"A ‘startup’ is a company that is confused about -
1. What its product is
2. Who its customers are
3. How to make money."
- Dave McClure (500 Startups)
Despite all our diverse ambitions, the questions asked by new entrepreneurs are surprisingly predictable.
First, founders often ask what they should be building and how to do it. They’re usually thinking of making an app.
If not that, they might be wondering where to meet a cofounder or new hire - especially a technical one. We like to think your local startup events are good for that.
Once they’ve nailed a product and a team, they’ll want to know how to tell everyone about it. That’s when questions about growth hacking, sales, and PR come in.
This project of yours starting to look like a fully fledged startup, with traction and sales? Now’s a good time to start thinking about fundraising — not before.
For our December content wrap-up, we’ve got you covered with a few of our best posts from last year on the Big 4 FAQs, from product validation to growth hacking to raising your first million.
The What and How of Product Development
Steve Blank's 10 Steps to Building a Web Startup
42% of startups fail because of no market need - so building the right thing is pivotal. Steve started the customer development & lean startup movement, and in the processed helped hundreds of entrepreneurs launch their businesses. Here's how helps founders get it right, across all the world's Lean LaunchPad classes.
5 Product-Market Mistakes that Destroy Startups - and their Solutions
Confident your idea is sound, and about to start building? Oleg outlines some of the biggest blunders first-time founders make, from forgetting to plan for sales or the classing mistake of targeting "1% of everyone" as their customer. Even if you've heard the cliche problems, you'll want to know the solutions.
How Much Does it Cost to Make an App?
If you've ever had an app idea (and who hasn't) your passion for making it happen can consume you for weeks - until you realize you've hit a wall: you have no idea how to build it, how long it'll take, and how much it'll cost. That's what this guide is for, combined with a cost estimate from our friends at Gigster. In any case, get ready to set aside at least $10,000 for most projects.
Who to Work With
2 Things Great Founders Do When it's Time to Hire
Patrick's introduction to hiring is unique because he optimizes not just for talent, but cost. With tips on both who to hire as well as from where his primer gives the best practices for managing remote teams as well as local employees.
9 Factors in Evaluating a Developer
Interviewing a developer without knowing how to code is like taking a Mandarin proficiency exam without knowing any Chinese characters - but if you don't know where to start, this developer's simple steps work for even the technically illiterate. This non-technical founder's checklist by a founder & sales engineer will help you find the right technologist to work with.When you've met that special someone, here's 4 Things Your Developers Want You To Know, too.
How to Get Hired & Learn to be an Entrepreneur - By Working for One
Want to get a picture of what the process looks like from the other side, or what you should seek from new business (read: "little bit of everything, but not coding") hires? Jun's strategy for getting hired works across almost any non-traditional industry, but in the startup world, it's almost the unspoken expectation: hustle hard to get noticed, give away a ton of value, and earn your place among the founders.
How to Grow
4 Growth Tactics Learned from Silicon Valley
Telling the right story to the right people quickly is important: 19% of startups claim they failed because they were outcompeted, and 14% more because of poor marketing. If you've built it but can't sell it, you may as well not have built it in the first place. Before you get coding, learn how Silicon Valley makes its marketing pitch.
The Quick & Dirty 2016 Product Launch Guide
From Product Hunt to paid ads, this is the best resource we've found to promote your startup launch. With less than a few hundred bucks - or no budget all - you've got a step-by-step plan to getting seen online, in the press, and by product influencers. We've used it ourselves, and it works.
How to Fundraise
7 Deadly Sins of Fundraising and How to Avoid Them
You're a founder, not an investor -- but to raise venture capital, you need to think like one. Get into the head of your backers with advice from the experts, and make sure you're not making one of these 7 blunders sure to deflate your financing goals.
How to Smash Your Crowdfunding Campaign
You've read plenty from us on venture capital, but most entrepreneurs are still far from raising investor money. However - with the right strategy - anyone can build an early group of backers to raise their first few thousands. Here are 11 tips gathered from the best crowdfunding campaigns to date.