Advice for founding a startup
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Introduction |
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Welcome, startup founder or potential founder! |
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I've been watching the startup community for several years now, and I see founders struggle with the same things, year after year. |
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Today I got frustrated with it all and wrote this whitepaper. Technically more of a "list of links" than a whitepaper, but whatever. |
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First, I want you to know that starting a startup is hard work. Ask yourself: are you serious about this venture? |
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Maybe you don't understand what it takes to do a startup: The Social Network made it look like a montage of hacking then money, parties and booze, right? |
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It's slightly more serious than than. |
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First, you're probably thinking, "I don't know how to code, but I have this idea - all I have to do is find someone willing to code it - I know, I'll find a technical co-founder!" |
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Articles on finding a technical co-founder: |
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Communicating with busy people: |
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Finding someone to work for a cut of the revenue: |
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But I just want to make the next Facebook. How hard is that?: |
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(Intermission, the first) |
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You've made it this far! Hopefully by this point you can see that a technical co-founder won't fall out of the sky magically and make all your problems go away - you have an actual business to run. It's actual work - there's more to being a founder than dreaming up ideas at the pub with your buddies. |
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So, now you may be thinking, "Great, I know this will cost some money, how do I get that?" First, it may make sense to look at your idea… |
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Evaluating your idea: |
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Raising Money: |
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(Intermission, the second) |
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Still here? Awesome! Now you may be wondering, "Hmm, there's a lot of work to do before I get some money. But I need money to pay for the work so I can get money!" |
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Luckily, some of those problems have been solved already - sometimes all you need to do to get that first investor (or technical co-founder willing to donate some time) is to show some traction and a plan for your business. |
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Doing it yourself: |
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Implementing: |
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Being a businessperson: |
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"Should I learn to code to help my technical co-founder!?" |
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Conclusion |
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"But, you already know a lot about computers and programming!!!!!", you say |
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Yes, it's true. It's also true for simple things one doesn't have to know a lot about programming. |
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For example, this white-paper? Written in OmniOutliner ( http://www.omnigroup.com/products/omnioutliner/) then exported to HTML. It might not be all that pretty (or up to the normal quality of HTML I write professionally), but do I care? (No) It's more about getting something out there then looks, sometimes. |
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(I could have also done this paper in Markdown, using something like http://droppages.com/. Markdown is yet another way you can write some web pages without having to actually learn HTML. Great for non-technical people looking to prove a startup idea. |
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There's a lot of ways to get started, even without writing code. Google "Lean Startup" for some ideas here, but even just a mailing list or a newsletter might be enough to get your startup building traction, without any uber technical skills from you. |
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If you are looking for technical help, be that as a freelancer or a remote, longer term arrangement, and like this advice, consider talking to me ( www.wilcoxd.com). I've been working with small businesses and startups since 2002, and it would be great to work with you too! |
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