Ask HN: How do you build your startup before growing a team?
3 comments
"ideally both technical"
Absolutely not ideal in my opinion. Someone is going to have to be selling, marketing, networking, raising money, etc from the earliest days of the business - and that isn't something that a technical founder is necessarily good at or able to do alongside the technical stuff. Looking at the alumni of the accelerator I went through, the successful companies (eg the ones that haven't folded yet) have all had at least one non-technical founder.
The fact is, this is exactly the sort of question that technical founders struggle with - you want to be coding when the problem you're facing is something that requires getting on the phone, going to events, meeting people, and finding either someone who'll put in sweat equity or someone who'll put in cash based on your vision alone.
My advice would be to cut down what you want to build to the minimum, build a demo, and take it to people who might buy based on that alone, and try to raise some angel cash at the same time if possible. But with an angel who knows your market and can put in time as that non-technical business-side person.
Absolutely not ideal in my opinion. Someone is going to have to be selling, marketing, networking, raising money, etc from the earliest days of the business - and that isn't something that a technical founder is necessarily good at or able to do alongside the technical stuff. Looking at the alumni of the accelerator I went through, the successful companies (eg the ones that haven't folded yet) have all had at least one non-technical founder.
The fact is, this is exactly the sort of question that technical founders struggle with - you want to be coding when the problem you're facing is something that requires getting on the phone, going to events, meeting people, and finding either someone who'll put in sweat equity or someone who'll put in cash based on your vision alone.
My advice would be to cut down what you want to build to the minimum, build a demo, and take it to people who might buy based on that alone, and try to raise some angel cash at the same time if possible. But with an angel who knows your market and can put in time as that non-technical business-side person.
Yes, this is typical. The usual approach (besides working harder, which has limits) is to scale down your initial offering until it's something that a couple guys can do in 3-6 months. Failing that, scale down your initial idea into a prototype or demo that can be done in 3-6 months and that's impressive enough to get investors to give you money to hire a team and expand it.
This puts a sharp limit on the size of problems that can be attacked by a startup. That's just the way the world works. The trick to building a giant company is to build a small company in a market that will grow alongside the company, so that you can gain an initial toehold and then secure additional resources afterwards.
This puts a sharp limit on the size of problems that can be attacked by a startup. That's just the way the world works. The trick to building a giant company is to build a small company in a market that will grow alongside the company, so that you can gain an initial toehold and then secure additional resources afterwards.
What do you do when you need more help and can't afford to hire someone?
You sell them on your vision and convince them to work for equity, just like you're doing.
Or...
You find a potential customer who just plain "gets it" and can see your vision even before the thing is done, and you sell it to them before it's even done, and let them help fund development.
Or you find a potential partner and convince them that it's in their best interest to help you finish developing your thing, so you can co-brand it when it's done (maybe you let them focus on a vertical or demographic that you aren't interested in).
Or you scrape together whatever $$$ you can, maybe even doing a dreaded "friends, fools & family round" and hire offshore developers to chip in.
Or you find a local university and engage with them and get some of their students involved on a "work study" basis, so that helping you becomes a project they get course credit for.
Apply for grants that might be available to you. Call the "economic development" office of your local city / state / county / parish / whatever, and see if they can do anything for you. Those guys have a goal of attracting businesses and creating jobs, and sometimes have access to grants and what-not. At worst, they may be able to make some beneficial connections for you.
If it's applicable, look into a Kickstarter or Indiegogo campaign for your thing.
If you need salespeople, advertise on Craiglist and recruit part-time salespeople who will work for just commissions. Yes, there are actually people out there who want that sort of arrangement.
Be creative, use every arrow in your quiver.
You sell them on your vision and convince them to work for equity, just like you're doing.
Or...
You find a potential customer who just plain "gets it" and can see your vision even before the thing is done, and you sell it to them before it's even done, and let them help fund development.
Or you find a potential partner and convince them that it's in their best interest to help you finish developing your thing, so you can co-brand it when it's done (maybe you let them focus on a vertical or demographic that you aren't interested in).
Or you scrape together whatever $$$ you can, maybe even doing a dreaded "friends, fools & family round" and hire offshore developers to chip in.
Or you find a local university and engage with them and get some of their students involved on a "work study" basis, so that helping you becomes a project they get course credit for.
Apply for grants that might be available to you. Call the "economic development" office of your local city / state / county / parish / whatever, and see if they can do anything for you. Those guys have a goal of attracting businesses and creating jobs, and sometimes have access to grants and what-not. At worst, they may be able to make some beneficial connections for you.
If it's applicable, look into a Kickstarter or Indiegogo campaign for your thing.
If you need salespeople, advertise on Craiglist and recruit part-time salespeople who will work for just commissions. Yes, there are actually people out there who want that sort of arrangement.
Be creative, use every arrow in your quiver.
The limiting factor to growing our product seems to be how much work we can get done in a day. Is this normal? To be clear, we haven't "launched" and are working on the first iteration.