Startup - what is it: the best ideas. Not your money. Idea for a startup on cards

Before creating your own project, you should find out what are the differences between small businesses and startups. Startup, startup - what is it, how to start the development of a project, find investors, achieve success. At the current moment in time, there are a huge number of small businesses that classify themselves as start-ups. But not all of them can be attributed to this category of projects that have bright distinctive features that distinguish them from other companies.

What is a startup

The word is a transliteration of the English startup. Startup - what is it in the classical concept, how are they looking for investors, sources of financing, which will contribute to the rapid launch of the project. The main feature of startups, which makes them potentially profitable business is the use interesting ideas, promising undertakings. In addition, it is more important to gather a good team to start here than in the field of ordinary business.

Who is a startup

At the initial stage, in order to create a successful business, a team of people is recruited who are considered startups. Only these people are responsible for the successful implementation of the plan, initial capital, engaging the audience in presentations. Often students who want to earn money and achieve success become startuppers, but who do not want to work in firms, large corporations, or become entrepreneurs. They create a business plan from scratch, attract supporters, private investors in order to develop a unique product, own business capable of generating large incomes.

Startup and business - distinctive features

Businessmen realize themselves in ready-made industries, enterprises, and start-ups launch their business projects in conditions of uncertainty, high risk, minimum budget. Consider the key differences between a startup and a full-fledged business:

Scales. Entrepreneurs implement their ideas in already developed areas, they are limited by the clear boundaries of the industry. Startup has no such limitation. The very definition of a startup lies in the innovative ideas that constantly move it forward. Examples successful projects: Google, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook network.
Rates of growth. The growth stage of a startup begins and lasts much longer than that of a conventional business. Without exception, all aspects of startup are aimed at the successful implementation of a product or service in the target community in as soon as possible and most effective way.
Profit. At the stage of financing, determining the amount of investment, startups are looking for investors to promote their idea. The initial capital greatly depends on how advanced technologies the team can use during the development stage and after it. All this contributes to the speedy promotion, has a direct impact on profits.
Technology startup. The success of a startup is built not only on ideas, but also on innovative technologies. Many projects involve the latest developments.
Life cycle. A clear definition of the time frame for the existence of a startup is impossible due to the lack of boundaries for its development. It can fail at the very start or live for several decades, continuing to improve.

Startup projects - types and areas of activity

The division of startups into types, classes occurs not only in terms of knowledge intensity and the purpose of creation. Also, projects are subject to division according to less generalized features:

Hobby. There are the most such projects on the startup exchange. They were created by people who tried to turn their lifelong passion into a profitable, interesting business.
Creation for the purpose of enrichment. Starting a project just for the money can be a good motivation for the first time. Such companies are better thought out and organized than the first ones.
Family project. This type of enterprise is widespread today, mainly occupies the niche of restaurants, hotel business, and the production of hand-made products.
Global company. Startups can be called successful after reaching the global level. Projects in this category are unique, attracting clients all over the globe, their life cycle will continue for a very long time.

According to the degree of science intensity

The classification of projects by science intensity is unambiguous and has only two varieties:

standard company. Uses conventional technologies, does not require additional developments in the field of its activity. Examples can be companies in the hotel, restaurant business, hand-made products.
A company that uses innovative technologies. The second type is more complicated, it develops using the latest developments in the relevant industry. It may require significant additional funding, the search for large investors for its implementation, promotion, development.

According to the purpose of creation

The advantage of a startup is achieved by setting goals that are decisive in its start, development, promotion:

Earnings. The basic, most common purpose of creating a project. Even if employees work “for the idea”, the project will not last long without profit.
Idea. There are people who are ready to work for the development of a certain industry, information technology, economy, industry. Such companies have the least chance of success, but if the outcome is positive, they can bring huge profits.
Set of professional team. A good, well-coordinated team of purposeful startups is capable of a lot, but it is very difficult to assemble it. Even if it fails, such a company can always start another project from scratch.

How to create a startup

To be sure that the project idea will become popular, you need to consider the very concept of a startup - what it is, how to start the development of the company correctly, what to focus on, in order to understand what they are based on:

Thinking through an idea. Key Feature the project should not have analogues in the country or region that will be involved in the promotion. You can come up with this idea yourself, buy it or order it on the startup exchange, borrow it from foreign analogues.
Team search. The people involved in the project do not need to know everything about the industry covered by the startup. This is welcome, but all employees can develop regardless of knowledge.
Drawing up a business plan. The plan is the most important part of any project, without which an accidental failure can be fatal to the whole idea. The development stage should be approached with all responsibility, which will contribute to product sales.
Search for investors or start-up capital. Even the most promising ideas cost a lot of money at the implementation stage. Finding finance is not easy, but it is possible. Investments can be provided by banks, friends, relatives, other people who are interested in the original idea.

startup idea

The popularity of startups is due to the innovativeness of the ideas on which they are based. The main idea should be unique, capture the attention of the client, be economically beneficial to those who invest money in the idea. To achieve these conditions, you need to study in detail the question: a startup - what it is, how they are classified, what ideas have already been developed, what innovations are based on. The following ideas are gaining popularity in the world at the moment:

Ecology. Waste disposal, optimization of treatment facilities, the development of new ways of landscaping - all this is only gaining popularity and has a good chance of becoming a platform for the development of a new project.
Internet projects. Ideas in the field of IT, platforms VKontakte, Facebook, the Internet in general, have great potential for founding your own company that promotes websites, helps in recording and storing the history of the Internet, the world, etc.

Drawing up a business plan

Startup - what is it, if not another form of small business, characterized by growth rates and large requirements for the amount of investment received? As in the case of an ordinary business, a startup needs a well-designed plan that will reflect all stages of development, the formation of a project. When developing a business plan, you need to consider:

idea development;
team search;
needs analysis target audience, errors of predecessors;
search for investments;
analysis of possible risks;
implementation of the idea;
promotion, advertising, work with the audience.

Search for investors

All project participants, one way or another, want to earn. Potential investors invest in development in order to get a share. To attract people willing to lend financial support need to know where to look. In the startup area, the 3 F rule applies: family, friends, fools. What does it mean: family, friends, fools. These are 3 sources of start-up capital for startups. The second option is venture funds, banks that issue loans, or investors who earn money by helping start-up companies. Attracting investors is possible on special exchanges.

Project development

The progression of any such project proceeds according to the standard plan, which will be the same for new technology environmental improvement or an innovative idea in the hotel business:

birth stage;
development stage;
launch stage;
growth stage;
expansion stage;
completion stage.

How to promote startup correctly

Promote a startup, startup - what it is, how to achieve maximum efficiency, attract a large audience, create a positive opinion about the business. To understand how to properly promote a company, consider the list of advertising platforms with maximum efficiency:

Social networks. Create accounts for all in social networks Tell people about your idea. This will give a small influx of interested customers.
Internet advertising platforms. They have high efficiency, the ability to customize targeted advertising, which will be shown only to those groups of people that you yourself specify in the request.
Site creation. Your own web page will increase the chances of successfully attracting customers, supporters. The information offered there is not limited by the rules of any resource, but only by the imagination and needs of the startup.
Placement of ads. An archaic way that will allow you to attach to the idea of the company not only Internet users, but also random passers-by.

Successful startup examples

There are many examples of projects that have been able to develop, achieve success, and become financially profitable. Such an ending for them was the result of a well-chosen idea, competent work team, effective promotion, selection of investors interested in the development of the idea. To understand what a startup is and how to properly approach its development, consider examples successful ideas, which were positively received by the audience, and still exist.

In the field of IT technologies

Information Technology occupy a significant part in the life of society. A well-organized startup in this industry can achieve a lot:

Microsoft. The development of the project began with orders for programming in the basic language. Now it is the largest corporation in the field high technology, software, which has developed thanks to extensive venture capital investment, support original ideas Bill Gates.
Google. History of the largest search engine The Internet began with the desire of Larry Page and Sergey Brin to create a single integrated universal digital data storage library. Further research on this topic led students to create a popular search method, recruit a team, found a corporation.

Cooking and restaurant business

A kind of culinary startup - what it is, what it is characterized by, what features it has:

"Super bowler". The essence of the popular service is the ability to cook a dish at home, and then, posting its photos, recipe, description, sell the culinary masterpiece to the user who will be the first to book a treat.
Madwinebar. The idea of creating a bar where people can taste delicious wine belongs to sommelier Vladimir Yuryev and chef Dmitry Evstigneev. The bar offers free tastings, special meals of the day.

Hand-made products

If a person knows how to work with his hands, he will not be left without work. This is true for startup Porch as well. A large aggregator engaged in the centralized collection and sorting of orders for repairing something, doing housework, creating things appeared in the city of Seattle, Australia, in 2013. The user can place an order or place a resume himself, indicating his skills and abilities.

Internet startups

A kind of network startup - what it is, what options for information projects exist:

"Writing in the Sand" The company has been successful thanks to Anton Velikanov. Inspired by the beauty of the coast of Costa Rica, the young man came up with a way for everyone to get a photo great place with a custom signature right in the sand. The site was created in 4 days, and start-up capital was only $100.
"Social Alarm". The idea belongs to Hrachik Ajamyan, who tried to develop an application that helps people wake up in the morning. His research showed that it is easier for a person to get up when an unfamiliar person acts as an alarm clock, and not a program on the phone. At the moment, the number of users exceeds 2 million, and a private investor who donated $500,000 helped develop the company.

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Ideas for startups: the "freshest" ideas from all over the world - 3 keys to success + TOP-5 ideas from around the world + 3 startup ideas from Russian developers.

Why startup ideas are gaining more and more popularity in the business sphere and bring the owners whole capital?

First of all, because they offer absolutely new, innovative solutions for actual problems of people.

Therefore, it is quite logical that in search of inspiration to create own startup do not rush "deep into history".

Follow the trends, fashion trends, what is actually in demand now.

This article will help you with this, which has brought together the main business trends and forecasts regarding future discoveries in the entrepreneurial “art” market.

What is a startup?

Before talking about startup ideas, it is worth defining what is generally meant.

Most have only a general idea of startups. Therefore, someone believes that this is how they call new resources on the Internet, others - that this is a business created by young people with no experience.

There is some truth in this. However, the concept itself is broader.

Startup- This is a business idea that is based solely on the use of innovative technologies or the introduction of completely new products.

That is, the composition of the team and the format of the company does not matter (often startups begin to develop without being officially registered).

The main thing is for the team to help solve some problem of humanity by offering something unique.

Also, the distinctive features of a startup are:

limited money to start;
starting work from scratch;
most often, partners in a startup were previously connected by some kind of relationship (worked together, studied).

And although the world learns about such companies even at its first steps, when the market position is not yet strong, only those companies that have already manufactured a product can be called startups.

An operating time or a “raw” project is only the basis for creation, but not the startup itself.

What is the key to the success of a startup idea?

If we analyze the ideas behind the startup that have been especially successful, we can identify several common features.

Conventionally, they can be called "secrets of success."

Factors that determine the success of a startup idea:

What exactly do you think about the idea that became a startup?

Do you think that it can bring a lot of money?

Or do you really “burn” and are sure that this business will be useful to people and become innovative?

Only in the second case, the startup really has a chance of success.

If you do not have a sincere interest, you can quickly "burn out."

Moreover, startups rarely bring instant profit.

A lot depends on the team.

Obviously, a team of like-minded people working on the same wavelength can do more than one person.

Don't try to put everything on your own shoulders.

You should not calculate how many people will have to share the profit, but take care of perfect quality completing every detail.

Youth is a plus.

Let this statement sound like a discredit.

But the fact remains that investors are more focused on investing in the young and ambitious.

Let people with experience go about their business - run large organizations and share knowledge with others.

For those who no longer consider themselves a "young man", but are on fire, let's clarify: success in business has no age restrictions.

Doubt? Look at this picture:

TOP-5: global startup ideas

As a rule, startups are concentrated in the field of IT technologies. We decided to create a selection of ideas that ordinary people created and brought to life.

This step is meant to inspire you to embody own ideas, even if there is no special education or many years of work experience.

1. Green idea: special shampoo

"Nephentes" looks like an enema or something.

In fact, this startup idea can significantly affect the preservation of the environment.

Few people think, but ordinary plastic bottles from under the "" are harmful to environment product. The period of decomposition of one bottle can be hundreds of years!

And remember how much you use them during your life?

According to the idea of this startup, manufacturers make products in huge containers, pouring the right portions into buyers' Nephentes bottles.

It is curious that the design does not even involve the use of a cover! The neck is simply bent and inserted into the compartment.

Another plus: you can finally use the product at 100%, including what usually remains at the bottom.

2. Indian startup idea

If you think that in India they can only dance and make films, then you will be surprised - not so few ideas for startups have been created in this country.

Interestingly, there is even a kind of analogue of the American Silicon Valley.

In addition, in India they are really interested in the issue of a huge amount of garbage on the streets. Innovative ideas appear regularly.

For example, an edible spoon is a great alternative to plastic utensils. After a meal, it can be eaten as a dessert or, of course, just thrown away.

Obviously, such a “material” as flour decomposes as quickly as possible and is absolutely harmless to nature.

The creators also assure that the product can be safely eaten by vegetarians. And in the future, even the development of a gluten-free version is planned.

3. An idea for junk food lovers

Which of us is not familiar with such a misfortune: you carefully take chips or something else greasy, and your fingers get dirty so that you have to go wash them.

And you need to be extremely careful not to hook or stain anything!

A startup has appeared in Italy, the idea of which is to create fingertips. They are very thin, but at the same time the latex tightly fits the fingers.

Thanks to this, consumers can safely feast on goodies, and then simply throw away the “nozzles”.

It is assumed that these devices will not be sold on their own, but complete with chips, nuts or similar food, for which they were invented.

4. Startup: "folding" napkins

But the idea of this startup is already designed for higher cuisine - that is, for restaurants. It appeared as a reaction to the fact that ordinary napkin holders are already becoming obsolete.

But napkins pressed into a small round “washer” are another matter. To use such a thing, visitors must dip the "pill" into an antiseptic solution.

And then the fabric unfolds, acquires nice smell, and even becomes a "killing weapon" of harmful microbes on your hands.

You should not immediately estimate the increased costs for the owners: these towels are not disposable. So the idea of a startup will not harm either the wallet or the environment.

5. Startup idea with social value

Often, startups are still designed to solve global problems, and not just improve the already comfortable life of consumers.

For example, in Denmark, a special supermarket was created - "WeFood". Its concept is that they sell goods here that cannot be put on the shelves of "decent" ones.

Mislabeling, torn packaging, an approaching expiration date or a delay in general - all these are usually reasons for writing off, returning or even recycling goods.

Meanwhile, even in Denmark there are many people who have to save on everything.

The idea of the supermarket has not only helped low-income people to eat more nutritious food. There was also a 25% reduction in wasted food across the country!

Here is such a useful and, oddly enough, profitable startup.

And what about Russia: 3 domestic ideas for startups

Although the words “economic decline conditions” have already become classic texts for the realities of Russian entrepreneurship, everything is not so bad in the field of start-ups.

The “buy-sell” orientation is gradually giving way to an innovative approach.

Original solutions still do not have such strong state support as in other countries.

However, their number is increasing, and investors are ready to invest their money. This is especially evident in the variety of ideas for a startup in 2016.

1) A startup you've definitely heard of

Have you seen the original photo processing on Instagram, which turns an ordinary frame into an artistic canvas? Most likely, you already know what we are talking about.

For the rest, let's clarify - the Prisma application is a service that allows you to process users' photos in an original way.

For many, it will come as a surprise that it was Russian programmers who developed Prism. Moreover, its creator former employee well-known mail.ru.

The peculiarity of the program is that it does not just impose some filters on top of the card.

Through the use of neural network algorithms (of which you may have heard a lot too), Prism analyzes the frame and then creates it from scratch. But already in the form of a picture.

The fact that almost everyone knows about this application now is already an indicator of success. It remains to be added that the Facebook administration banned the use of the program on its network only because it considered it competitive.

2) Idea for a startup on cards

It is believed that various cumulative and discount cards are gradually fading away. At least because no one wants to carry around dozens of options without knowing which one they need.

The developers of the startup "Cardberry" came up with the idea to create a device that can accommodate all kinds of cards.

We will not go into technical details. The bottom line is that any user cards are, as it were, entered into the memory of this electronic device.

Every time a person needs a certain card, he enters a special application and selects it.

"Cardberry" adapts to the choice and becomes a full-fledged replacement for the desired card.

For your attention, we offer a cool video

about the 10 most successful startups in the world:

3) Startup idea for a comfortable life

Perhaps you are not familiar with the SVET company yet, but you have every chance to hear about them.

As the name implies, the team offers lighting equipment. What is the innovativeness of this idea for a startup?

The fact is that the bulbs of this company are designed to simulate ordinary natural lighting.

Moreover, the device settings can be adjusted (for example, in accordance with the time of day or night).

This startup idea is not only original and adds more comfort to everyday life. But it also has a beneficial effect on human health.

Minus the idea, perhaps, only one: on this moment one device is estimated at $70. The amount is too significant for the Russians. However, the startup is in demand abroad.

collected above startup ideas only emphasize: anyone can create a business based on an innovative idea. The field of startups is not limited to the field of IT technologies.

The main thing is that you bring something new and useful to the world.

And if the idea is worthwhile, and the implementation is diligent, it can make you rich, no matter how trite it may sound.

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Howling entrepreneurs from all over the world are now probably terribly jealous of Nick Di'Aloisio's quick wits. Last month, the 17-year-old sold his news gathering app, Summly, to Yahoo for an unprecedented $30 million! Now, when he is going to (if he is going to) launch a new startup, then he will definitely have good funding!

Of course, many entrepreneurs do not have access to such capital, and therefore ask the question - How to create a startup from scratch and without investments? It takes a medium-sized business years to overcome the line of loss, not to mention achieve a stable profit. In the beginning, before you have investors, it's not unusual for you (and possibly your employees) to go unpaid for a long time. It is important to do everything possible to secure your product in the market.

While some founders are willing to run out of money in the hope of making big sales and big profits, most employees are unlikely to sign up. To motivate employees to work on enthusiasm, it is important for entrepreneurs on a budget to use creativity.

Non-monetary incentives

Many startups simply don't have the money to support a traditional salary scheme. That is why many entrepreneurs use seed capital. Finding additional co-founders or giving employees shares of the company's stock can sometimes get you on your feet at first, but these methods aren't always sustainable.

Fortunately, there are other, more economical or completely free, methods to motivate people to get to work.

StartupDigest, for example, became Curator Model champions. The company is looking for talented individuals to manage or "curate" the digest in their cities. The curators receive no monetary compensation, and the work is based on enthusiasm. Why? Because the platform allows curators to issue digests in their own name. Such cooperation is beneficial to both parties, and monetary interaction here is replaced by a mutual helping hand.

If the curator is not potential competitor company, he can promote his name and reputation in exchange for a little work. When an employee or partner is willing to do what you need for you, there is no need for monetary compensation.

Colleges and universities can also provide free labor force in the form of interns. You can offer mentoring in exchange for helping your startup, and this can pay dividends, as today college students are closely connected to social media and technology, which allows them to be more useful than a person who makes coffee for all employees.

Life hacks for young startups

Sometimes startups need to hire real paid professionals. In order to allow your company to attract a specialist and interest him with a fee allocated on a very limited budget, you can make it interesting and profitable for other people to contribute to your startup.

Sometimes, life hacks can cost nothing at all, but at the same time make working at a startup much more attractive and interesting than in well-paid positions in an old-fashioned hardened company. Silicon Valley companies like Google and Facebook are famous today for giving their employees everything necessary funds for life, including hired chefs in the company's kitchen to medical care. Of course, such “quirks” will result in a large sum for the company, but there are other options:

Flexible working hours: A startup is not a 9-to-6 job, so let your employees come when it suits them.
Remote work: If employees are more productive at home, let them work from home if they need to.
Public Recognition: Praise employees in front of others to help motivate and motivate other employees.

Focus on lower wages, but also provide employees with a variety of entertainment and distractions that will ultimately increase productivity and help you identify talented employees who will help you get your company on its feet.

Not every person will be ready to take an oath to “plow” for your company for free, but there are people for whom contributing to something big and special is much more important than getting a stable salary.

Realizing the thought up idea, in fact, is not as difficult as it seems at first glance. It is much more difficult to make sure that the product is sold on an unwinding growth spiral, is “in the market”.

The traditional idea of a startup as something exciting, dynamic, not requiring a plan and not undergoing a routine, on the one hand, is true, but, on the other, leads to the fact that the majority of undertakings fail at the very beginning of the journey. Dreams, energy, passion are invested in new enterprises - resources that cannot be overestimated. Is it worth it to thoughtlessly scatter them, hoping for luck or good luck. A startup can and should be managed. And therein lies the paradoxical nature of this seemingly chaotic phenomenon.

How often have we heard such stories of "success": daring and brilliant, a university hostel, in the asset - only modern technologies and enthusiasm - so, on the knee, there was a birth of a business from scratch. Then the first successes, which attracted funds, and the appearance on the market of a brilliant product. Then friends pulled up, a team of professionals gathered. The business locomotive, which can no longer be stopped, rushed forward at full speed ...

And suddenly, a startup that promised great success fails. But this shouldn't have happened. Television, newspapers, movies, blogs all tell you that intelligence coupled with perseverance, the right timing, and, of course, a great product will certainly lead to entrepreneurial happiness - fame and fortune. In fact, it turns out to be a beautiful fairy tale. Very durable nonetheless.

Why is this myth so popular? Perhaps the point is its alluring attractiveness and the fact that you can always find an excuse in case of failure? It didn’t happen – it means that the product turned out to be unsuitable, it was unlucky or the choice of place and time was wrong. And this means that boring details and other accompanying business processes can be omitted, not mentioned.

What do business and management have in common?

In fact, business, especially the initial one, is management. Those are the same boring processes that turn out to be the main ones in planning for success and which, fortunately, can be learned.

A lot of literature is devoted to business strategies, the qualities of business leaders and the search for revolutionary ideas. Despite this, it is still very difficult for modern startups to turn their dreams into reality. Anyone who is looking for new approaches and does not rely on “maybe” in the matter of how to make a startup successful, sooner or later comes to the concept of a “lean start-up” based on the principles lean manufacturing. Toyota, using this approach, achieved success on a scale that allows it to occupy a leading position in the automobile manufacturing market today.

If you want to make a startup successful, try to follow a few principles called the Lean Startup principles.

What are the principles that both entrepreneurs and investors in their projects need to know? There are not many of them - only 5.

Lean start-up principles:

Entrepreneurs are everywhere. You don't have to sit in a garage or dorm room to build your startup. This means that the "lean start-up" is applicable to any industry, for companies of any size, including very large enterprises. An entrepreneur is anyone who has a start-up - an established enterprise that develops goods and services.
Entrepreneurship is a form of management. A startup is not only a product. This is, first of all, an enterprise for which it is necessary to develop a new type of management. It must be adapted to the conditions of uncertainty, in which, in fact, a startup exists.
Confirmation of the facts of your vision of a startup. Producing goods, generating profits, and serving customers are far from all areas of activity that a startup should be limited to. Learn how to build a viable business. Using a scientific approach, constantly experimenting and testing in practice any component of your business vision, you can acquire invaluable knowledge in this area.
The implementation of the cycle "created - evaluated - learned". The task of a startup is to turn the idea into a product, evaluate the reaction of consumers and, finally, decide whether to move on the intended course or take a turn. Receipt feedback from the consumer, and as quickly as possible - this is what all startup processes should be aimed at.
Accounting and evaluation of innovations. Metrics by which to measure success, business prioritization and milestones… Keeping these “boring” details in mind will help improve the startup and keep the innovators accountable.

These key ideas are followed by companies like Toyota, Google, Facebook and are effective for any kind of business. After all, “business is too important to rely on luck” (Scott Cook, Intuit).

Video

The video is about a successful startup.

You came up with a startup, but you are afraid that you will not be able to implement the idea in the best possible way? Let's be honest: nothing will ruin your venture faster than delaying the process of turning a business idea into a product. Therefore, today we will continue with advice on how to move from idea to implementation and “get real”.

An approach Getting Real was invented by employees of Basecamp (formerly 37signals), which is known for its project management solution of the same name. The main idea of the Getting Real approach is as soon as possible create a startup from scratch, while using the minimum amount of resources .

With Getting Real, you focus on building effective relationships with clients. Clients who know that you make a great product and that you can rely on your company will themselves recommend you to friends and acquaintances and help make the startup popular. Based on the Getting Real approach, we have selected 10 tips to help you launch your startup faster:

1. Reduce your product vision to one sentence

How to start a startup? Figure out exactly what you are doing. If your startup vision doesn't fit into one sentence, then it will be very difficult for you to convince users that you are doing something really worthwhile. In addition, without a well-defined vision, you are deprived of a guideline that helps you make the right strategic and tactical decisions. Examples of startups with a clear vision:

Airbnb: creating an open world where everyone can feel at home, wherever they are.
Basecamp: communication is the basis of project management.
Lyft(): to provide people with pleasant and affordable trips.

What is the difference between mission, vision and purpose? We analyzed this issue in an article about the model used by IT startups.

2. Take a Lean Startup Approach

How to organize a startup that will use resources to a minimum? The lean approach will help here. Lean startup means that you need to involve as few people as possible (the first version of the product may well be created by a team of three people, or you can outsource the creation of the MVP) and use cheaper solutions or open source.

For example, it was not without the use of many open source solutions (OpenStreetMap, Mapnik, Leaflet JavaScript library, etc.), and we involved employees who have own car. Every day, UARoads receives about 1200 tracks from users, and more than 57 thousand people have joined the service.

3. Set deadlines and an accurate project budget

Creating a business from scratch involves determining the scope of work, time and budget. How to balance between them? It’s worth starting a startup with, including only critical functions in it, the number of which can change during the development stage, and set deadlines and budget fixed. Such restrictions will serve as an incentive for your team and will motivate you to look for non-standard solutions.

4. Start building a product from its centerpiece

Basecamp calls this approach Epicenter Design: you start working on the design of the most important component. For example, if you need to create a startup like Medium, then the article itself will be the main element. And the design of everything else (profiles, menus, search filters, etc.) is developed later. With this approach, from the first day of work on the project, you concentrate on the most important. For web applications, the process looks like this:

Brainstorm.
Preparation of paper sketches. It is much faster and cheaper than creating layouts right away and allows you to quickly make changes or redraw something.
Electronic layout.
HTML screens.

5. Offer fewer features

You are, right? Then discard prettinesses that have nothing to do with your decision! Modern users are more likely to choose products with limited functionality (Snapchat), and services like Facebook are considered boring.

Get in the habit of saying no to any offer. new feature. The same goes for feature requests submitted by users: consider adding them only after it becomes clear that more and more people are asking for the feature. For example, Twitter only started using thumbnails for links in 2015, nine years after its launch.

The main danger here lies in the fact that to create features, some functional improvements (i.e., other features) are often needed, which quickly enough turn the product into something complex and incomprehensible.

6. Remove unnecessary settings

You don't want users to be stuck on the settings screen for half an hour and then just close your app or startup site, do you? Then help them choose. After all, it’s not so important, 5 or 7 posts are displayed on the main page. If some nuance is important to users, they will tell you about it, and you can change such minor details.

7. Personalize your product

Guided by the vision and knowledge of your audience, create a product that has character and principles of its own. Some may not like them, but those you are targeting will be simply delighted - what you need for a startup!

For example, the Slack corporate messenger has won the hearts of many developers, but there are plenty of opponents of its use. And MailChimp is hard to imagine without a monkey helper:

8. Create an intuitive product

9. Don't try to solve problems that aren't there yet.

One such issue is scaling. Startups worry that they will not be able to quickly scale the service if the MVP succeeds quickly. But it is impossible to be 100% prepared for this. It is much more important to quickly make changes to the product and identify the startup business model that will work for you. And, of course, to please their users.

10. Generate interest before launching a startup

Here's how to promote a startup in the best traditions of Hollywood:

A couple of months before launch run teaser: Start a blog, show off your logo, give a hint of what you're working on, and start gaining followers and early social media followers.
Two weeks before launching a startup, switch to preview mode: start talking about features, show a couple of screenshots or videos, talk about use cases. Give out a dozen invites to stir up interest in the startup.
Launch your IT startup along with an updated landing page and complete information about the product.

We hope that these tips will help you move from idea to startup faster. And the site studio team will be happy to help you develop MVP, design, Android and iOS applications and a website for your startup. already today!