Juggling a Startup

A startup is an organization created to solve a problem in the world where an optimal solution does not already exist in the market or is ineffective at best.   As founders, your mission is to build a team to create such as solution by leveraging your educational background, training, knowledge and network as well as raising capital from investors to finance the operation of the company, and to finally make a push to introduce, market and distribute the product.

Idea, Team, Capital and Timing are four critical balls of a successful startup must juggle.  As founders, you need to juggle the fine balance between capital, resource, idea and funding so you can create the right solution before the funds run out.  In other words, your objective is to control your burn rate (expenses over time)  so that you can increase the runway before your cash runs out while you create and build a functional prototype or product to sell.    One good way to reduce your initial burn rate is to create a cost effective MVP (aka prototype) which can be achieved by finding a technical co-founder who is willing to work for an equity share in the company (instead of a salary) or by hiring a for-hire developer to create the prototype. Here are 5 tips you can leverage when hiring a remote developer which can considerably lower your cost if you hire the right resource.

As a founder / entrepreneur your role is to lead and inspire your team and all the partners involved until you reach the ultimate objective for your startup.  As you juggle the four balls through the stages, you will realize that the focus will be slightly different as you go.

Seed Stage / Bootstrapping

• Funding:  founders uses their own capital or friends & family
• Goal: Idea Creation Stage
• Team: Founders

Early Stage / Angel Funding

• Funding: Angel Funding
• Development:  Build the MVP (aka Prototype)
• Goal: Market entry by introducing the prototype into the market, test and adjust based on feedback

Series A Stage / VC Funding

• Funding: VC funding
• Goal:  Traction, Revenue Growth
• Development: Scale platform/system to handle growth

Later Stage / Institutional Funding

• Funding: Institutions
• Goal: explosive growth