7 steps to set up your tech startup

In the developed world starting a business has become almost such a usual thing as international travel or purchasing a vehicle. According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, there are more than 100 mln startups launching in the world yearly. Tech startups amount to 1,35% of them. For these 1,35 mln tech startups many more millions die in the heads of their owners because they don’t feel confident enough, scared of competition, don’t know who to consult with regarding the technical side of their startups or don’t believe they can get any investment whatsoever. Though the business world is often unpredictable, all of the above should not keep you from becoming an entrepreneur. BeKey experts can provide support on the technical issues of your startup and in the meetings with investors, who often look for great ideas to fund themselves.

You have come up with an awesome idea for your tech startup? Ready for action? Great! Following 7 basic steps will assist you in making your new business a success.

1: Do market research

Although many entrepreneurs-to-be often skip this step, it’s absolutely a must. You’ve got to sit down and search for every single piece of information regarding what has been done on the topic if any. Today’s world is a fast-changing environment; even if you are positive that you have invented something brand new, there is still quite a chance that someone has already done it before. If not, you are lucky to offer users a new product and make the world a better place :)

2: Get your ideas together

Now all the romantic stuff is over - it’s time to put your ideas to writing, do calculations and understand clearly what you need to do, how much time and resources it will take and what will be the outcomes. You have to assess your technology stack meaning software products and programming languages you will need to build your product. Estimate costs for prototypes, MVP and product versions. Always budget with a 20% margin - practice shows that even generous budgets get overspent when it comes to implementation. Develop specifications for your product covering its basic functions, requirements, and design. Create work plans with clear milestones and timelines. We can provide comprehensive support to develop all the necessary documentation, do calculations and planning.

3: Present yourself

Even the best ideas can suffer from a poor presentation, so don’t underestimate this step and make sure you spend enough time on it. In the next few months, you will spend a great deal of time presenting your idea and your further success depends greatly on how well you will do this. Design company’s logo, basic corporate style, main web-pages, few main screens of the mobile app; finalize the prototype to demonstrate to potential investors. At this point, you should also prepare your marketing presentation with a business plan and expected results.

4: Raise funding

After you have developed all the necessary prototypes, designs and presentations it is time to present your idea as wide as you possibly can. You should sign up for various pitches considering both with private (angel) investors and venture capitals. Angel investors are those investing their own money into someone's ideas, VCs manage the money of other people doing the same thing. The last operate with significantly greater amounts of funds. Do not discard any opportunity to talk to possible investors - you never know when your lucky day will be. BeKey specialists will be more than happy to assist you in preparing for such presentations and be present there as technical consultants if needed.

5: Organize your team

When you are just starting your business you should aim for getting the most professional and reliable people onboard. Just one wrong person can kill a startup in a blink of an eye. It would be perfect to do everything by yourself and be sure of the outcomes, but such an approach is unrealistic. By this time you should have a clear vision of your product and understand how many people you want to involve and what will be the level of this involvement - in-house staff or outstaffing. It is very rare that a startup can afford an in-house or a full-fledged team to develop a fully functioning product. BeKey would suggest developing MVP at this point utilizing a modest budget to start looking for investors. After receiving the first round of funding you can build the product you intend to deliver to the final users. As an outstaffing company, we recommend setting up a dedicated team to perform specific tasks. From our experience in the industry, this approach is best for startups that usually don’t have the possibility to spend a lot of time and effort on the hiring process but need to accomplish tasks rapidly and effectively.

6: Build your product

If you are not a technical person yourself this step will be carried out by external talent. Usually, the process follows the scenario when MVP is built first, allowing to raise funding for development and promoting the final product. The selected contractor will design development, testing and release methodology, create a timeline for all the builds and releases, set environments, develop the MVP, execute automate testing and release the MVP. After raising the first round of funding your final product and be built involving an appropriate team.

7: Move from startup to company

It might seem that all the hard stuff is behind, but this is just partially true. Once you have built a great product, you can now turn your startup into an operating business. First of all, you need to promote your product - it can be a great one, but if no one knows about it, most likely it won’t bring you profit. At this stage, you extend your team and deliver the necessary training for them, get customers onboard and collect their feedback, create a support team, involve marketing and sales specialists.

Why BeKey?

We can ensure technical expertise at all of the steps mentioned above - starting from the idea in your head to the first million dollars on your bank account and even further. We are specifically focused on startups, we deeply understand their needs and philosophy. We know how to do things fast and at a reasonable cost, how to find the best professionals and ensure adequate training for them. Finally, we can help you develop a product that will be market fit, competitive, and will make a profit. You will not have the headache of managing a few agencies - we have the necessary expertise to cover all aspects of setting up your successful business, including product development, recruitment, marketing.