Don’t let growth kill your new product: Why the right tech start-up strategy matters from the word Go!

Don’t let growth kill your new product: Why the right tech start-up strategy matters from the word Go!

Building a start-up company, developing a new product or service and bringing it to market has never been easier, thanks to new technologies.

You’ve had an innovative, market-disrupting idea, maybe for a licenced SAAS product to offer your clients; through hard work you’ve created a minimum viable product (MVP) and it’s starting to generate interest. Time and cash flow are always in short supply but maybe you have enough in-house technical expertise to develop a first version of your product, or you’ve been able to outsource to an inexpensive coder to get the project off the ground and start generating income.

Your MVP has enough features to satisfy early adopters but, now that demand is increasing for your idea, you start to see that decisions made at the start of the development process are coming home to roost – and could sabotage your whole project, because:

• Your MVP isn’t scalable and it’s taking too long to onboard new customers
• Your product isn’t quite what the market’s looking for and you need to make changes
• You need to add some functions to make your product or service far more appealing
• The software supporting your product isn’t stable or secure enough

You have two options but they both come with risks:

• Scrap your MVP and start again. But competitors may be busy working on their own version of your idea to beat you to the finishing line.
• Redevelop your existing MVP so that it delivers better, faster and to more customers. But you don’t have sufficient technical expertise or the sheer bandwidth in-house to get the extra work done.

Taking a strategic, objective view from the start
It’s not easy to be great at everything; creating the right technical strategy from the beginning to support your start-up idea is as challenging as it is important. One of the earliest decisions you should make is whether to bring in outside expertise to provide technological knowhow, strategic planning and onward software support.

As well as providing coding and project management expertise, your technology partner also needs a head for business. They need to understand what upscaling really means for your product in terms of onboarding a higher volume of new customers, adapting to new markets, developing the product in response to feedback and to stay ahead of the competition. Their advice early on can save wasted effort in firefighting further down the line.

For example, moving to a Cloud-based solution may be the best option to improve speed of development and more agile scalability without the cost of ownership.

Introducing great UX and focus great UX as a focus and from the beginning on a level of marketing automation could improve customer retention, smoothness in marketing and sales processes enormously, hence your business results.

They may also bring in specialist knowledge in other areas you may not have considered, such as cybersecurity, and provide the systems support you need to ensure ongoing product availability.

Make yourself ready for success with the right software solutions

Start-up success can come sooner than expected, but it shouldn’t keep you awake at night worrying about how you can build upon a rickety platform that can’t cope with growth or change.

Decisions made at the start of a product’s life are often driven by necessity (a shortage of cash, time, or knowledge). But instead of trying to do everything yourself or cutting outsourcing costs, bringing in the right partner may help you avoid these early mistakes and give you a better-quality product from the start. In that scenario, your great idea is far more likely to turn your new business from a start-up into a scale-up.

About Incepteo
We are a proven provider for developing bespoke software applications for ambitious new businesses, providing the technological advice and support that transforms a start-up into a scale-up. From a sound technology strategy, we design and build robust new software solutions or upgrade your existing software applications, project managing and system testing for quality assurance every step of the way.

We also provide ongoing systems and applications support through our cloud hosting, systems monitoring and help desk services to allow you to focus on growing your business.

To see how we can provide the technology support your start-up needs: https://www.incepteo.com/solutions/startups/