For the past eight months, my colleagues and I have been working feverishly on our very first start-up, it has been a major undertaking for our small team; finding investment capital in a turbulent market, developers during a skills shortage and clients in a still immature digital marketing environment.
Nevertheless, we threw ourselves headlong into the process and have our first completed products. The ride was emotional and draining but we learned so much along the way, far more than we ever would working 9-5. We also had and are still having a lot of fun, every day is exciting. There are a lot of risks and the pay is terrible but overall its been a positive and rewarding experience.
The top 10 things I could impart after enduring the start-up process are:
1: Agree everything up front - even when you don't have a business all parties have expectations and the only way to meet them is through making agreements and sticking to them.
2: Hire good people - I know this is obvious and we were lucky with the great talent we managed to get hold of, but it is fundamental and when I mean good I don't just mean fast and efficient, you need people that use their initiative and offer up solutions.
3: Incubate your idea - get a prototype up and running quickly, tell people about the idea and get feedback. The key to knowing when you're on a winner is when everybody you show it to starts asking why this hasn't been done before.
4: Stay agile - Never lock yourself into a plan. Keep your business plan fluid so that if you get into a project and think of a better way to do something be flexible enough to do it.
5: Set deadlines - Without deadlines the business will never get off the ground. Remember things in development world always take twice as long as you think they will, so set realistic deadlines.
6: Don't expect Google Search to sell your business for you - Search results don't make deals happen. Get on the phone - Your startup is not going to sell itself. We were lucky enough to have one of our partners from a sales background and it has made a huge difference to our business.(Mind you, if your idea is good enough, you might well start expecting Google to buy your business!)
7: Don't release something half-finished - we have released our app in public beta and we are constantly making improvements, however the functionality and user experience are complete. I hear the advice a lot just to get something out fast, even if it doesn't quite work. I believe this is bad advice. Focus on the details, especially the user experience; without a good UI your app is going to struggle.
8: Don't be afraid to go to the top - forget talking to middle management. If you really want your business to succeed, you really need to speak to the people at the top. It takes some work but once you
have those relationships working it makes life so much easier.
9: Give your business personality - people love dealing with businesses that they can interact and have fun with. Focus on a personality for your business and live it.
10: Have fun - we recommend foosball & wearing hats on Friday. If you get good drop us a note and we'll arrange a match.
Anyway, I am sure the suspense is killing you. Check out http://www.beamme.info to check it out. If you want to see a Beam in action visit http://www.bestrestaurants.com.au
posted by Brad Down at 4/02/2008 04:59:00 PM
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