90% of startups fail to become profitable before they reach the top, and this is often due to a few simple mistakes. Nearly half of these tech company failures are due to the product not being what people actually need.
Startup failures are also often caused by a lack of funds or team members not being well-qualified for their jobs. These statistics paint a grim picture of your chances of success. Knowing the most dangerous traps to avoid can help your startup survive.
1. Concentrate on the most important features.
Many great startup ideas revolve around solving the founder’s problems. Because the founder is often the best person to explain such a solution, this is why it is so popular. You can also bring early adopters to your product to refine its value proposition, provided you can find other people with the same problem.
It is essential to nail down the product’s requirements and validate its concept in order to ensure that your product roadmap takes you in the right direction.
It is crucial to make the right decisions in order to survive at this stage of product design. Poor product-market fit is responsible for 42 percent of all failed startups.
It is important to create the Minimum Viable Products (MVP). This is done by focusing only on the features that users require to reach their goals. A project management app, for example, needs to upload more attachments than it does custom emojis.
Also read: 14 Ways to Create a Highly Efficient Software Team for Your Startup
2. You can get into the thick of online conversations.
After validating your MVP, and applying multiple iterations of user feedback, you can release your product to a wider segment of your target audience.
Even if everyone knows your product, you can still lose to a competitor even though it may have all the right features. Startups are often unable to afford a large sales team or an ad campaign. This is a real disadvantage.
Although this challenge doesn’t have to end your startup’s existence, it will require you to do a lot more manual promotion.
Promoting a startup through online conversations is a common strategy. This helps to refine your idea. This tactic doesn’t scale well. As your idea gains momentum, you will need to modify your marketing strategy.
3. Customer feedback is important.
To achieve your sales goals, it is important to keep your customers and their needs in mind when developing your product. It is possible to create demand quickly by offering a customer-based solution for a problem. This applies regardless of whether the product is completely new or fills a gap in the market.
Many inexperienced entrepreneurs attempt to launch a tech company without having a plan. It will pay off long-term if you spend time on market research, product development, and understanding your customers’ needs.
Once you have a business plan, branding, and funding, you can start to think about marketing the product. Market research should always be tied closely to your product, regardless of whether it is formal or informal.
Market research can be done inexpensively by obtaining customer feedback and reviews.
This is particularly important if you plan on selling your product via major eCommerce sites such as Amazon. These platforms include all the functionality you need. It is easy to see what your customers think of your product.
4. Sell your product before you build it.
It is a good idea to bring in paying customers as soon as possible, especially if you are a startup.
Customers who are early customers will have a financial stake. In exchange for the features they desire and the money they are willing to pay, customers will often be willing to share their opinions. One of the most important turning points for a startup is to find out that people will pay money for the product they are building.
There are many strategies that can be used to pre-sell an MVP.
Focusing on one goal can help you validate the feature’s need and encourage early adoption. It is possible to combine products from different companies to create your own product. This helps reduce costs. You can also manually execute the functions of the product to determine the best way to automate them.
5. Create a team of great people and help them achieve the vision.
For a startup to succeed, it is crucial to building a strong team. You should focus on operations, marketing, and accounting. These are the most important aspects of any business.
However, securing qualified staff in the tech sector is a difficult task.
The U.S. has a shortage of software developers. It is possible that there are not many people with the skills you require. You may not be able to afford to pay the salary they are expecting, even if you find someone with the right skills.
You should apply the same passion and care to fill every position in your team. It’s easy to believe that a tech company should spend a lot on the top dev talent. Instead, look for someone with less experience to manage the marketing side.
This can lead to problems down the line and less success overall.
Each leader must be passionate about the vision and ability of their department or team to achieve it. It is crucial to have the right leader for every department, even if there are only a few people at the beginning.
6. Highlight your MVP to secure funding.
Entrepreneurs often make the mistake of believing that funding is the first step to starting a tech company. It should come later in the process. It is more important to make sure your idea has a market.
Find early adopters to validate your MVP prior to applying for financial backing. It can be profitable to increase funding for self-service acquisition and infrastructure improvement.
Failure is common when large marketing and sales campaigns are launched too soon. After you have validated your MVP, seek funding You can also attract more investors by paying customers.
Also read: 8 Funding Options To Raise Startup Capital For Your Business
7. Expect to fail.
Speed is crucial when you start a business. This means you will make many decisions quickly without doing extensive research.
These choices may not be correct, which can lead to a temporary setback. It is important to see decisions as changing so that they can be improved.
While rapid decisions are part of the calculated risk-taking that is part of starting a startup, it doesn’t mean that you should just throw money at a project.
When building your company, you must be pragmatic in making decisions. This is especially important when you have to assess your own strengths.
Summary
Uncertainty in a volatile market and unpredictability for a team creates a significant risk. Moreover, tech startups are not likely to survive due to the complexity of modern technology and its rapid advancements.
This fact, on the other hand, allows entrepreneurs to outcompete those who try to build a tech company the wrong way.
These tips will help you get ahead of your competitors and get your business started.
Leave a comment