How to Start a Tech Company with No Money (or Experience)

Let me be honest about one thing: building a business is insanely complicated, and it’s not that easy to develop an idea into a tech startup just like that. You can be successful or a failure; it all depends on how you execute the battle that began in your mind in the form of an idea.

Sometimes it requires lots of effort and time in setting the right plan than the time needed in building that mind-boggling software of yours. If you succeed in the first part, you’ve succeeded in giving life to a successful tech startup.

Take a look at some pro tips to succeed in business!

Now, here’s a million-dollar question that many fail to answer:

How to start a tech company with little to no money or experience?

Before we jump into it, let’s first understand the facts about a startup’s survival rate in 2020. Before you guess it wrong, it’s around 10%; yes, you heard me! About 90% of the startups fail before they grow enough to be self-sustained.

But why do you think most of the startups fail?

Let’s analyse that concern with this enlightening infographic from Statista.

Take a look at some pro tips to succeed in business!

The insights show us that every tech startup is mostly into a couple of significant mistakes. And among them, more than half of the failures are caused by building products even when there’s no market for them; in other words, startups most certainly fail when they make a product that nobody ever needs.

Read: How to Do Market Research for a Business Startup?

All the emerging startup founders need to analyse the reasons behind these failures and learn from the mistakes others have made. Having a well-devised game plan for a product that people need and knowing the biggest traps to avoid, your startup will have a higher chance of survival.

So once you realised those mistakes and planned your ways to avoid the common traps, what are the next steps in building a tech company with no money?

Read the 6 Biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make that lead to business failure, and avoid them.

How to Build a Startup Tech Company With No Money?

1. Prioritise Features for Your MVP

Coming up with a great startup idea isn’t just enough to skyrocket your tech company; rather, founders often fail because of their negligence towards better planning.

The key here is to make sure your product map is pointing in the right direction. Using a simple framework, you can analyse how your product lines up with the user goals and how their different pain points align with its core features.

The three significant steps that we need to go through here are:

• • • Validate your ideas.
    • Get feedback from customers.
    • Reach Product-market fit.

Also, it is crucial to ask yourself these questions:

1. 1. 1. Why do customers need your product?
      2. What problem will your product solve?
      3. Is the product vital for your customers?

With these, are you pretty sure you’re all set to build your MVP right away? Have you set your business goals, product vision, defined your UVP, etc.? If not, I strongly recommend you note how to prioritise your MVP features before proceeding any further correctly.

Also check out the step-by-step guide to building a Minimum Viable Product (MVP).

2. Pre-sell your MVP

One of the most prominent ways to build your tech startup with no money is to pre-sell your MVP. Don’t wait for your cash to run out; instead, bring in those customers who are ready to pay as fast as possible.

But finding those who need to buy your product is one of the hardest things that any startup founder will ever face. Often customers need time; time to think, evaluate, mull over, discuss, and it is the most straightforward reason why they won’t tend to buy your products and services quickly.

However, we could resolve this big problem quickly using a couple of tweaks and turns. And it all depends on how you market your MVP. Let’s take a quick walk on how to approach customers with a different perspective.

The critical five steps involved in pre-selling your MVP:

1. 1. 1. Validate your Business Idea
      2. Create a pre-order Landing Page
      3. Addressing customer’s problem
      4. A promise to solve the customer’s problem
      5. Creating Urgency

These actionable five steps are guaranteed to drive-in more customers transforming your pre-sell into a huge success.

3. Source Talent with Equity

How tech-savvy are you? Not technical enough? Not a problem. You don’t even have to worry about sourcing talent — instead, all you need to have is the right equity offer and a perfect startup idea.

If you have them both, you’ll be able to find an excited technical co-founder. If you ask me about the right equity to offer any technical co-founder, it’s typically around 10-35%.

A technical co-founder has extensive responsibilities and invests the following into your future project:

• • • Ideas
    • Time
    • Money
    • Tech Expertise

Also Read: Why Are Technical Co-Founders So Necessary to Startups?

Now there are a few ways by which you can find your technical co-founder:

• • • Going to developers online and offline.
    • Within your current network connections.
    • Go out, attend startup events and share your ideas.
    • Talk to as many people as you can and spread the word about your search.

Read More: How To Find a Technical Co-founder or Technology Partner For your Startup?

4. Acquire Customers

It’s now time to launch that validated MVP of yours into the right segment of your target market. The key here is to hustle until you reach your first few customers.

No matter how great you think, your idea is, if you’re not able to reach in front of your target customers, you’ll be wasting resources and ultimately killing your company.

Although the money from them is vital, focus more on your customers’ feedback on what features to keep and what not to.

However, if you find it hard to track down your first few customers, here are some cheap and easy ways that I have come across in recruiting customers for an MVP:

• • • Leverage the audience of others.
    • Get active in niche communities.
    • Find some marketing partners.
    • Identifying the right social platform to attract your customers.
    • Find the right kind of influencers to market your product.

Bonus

Apart from the few listed above, I am also giving you some bonus tips to build your tech startup with no money; here they are:

• • • Practice Agile Methodology
    • Analyse your data and pivot.
    • Stay in and ahead of the market.
    • Invest in your professional development.
    • Expand your online presence.
    • Collaborate with established brands.
    • Keep an eye on your competitors.
    • Double down what works and scale.

Conclusion

Now that you got some ideas to build a tech startup with no funding, it’s time to analyse what needs to be done and follow the right approach. The road to success is very long for any startup.

There are lots of steps, cautions, hurdles, and even threats along the way. But with the right action plan and determination, you can position yourself ahead of the majority of other startups trying to build their tech company the wrong way.

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