The foundation for startup success

How to build an MVP on a strong foundation and hit success?

As you might already know, the success rate for a startup is quite low, so how can you escape this dark fate, and succeed where many have failed?

The short answer is to aim early on for success, don’t make it an afterthought. Build your startup on a strong foundation from the get-go.

So what is the foundation, and what to do?

Build that MVP

Your very first goal is to build an MVP, a minimum viable product that helps you validate your idea early on with the least possible waste.

Validating your idea puts you on the right track for success, you know whether you have a product-market fit or not, if you have a fit you continue on the same path, if not then you pivot or adjust to a completely different path.

Get user traction

A great MVP should help you get users, you start with a very minimal feature set, launch it, gather feedback, adjust, rinse, and repeat.

Built this way, no vanity features should ever make it to your product.

Throw your product into the hands of your users, and let them guide you to the realistic feature set, get them involved in the process, and see magic happens.

Involved users will invite more friends, co-workers, and even family members to try out your product.

It’s core to human nature to share good products because we find value in them. Use that positive feeling to your advantage.

Collect data, calculate metrics, and learn

Having your MVP collect usage data is key to your success. It allows you to calculate metrics which in turn help you get a clear idea of where your product is heading.

Don’t focus on vanity metrics that give you a false sense of achievement and boost your self-esteem; rather, focus on metrics core to your business model.

Learn from your users as they use your product, your goal as a startup founder is to experiment and learn from these experiments.

Get revenue or even better get recurring revenue

The freemium business model is not a set-in-stone rune that you have to follow. Each startup is unique, your business model is different for sure.

So try to collect revenue whenever possible, a self-sustaining startup is a healthy startup.

Cash is important for sustaining your efforts to build the startup and improve its inner working. Having a good cash runway lets you prosper and grow to implement your vision.

Fund your startup

User traction helps you get investors easily since you have a real story to tell: you are bringing value, and need investments to act as a catalyst for your growth.

If you already have recurring revenue then you can sell small shares of your startup for bigger investment packages.

In other words, having user traction, and some sort of revenue gives you a great deal of freedom when negotiating with potential investors. The stronger your foundation is the stronger your hand is in the negotiation game.

Conclusion

To achieve success for your startup you need to plan for it. You start with how you build your MVP to test your ideas, get product market fit, get traction, and eventually get revenue and funding.

Having a plan is better than having no plan.

Please get in touch and let me know if you need help building your startup on a solid foundation. Having a second perspective is key to getting unstuck and moving forward.