Developing Startups: Lessons Learned Over Two Decades

The first startup I worked with was back in 2000. After months of planning and designing, the founder had several promising meetings with potential investors setup in late 2000, early 2001. If you know your web history you already know what happened. The Dot-com bubble popped during the funding efforts and .COMs instantly became radioactive. The project never saw the light of day.

It was our first introduction to the tech startup world! Since then we’ve worked with many startups and experienced all sorts of scenarios. We’ve seen great ideas that didn’t make it due to lack of funding, lack of commitment, and bad management; Startups that were purchased before launching; And of course startups that have made it and are still up and running after years.

Sportsmanias is one our current partners since their inception in 2012. They’ve secured $4 million in funding as a sports breaking news platform and in the quest for viable monetization have successfully leveraged their sports partnerships and existing audience to pivot into a animated sports emoji keyboard.

Branger_Briz is an interactive agency with experience working with startups in the digital arena as well as general online platform design and development. This post comes from our perspective, in other words, from a development partner’s point of view. These are some of the topics we think early stage startups should take note of.

Partners

Needless to say, partner selection is a very important part of the early stages of a startup. You’ll need partners that you can lean on for advice not only when you’re trying to rollout technical features, but also for when you need creative problem solving for how to improve UX, optimize user flows, reduce infrastructure costs, etc.

For this to happen you need to communicate with your partners and talk about your short, medium, and long term goals. This not only helps with buy-in but also minimizes wasted time due to short term planning and development that doesn’t fall inline with long term goals. Not to mention that it helps partners better understand business decisions made along the way that could otherwise cause alignment issues.

Distilling your Core Value Proposition

One thing that we’ve seen time and time again are startups approaching us with a great idea, then getting lost in the bells and whistles. The concept of the MVP (Minimum Viable Product) should always be in the forefront of startup’s collective minds. We’re big believers in the idea of focusing on a core feature-set that will allow your startup to stand apart from the competition. Then after that space is won, start adding features based on learnings.

This is important for several reasons, not least of which is the fact that all startups have a limited runway. The proof of concept has to be developed as soon as possible and as lean as possible. Not only so you can quickly position yourself for additional funding, but also because many features added at early stages are based on our best guesses, our gut feelings, and often times they can be off or flat out wrong. This ends up leading to lost time and money that could have gone towards something much more valuable.

Instagram launched in 2010 and made it easier than flickr or facebook to take photos, add filters and post. That was the core value that made them explode. They didn’t add hashtags until 2011 (4 months after launch). Live filters, tilt-shift, and high res didn’t appear until September 2011 (12 months after launch). Video sharing in June 2013, and Stories in 2016.

Validated Learning: Build - Measure - Learn Cycle

Platforms evolve with the market and with user needs, it’s impossible to have everything coming out of the gate. However intense the initial development period, the hard work begins after launch. We’ve actually had aspiring startups approach us and ask us for how long they should expect to have to keep investing in platform development. Our answer is shocking to some, you never stop developing your platform!

Innovation is a process. Seldom does the great idea just reveal itself in final form. It often starts with copying, combining, experimenting and transforming. Running a tech startup, when done correctly is a continuous Build-Measure-Learn loop.

Part 2: Build

The Build phase involves developing products/functionality as quickly and inexpensively as possible. In this section we review iterative development, code base management, preparing for scalability, security and compliance and considering human resources constraints.

Part 3: Measure

The Measure phase involves measuring how customers respond to your product. In this section we review analytical tools, split testing, server data analysis, and knowing your user.

Part 4: Learn

The Learn phase involves using data to make informed decisions. In this section we review the importance of quantitative data, qualitative data, and competitive review.

In Conclusion

These are just a few of the bigger picture items you should be looking at as a early stage startup. At first glance it may seem technically inclined but we strongly believe that as a founder of a tech startup you should eventually become intimately aware of each of these topics.

And of course, if you need any help getting there please feel free to reach out to us@brangerbriz.com