supposed to take 3 days but 2 weeks later, the task was incomplete, so I fired our contractor. This led to finding someone new, who was even more incompetent and led to an even longer delay! So sometimes it pays to be patient even if it’s taking longer than expected.
3. Do launch a minimum viable product and get yourself visible as quickly as possible, otherwise known as a “lean approach.” This was one of my company’s major mistakes. Our idea first came to us in August 2011! That’s’ almost 4 years ago, and we are still just beta testing to date. There are other reasons it took this long, such as we are employed full time by other companies. But we tried to put every possible feature or service we could think of into the project, and this is bad for several reasons: 1) It just delays your launch and possibly allows a competitor to roll out their version before you do. 2) The features that you think are great might not be the ones your users like or even use. 3) We would already have four years worth of users instead of just beginning to promote for users. It is best to start small, offer less, and let the users try your services a little at a time. This allows you to pivot to other ideas and waste less time and money in things that not many will use. Then over time, gradually roll out new features. This will keep users coming back every time you introduce something new.
4. Outsourcing. Sometimes you have to outsource things, and this also requires doing research on the contractor you hire. Do a thorough job here. Interview them, read their reviews, and look at their previous work. Make sure everyone understands the work to be done and expectations. This stage can also take some time, so don’t rush it and hire the wrong person. We have made mistakes here, and it has cost us time and money.
5. Prioritize. You should not be trying to find investors in the “idea” stage or working on petty things that do not push the project forward. We have learned that it’s best to work on things daily will move the startup closer to launch. That means blogging is a less priority than developing the product during your “work hours”, which by the way, you’ll define, but typically it’s a long day!
Hopefully these things I learned will help other startups just beginning. It’s a great time to be an entrepreneur. Good luck to you if you are just beginning a venture. My next blog will address working full time at a job and building a startup on the side.
EJW