When you have an idea for a startup but you are not an IT developer, you start to think about how to realize it. In this article, we will guide you through all processes of startup development, as we do it in our company. We help our clients to develop their startups and we have also successfully developed our own startups, such as ECheck, Trueli, and SalesBox (at the end of the article you could find a description of them).
Write your idea down
If you have only an idea for a startup, design your project (you could do it even with a pen and paper!). You could do it on your own, or with your IT partner. Your IT partner will help you to develop your startup from scratch but anyway you need to do some homework.
Read also: How to Choose an Outsourcing Company
Start working with an IT Company
The major part of working on an IT startup is to prepare a project design/mockup. With your IT partner, you develop a full project design (it could be even clickable) and a technical task.
We highly recommend doing it before any work on the development of your IT product. When you create the design of your startup project you will get an understanding of how your startup will be working.
Get advice from IT professionals
At this stage project manager, business analyst or product owner help you to analyze your startup from the business side and turn your idea into code. Business analysts and project managers join to consult on how to launch a startup using their practical visual experience and professionalism. Be prepared that your idea could change crucially at this moment.
Organize a focus group for your startup
While your IT partner launches a development process of your product, you could start to analyze the product audience and the market you are targeting.
Organize your focus groups and ask participants if they get your idea right and if they will be ready to pay for your product or not. But sometimes the idea of your startup could not be understood before people will try it in reality. For example, no one could imagine a smartphone, having only a button mobile phone. If your startup idea is super innovative, it is very good but it means also that your marketing strategy should be very elaborated.
You could also reach your audience either by phone, by the internet or in person. When you get positive feedback (the audience got your product right and is willing to pay for using it) then you start to develop the main features of your project and produce an MVP (Minimal Viable Product).
MVP first
Define the main goal of your product: then realize it using IT and go to the market with this MVP so customers would see and try your product in real-time. Launch your MVP for a small group of customers and analyze how it works. The audience could react to your product differently than you have planned. If it is the case, with the MVP you could adjust it.
We recommend moving slowly: launch your MVP and get feedback from your audience, so you with some money spent could get a user experience from your customers. We recommend launching the crucial part of your startup first and not waiting until all parts of your idea will be realized.
Develop the full version
With your IT partner, you develop a working project based on MVP and feedback from your clients. At this point you get a chance to analyze the weak and strong sides of your project, to improve them or correct your final product. With a ready product, you understand your target audience and get insights into your marketing strategy.
Do Marketing
Apart from the scope of IT work your startup also needs a sales department and marketing specialists, analysts, and account managers to sell your product. The marketing department elaborates a marketing strategy and launches it.
To take a note
- Initial stages of startup development could be done simultaneously: after developing a design you may start looking for investors (without the developed design no one will give you investments), and without the final version of your product you could start pre-orders.
- When you will cooperate with an IT company developing your startup you need to continue being active and proactive in all processes. As an owner of a startup, you have to dive into all the processes related to your startup. You also should be ready your startup takes time and finances.
Startups our company developed:
- E-Check is a Ukrainian solution for small and medium businesses with electronic checks that accepts all contactless payments. It saves costs for businesses on cash registers and POS terminals. https://e-check.com.ua/
- Trueli is an app that detects pictures and videos on your phone to turn this chaos of photos into a smooth feed using AI. Doodles, voice notes, and much more could be added by the user https://apps.apple.com/ua/app/memor-i/id1579509617
- SalesBox helps entrepreneurs manage their clients’ base and loyalty program, communicate with clients, take payment and much more. https://salesbox.me/en
Takeaways
To start your startup you need a technical task and mockup developed. Test your idea with a focus group and start developing the MVP with your IT partner. With insights from your first customers, you could continue to work on the full-fledged project and develop a marketing strategy.
