What does it take to effectively start? Part 1

Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

I’m sure you immediately understand what the above picture displays: The classic startup environment.

Nowadays, also “startup” has officially joined the group of all the overused buzzwords, a ton of people uses it on a daily basis but still hasn’t properly figured out what it is.

Also due to the particular times we’re currently facing, innovative and frugal activities started to get off the ground, trying to provide their fit-market with a one-of-a-kind product and show the world something never seen before.

This is the common objective shared among all the tech startups that have been born recently.

However, the reality is pretty different with both the above scenario and the picture, because, when it comes to business…

You can never tell.

But, before diving together shedding a light about challenges a startupper can come across during his journey, what actually is a startup?

According to Investopedia, a startup is described as a starting business that is still in its initial stage.

That’s it. In just a handful of words, the startup definition popped up.

Especially when it comes to a startup that’s ready to launch its innovative (and useful!) products, also multiple cases of multinational companies that “started from a garage” comes immediately to mind: Amazon, Microsoft, Tesla, Apple, Google are perfect instances of tech-related business that started from the bottom and went all the way to the top, paving the technology as we know today.

By the way, they’re almost unique examples for the reason that creating, establishing and always being committed to your idea in mind is complex and difficult.

Photo by Daniel Chekalov on Unsplash

Which are some of the basic features of a startup?

Say we want to create a breakthrough business is simple.

Having an idea and pursuing its realization can be tough but the opportunity to get some ideas and insights about what the market wants are many.

Keep own committing to our idea, having nothing for granted is dramatically harsh.

More or less, the pattern which the small businesses follow is:

Idea -> Co-founder(s) Research -> Business Plan ->Execution

It’s a recurring model which, in almost all cases, will make the business idea fail. The reasons behind it are different, but, perhaps, the most meaningful is because the small-business-owner doesn’t make any prior market research. In this way, it’s likely to go to implement a product, or service, which could be pointless for the people.

Startups always try to avoid this big issue by putting themselves in the customer's shoes.

Whereas this point is one of the most prominent, when it comes to business, a frugal idea is also pillared by other cornerstones.

• Build an MVP(Minimum Viable Product): Word usually heard in these kinds of innovative realities, an MVP is the incomplete share of your product. During your early-stage term, it’s almost impossible to have the best service picked up. For this reason, build your product properly not perfectly. Over time, by gaining customers’ feedback, you're going to enhance your overall product.
• App validation: If you have the idea to come up with a business, mostly in these times, it’s likely you’re going to develop your app. If in the past, the app development and deployment was done just by software developers and coders, with the increasing No-Code and Low-Code applications, I’d say anybody has the possibility to create its own. The following part covers the feedback discussion you have with your early adopters, the group of people who are able to try your product before all the others.
• Team building: Parallelly to the entire technical iter, each startup ought to surround himself with like-minded people who shares the same vision and mission. It’s unreal to think you’ll be able to do all this on your own: Find out people who share your same values.

A brief list of usual tools used in startups

There’s a wide array of free online tools you can adopt to extend your activity at its top. Briefly:

• Notion
• Canva
• Miro
• Linkedin (Definitely important for the startup personal branding)
• Answerthepublic