Functions of an entrepreneur at every stage of a startup. The Four Lives of a Startup

Startup founders - who are they? Active and multifaceted individuals who are able to think outside the box? Unique people who know the secrets of success? Yes, these abilities are an advantage, but they are not the basis.

A successful startup creator must perform unusual duties, have knowledge in the field of PR, development, sales, product design. Such a person should take aim at lofty goals and do everything to reach them.

Let's talk about 5 significant qualities that a startup creator should have. They are necessary for the effective planning and development of a new business.

1. Activity

One of the key qualities that every startup creator needs. The activator turns thoughts into actions. He is impatient and strives to quickly test everything in practice. The activator resorts to friends to say, "Let's start a company!". He is the initiator of the development and launch of a new business. A person with activator abilities is the core of the team. It is he who finds the main idea, necessary resources, organizes meetings, etc.

The activator does not know in advance what the result will be. However, he is able to act decisively, despite possible difficulties and failures. He is eager to try something new and encourage his friends or partners to participate in this business.

2. Strategy

The presence of such a quality as strategic thinking allows a person to determine various options development and highlight those that will lead to success. Such a person is looking for information that can increase work efficiency, plans alternative development paths, and selects profitable models.

The strategist can choose the right niche and competently position the product, think over the name of the company, develop trade offer and choose promotion channels. The creator of a startup must be able to see the whole picture, identify weaknesses in the business, and find ways to coordinate the efforts of the company. He is obliged to capture the intricacies of a startup and offer consumers what they want.

3. Adaptability

A successful startup must have the ability to adapt to the requirements of the market. If external circumstances change, you should quickly and correctly respond to the new situation. This is the only way to succeed and change the direction of development in time. The ability to "turn" the business in the right direction - required condition effective startup.

It's good to have a "dream company" in mind. However, one cannot follow one planned plan if the events taking place around cause the need to adjust the planned strategy. If necessary, the manager should change the focus of his product. It is important to adapt to the consumer market in order to new business turned out to be popular and successful.

4. Discipline

To effectively promote a new business, you need the ability to clearly structure and discipline. The process of creating a company can drag the team into chaos. It is important not to get lost in the variety of activities and to be able to organize yourself and the company.

Discipline allows you to prioritize your work, create an action plan, and think through the necessary activities for each day. Discipline contributes to maintaining order in the team, uniting the team. This is the basis for effective and dynamic business development.

To achieve the final result, it is important to build competent work and discipline plays an important role here.

5. Focus

The ability to focus on the goal is an important quality of the founder of a new company. People who are able to focus on the object can follow the plan, adjust the strategy if necessary, and choose important directions for development. They prioritize and then take action.

You can succeed in developing and promoting a startup if you have the ability to focus on key tasks. This ensures resource savings and a competent distribution of opportunities. It is necessary to focus on what is important at a given time and on what will ensure the achievement of the final result. If you spend time on solving non-essential tasks, you can not achieve the main goal of the business.

Startup founders are unique people. They must have special qualities that help them become successful and achieve results in a new business.

The activity of SEO specialists makes it very difficult to access the information needed by a novice entrepreneur. You are unlikely to find a recipe for success or a formula by which you can launch a successful startup. Do not be naive to believe that you will get a ready-made solution just by typing some magical combination of characters on the keyboard and providing a set of further actions for the search engine. The rapid spread and popularization of full-time business trainings and seminars in this situation seems quite natural. In fact, the theorems and axioms of the initial stage of a startup, which can eventually be successful, are simple. Businessmen, for the most part, remember them no earlier than the start of work on the third project. We have tried to identify the five most common misconceptions of market sharks, which they got rid of empirically.

It's not enough to just make a "cool" product

Perhaps you are a reincarnated Bell or Popov, and your innovation will subsequently become epoch-making. You may even ask:

Then why the hell do I and my team do marketing?

I answer: in the modern world, when promoting a startup, one cannot rely only on “word of mouth” and an uncompetitive price-quality ratio. If you do not promote your product, competitors will do it for you, but then the notorious "word of mouth" will play on the side of rivals. And not only it.

Imagine for a second that a popular blogger, being delighted with the service provided by you, wrote a laudatory post about it. Perhaps his readers will even want to buy your product, but this is not the main thing, if only because you did not take care of it in search engines and offline outdoor advertising. People just don't know how to find your product. And the most important thing in this situation is that "business sharks" do not sleep, they "monitor" people like you 24 hours a day, and when they find them, they quickly eat them up. You will not even have time to understand anything - the engineers of the conditional "Samsung" or "Apple" will very quickly test your creation and find a way to get around the copyright issue. Do not rely on the fact that with such a development of events, the giant will undertake to feed you for the rest of your life.

Those.

If the world of advertising and PR technologies disgusts you, seems boring, deceitful and unnecessary, grit your teeth, get your wallet out, pay for the work of a professional and forget about it. If you want to control everything on your own, then remember that you must be able to correctly convey information about the product, as well as understand the psychology of the consumer.

First of all, people in your product are interested in the benefits that they received in return for money. That is, if you invented a flying folding car, every person should understand from commercials and banners that the lucky person who has already bought a car will never again stand in traffic jams and frantically look for parking spaces shopping centers on the weekend. At the same time, it is completely optional to notify the consumer about what material the car body is made of.

Need to listen to the market

How wonderful it would be if any original idea brought income to its author! Or maybe, in order to earn a million, it is enough just to implement its technical side with high quality and hire creative advertisers, with the help of which the brand will be remembered the maximum number people? Yes, this will really be enough, but only if someone needs the product.

Of course, if you have interesting innovative ideas, it is worth developing them, no matter how profitable they may become. However, if you want to create a successful startup and become rich with your idea, its ability to satisfy a certain need of people should be the most important criterion for its potential success.

It is very difficult to find an unoccupied niche, however, it can be done without the help of specialists in sociological and economic issues. It is enough to have an inner instinct (the same “fourth factor of production”) and pay attention to the little things. For example, when you come to a family dinner with your neighbors, you can pay attention to those everyday problems that you also face, but cannot get rid of them due to the lack of necessary equipment in hardware stores. Bringing the right device to the federal or city market, or building it, can be your gold mine.

Maintain a balance between the investor and the market!

The ability to win the trust of someone who is at risk by investing a lot of money in you is one of the most important components of entrepreneurial talent. However, there is not so much magic in this process (in any case, in comparison with the almost complete unpredictability of the success of a new product on the market). You can't win over bison who know their business by charm alone: ​​you need a flexible strategy and a clear business plan. You must understand that an investor may not be satisfied with almost any point of the project: from the idea itself to the planned deadlines for preparing the product for sale.

Despite this, the current opinion among start-up entrepreneurs that most investors begin to dictate their own rules and actively impose their views on startups is a myth. If an investor knew how to conquer the market, he would be promoting own ideas rather than financing strangers. Each startup is individual in the sense that there is no proven scheme for pipeline processing of innovative projects.

A startup must be able to meet the needs of both parties: both the market and the investor. If you are sure that the corrections proposed by the investor will lead to the collapse of both, you should not be silent about it. You need to work hard and have a lot of patience in order to explain to the investor why this particular scenario will bring him more money.

Getting investment is not a guarantee of success

As soon as the startup gets the money, he thinks it's in the bag. In reality, this is only the beginning of work, the first step towards creating a successful startup. Investments should be treated like a loan - with the same responsibility. If, before receiving the money, the entrepreneur can still afford to spend time on studies or third-party earnings, then after the trust of the investor has been won, complete dedication will be required.

The most likely reasons for the possible failure of a promising startup are the inefficiency of the team selected by the startup, the inability to respond to changing market conditions, and lack of flexibility in marketing matters. You can keep remembering the pitfalls of various kinds, or you can try to look at the long process of preparing the product from the outside and find the root of all these hypothetical problems. Then it becomes clear that the dedication of the leader, his "burning eyes" and cold prudent mind are able to cope with any of the difficulties that arise.

Successful Startup: A Startup Must Be Viable

Your business partner, and part-time friend, was disappointed in the project and left it? Is the investor drowning your offspring with his unreasonable actions? Did the technician leave you? Or maybe you yourself began to think that nothing from the project you are working on will not burn out?

A combination of circumstances cannot sink any of your undertakings, and a startup is no exception. Almost everything can be cut off from the existing layout - only the core should remain in it. This core can be the belief that you are the one who will make the world a better place or the one who will definitely earn a million to provide for your parents. The main thing is not to betray your ideals and not be led by emotions.

Do not be afraid to experiment: the only thing you cannot change is the terms of already signed contracts, and you can try to revise them together with representatives of cooperating enterprises and investment funds. ⓂⒷ

A startup is a young enterprise aimed at new markets. The people who create it are individualists and creators at heart. Despite this, the algorithm for building startups is quite rigid in nature. What determines their success at each stage, and how to avoid their inherent innovative diseases?

In the beginning, you go after an idea – that is a dream.

Then you create a product and blow up the market - this is jelly, it has not yet settled down, and barriers will prevent the explosion and expansion.

And then, in the vacated niche, you build an enterprise building from concrete - you build and systematize business processes.

A successful startup is characterized by four flawlessly executed phases:

1. Before birth (providing devotion).

2. Product creation.

3. Create a market for the product.

4. Transition to a systemic enterprise (the final phase of startup formation).

An error at one of the stages can end in the collapse of all undertakings. If a sufficient share of loyalty is not secured before birth, a startup will not be able to survive the “hard times”. If you do not attract investments at the start of the product and do not create a team for its development, it will turn out to be of poor quality. If during the development of the market it is not possible to maintain enthusiasm, show will and perseverance, the product will remain on the table. If, when creating a management system, a startup ends up in the hands of a creator, it will remain “forever young” and turn into a “flying Dutchman”.

At all stages of development, the company is capitalized differently. In each chapter, I will name the currency in which success is measured.

Stage I: before birth.

Capital is devotion

An amazing axiom from Vladimir Tarasov is “First you choose the Path, then the Path chooses you.”

This stage is not as short-term as it seems to the uninitiated. Indeed, in order to give birth to a project, it is necessary to carry out preparations that, in terms of the effort expended, are no less, and often much more, than such large stages as creating a product and bringing it to the market. “Before birth” the foundation of the future enterprise is laid (this is the main rule of any successful construction). Therefore, it is absolutely unacceptable to do things through the sleeves at the stage of creating devotion. And the size of the building being built depends on what the foundation will be. In fact, according to the "reserves of devotion" on initial stage you can already estimate the scale of the enterprise.

The man of dreams starts this process. Of course, after the birth of the idea, it goes through the phases of finding followers and polishing. So, the structure of the first stage:

1. The birth of an idea.

2. Search for adherents (including the formation of one's own commitment).

3. Polishing the idea.

The birth of an idea

Any idea is designed to serve people. Therefore, the birth of an idea should be accompanied by a fair amount of observation and optimism (it is impossible to help people without observation and optimism). Many ideas are borrowed from related business areas or brought from other countries. The fact is that ideas implemented by other people and in other markets are easier to polish - in fact, they have already suffered some childhood illnesses.

Having created an idea, but not gathering adherents, the company will not be able to budge. A well-known example of this development is the creation of the window interface and the computer mouse at Xerox Corporation. The birth of the idea took place at the proper level. Xerox for this purpose maintained a modern and independent research "campus" - a division engaged in the search for new opportunities. But this unit did not have the skills to build commitment among the company's management. Commitment sufficient to transfer the idea to development. As a result, this idea was developed by other firms, which received all the material benefits from its implementation.

Search for adherents

The dream man "gathers" devotion. His task is to reinforce the idea with devotion, to lay the foundation for the realization of a dream. To do this, he must ignite the idea of ​​​​people, both performers and consumers, and, among other things, make sure that it is correct. Loyalty is formed by promises, because at the initial stage of the development of an organization there are no specific values, no financial resources - there is only a dream. Promises are made to everyone, even to yourself. And they believe in these promises, the foundation rests on faith. Trust in the leader and his insight is a limitless potential. Therefore, many firms hire charismatic leaders to act as virtual prophets.

Devotion is measured by human life. People donate fortunes to join the idea. But, if only a dreamer devotes his life to an idea, this will not be enough - one is not a warrior in the field, a structure is needed to support the idea. To implement the idea, an environment is needed so that the devotion is enough to perform all the auxiliary functions that will support and nourish the idea.

In fact, from the moment the idea is generated, the process of investing it begins. And the first investment is an investment of devotion. By the way, there are things in the world that are invested solely by devotion, such as marriage between two people. Once the investments of devotion are exhausted, people cannot live together. The founders of a firm are in a marriage-like relationship, and investment by devotion is the only way form a stable management structure.

Since cash and material resources a new firm is usually small, loyalty is a structural element of its activities. Even if there is an abundance of funding, without dedication, the idea is unlikely to be realized. Many firms go bankrupt in fidelity before they are financially ruined. Therefore, it is worth delaying the introduction of financial schemes until a sufficient package of devotion to the idea is formed.

Those people who are close to you (your direct assistants) should have a special attitude to business. Support employees simply have to be passionate about the business no less than you, its founder. Therefore, it is often possible (or even necessary) to take them as a share, sell them or provide a share in the company as payment for services. You should not, however, scatter its shares, because at the initial stage this is done too easily, and at later stages it leads to a loss of control over your offspring.

Can your idea be stolen? I think this is the last thing to worry about. If you're worried that an idea might be stolen, you keep the information private. This prevents you from building an army of adherents, attracting investments, polishing the idea. In fact, your fears and suspiciousness jeopardize the entire first life cycle before the birth of the organization. The risk of not gaining adherents is much more dangerous than the risk of information leakage. A good idea is realized only by the creator, since it is he who is its main supporter. If the idea can be realized by someone else, then this is not your idea, and in this case, it makes no sense to worry about losing it.

Grinding ideas

Ideas are born raw (and die mature). In order to successfully implement an idea, it needs to be polished and fine-tuned. Polishing an idea requires a critically minded but dedicated team. Therefore, a successful startup is often the product of two individuals, each of whom, due to their personal qualities, contributed either to the birth or polishing. specific idea. Hence the task of the parent of an idea is to search for such a person in his environment.

If the idea is polished, you can present it in two minutes - while riding in the elevator. By the way, this practice can be useful when looking for an investor. I affirm that it is easy to find an investor for any polished idea. And under any unpolished - it is almost unrealistic.

To polish the idea and move to next level you will need faith in yourself.

Since energy comes from people (who admire, love you), special attention should be paid to building feedback channels. Perhaps this statement is true only for extroverts. But there is no doubt that there should be people around who believe in you. Starting a business with people who are not confident in you is like allowing a breakdown in protection, which means a drain on energy. In fact, the energy formula is: do what you love and work with those who believe in you. This important fact it also concerns financing - it is better to take less money, but from someone who believes in you, than more, but from someone who may doubt you.

Stage II: product creation.

Capital is a product

The purpose of the birth of the company is to create a product. But the firm cannot bring the product to the market, and often create it without additional investment. Therefore, getting money to create a product, field tests and first sales are the components of the second stage of building a startup:

1. Getting investment.

2. Formation of the product.

3. First buyer.

Getting investment

Getting money for the project should be subject to the idea that the company wants to express. The fact is that in the heat of enthusiasm, the founder can easily lose control of the firm without being choosy about investments. The idea must defend its independence in every possible way.

Money should be received only for the idea. You need to make sure that the loyalty of the organization that gives you the money is sufficient to implement the idea. To get money from people who can change their attitude when faced with the first difficulties is to give the idea into the wrong hands.

There are many options for getting start-up money. But still, practice shows that at the initial stage, only two types of investments are possible:

A. Personal money of the entrepreneur.

B. Business angels.

Angels- These are personal investors, people investing money in your business because they like you personally. We must face the truth and recognize that at the start, when the product is not yet ready and there are no buyers yet, there are also no other guarantees, except for the identity of the entrepreneur, which would serve as a reason for investment.

But VCs are playing roulette, and your company is an opportunity for them to spin it one more time. Such an approach is incompatible with dedication, so at the initial stage, this method of obtaining investments is not practical enough. There should be one person who doesn't play "rolling the luck dice" and that person should be you. Do everything possible and impossible to grow the business with your money.

Product Formation

To form a product, you need a creative atmosphere that allows you to experiment. It is no coincidence that organizations take out departments dealing with new products in a separate office (Steve Jobs from Apple even hung a pirate flag over such an office in his younger years). Independence is necessary condition successful experiment.

Leave time (and plan money) for testing multiple product options. This is what will allow you to make the product successful. For some reason, many people believe that the very first sample (which can take from several months to several years) should be urgently put into production without tests and refinements. Leave a reserve to bring the product to mind.

Since not every product is capable of blowing up the market, keep it modest but independent during the product creation stage. Pride fetters initiative here. Therefore, modesty is the luxury that you need to allow yourself.

First Buyer

You won't be able to grind a product unless you have an indispensable grinding tool - the first customer.

The first buyer is a unique tester. You must see someone who uses your product live. That is why it is good for the successful implementation of projects when managers themselves use the product they produce. But this is not enough - you must find the right buyer who will buy your product. This is very important point. It is impossible to consider that the product is ready until the moment when it has the first buyer. That's why the search for the first buyer should not be handled by the sales department, but by the product development department

Stage III: creating a market for the product.

Capital - market

The stage of formation of the sales market involves the following steps:

1. Creation of an office.

2. Building relationships with the market.

3. Attracting customers.

Office creation

The office is like a flower pot. It should leave room for growth, but it would be foolish to plant a small flower immediately in a large pot. Many undertakings ended with a move to a pompous office. But the office is just technical support, and the ability to save money will come in handy more than once. At the same time, choosing a small office when you need a large one is also obvious stupidity. Try to keep the office allowing you to grow, but at the same time save money - you will need it.

But what should not be saved on is people. Labor must be paid. The fact that you can't load your employees with well-paid jobs indicates the low level of your leadership.

Relationship with the market

If the previous stage ended with the first buyer, then the stage of creating a market with the first buyer is just beginning.

Market formation is still a creative stage (in fact, all four startup lives are creative and end when the startup becomes an ordinary firm with prescribed rules of the game). Therefore, it would be a mistake to impose rigid rules on employees at this stage - the rules should be flexible. Just as in Stage 4 you have to advocate for sustainable schemes, in the Market Development stage you need to maintain the firm's flexibility (because it is already at risk of losing it). Premature loss of flexibility is as dangerous as protracted youth.

A good example of communicating with the market (and you definitely need to communicate with the markets) is the presentation format.

In this case, you choose the most interested consumers and communicate with them (the presentation should be maximally sustained in the form of communication!). This will allow you not only to hone the wording on the presentation of the product, but also to get feedback in the form of first reviews and questions.

Searching for a market involves financial investments, so this stage needs to be planned very carefully. The most successful way to protect your intellectual property is to be the first to market. Many innovative products are created by creative teams, but it takes strategist thinking to capture the market. Therefore, it is dangerous to underestimate the stage of entering the market - in fact, here, and not at the stage of creating a product, it is decided whether you die or live.

A good (and very trendy) way to market is − viral marketing, the main rule of which is that marketing should be built into the product. And its main principle is that you need to move the marketing stage itself to the time of product design, combining the third stage with the second, and possibly with the first. Since marketing is such a great force, why not think about it as early as possible?

If you are seriously on the viral path (and it saves a lot of resources), try to ensure that the very use of the product leads to its distribution. So that at the time of using the product, buyers attract other buyers.

One of these methods is the personification of the product: you allow the user to make adjustments to the product, and he advertises it in gratitude (in fact, the buyer becomes the creator of the product and advertises as if himself).

Either way, market development is a test of perseverance. Even established ideas such as Personal Computer(IBM, Apple) or same-day delivery (FedEx), required herculean efforts from their founders to bring them to market. The task of conquering the market is a test of the loyalty that was formed at the first stage - the birth of the company.

Clients

It is necessary to carefully treat both enthusiastic customers and those who are skeptical. In essence, as you expand your market, you must become very familiar with the layer that separates your product from others on the market. What would you like to receive those who do not yet use your product, but already know about it? If you keep track of this group of users, you can expand your sales horizons.

Dedicated users are absolutely irreplaceable resources. They become those distributors of influence that form the attitude towards the product in society. If you have the opportunity to thank them (and I'm sure you do), do it.

Well, always stay hungry and keep your users hungry.

Stage IV: building the system.

Capital is a system

The key to the success of a startup is to confidently move into the final phase of your life - the systematization of your business.

It is necessary to contribute to the construction of the system at your enterprise through:

1. delegation of control (stop making all decisions on yourself);

2. creation corporate culture.

Delegation of control

The worst thing is to pretend that everything remains the same and that changes have not come. After all, at the first three stages, the manager gets so used to listening only to himself (in order to maintain commitment to the idea) that at the stage of system formation he is no longer able to stop. In fact, he turns into a ghost giving instructions. And the company - in the "flying Dutchman", always looking for freedom.

A good manager performs those functions and solves those tasks for which he is predisposed by nature. But character is difficult to change. Is it worth changing your character to take the organization to the next level, or is it better to change your role in this organization?

Managerial professionals would be redundant in the first three stages. When there is rapid development and space for creativity is needed, too much proper management can ruin the project. At the first stages, the business is led by its adherents.

But the persistence of the creator at the fourth stage can result in a loss of control over the situation. At this time, the company needs to strengthen the foundation. You have built a two-story cottage, things are going well for you, and you decide to add a third, and then a fourth floor over it. This will lead to growth problems. You need a system, so you have to build it (and bear the cost of building and repairing it).

For the sake of lining up successful system management on own enterprise the owner will have to give up his pride. After all, it is he who must first of all comply with the new rules - otherwise the work team will follow the example of the owner and will not obey them.

It is hard to part with your own offspring, but there is no way out. The founder of a startup has two ways: to delegate authority or to leave the project. And in order not to reach the second option, which, of course, will have a destructive effect on the company as a whole, the creator is forced to transfer project management into the hands of professional managers at the stage of building the system. This is a consistent and logical step in the development of a startup. But remember: when hiring a manager, delegate to him not only duties, but also trust. "If you bought a dog, don't bark instead."

Formation of corporate culture

When the product is created, you can think about the soul. Now you need to strengthen the rear for him successful implementation and improvements - contribute to the creation of a corporate culture. Corporate culture is a set of rules that are followed by default, not a set of laws that no one looks into.

In fact, it is ethical principles that allow global organizations operating in the same markets to differ from each other. The more sustainable your corporate culture, the higher the quality of the products and services you create. Corporate culture is the depth of your products, the reserve of their reliability.

The corporate culture is based on the qualities that the founder of the company valued in employees. As he formed the staff, he looked for people who shared his values. The founder did not seek to remake people - he was looking for like-minded people.

The corporate culture is only a verdict of the success of the previous stages: the selection of personnel and the formation of key values ​​among employees.

A successful corporate constitution is integrated into actions, not papers.

Sustainable corporations keep themselves alive by following unwritten rules—an informal constitution. A formal constitution (written on paper) appears when traditions are not as strong as one would like. Constitution - a set of laws of the country-organization recommended for compliance.

An unwritten constitution is the best because it lives in people. But if you still decide to write a document, start with why it (the document) exists. It should affect the distribution of powers, the formalization of the decision-making process and the priority values ​​of the company.

When does a startup die? Then, when a prosperous company is born. When the first juvenile decisions are translated into a million-dollar business with a steady organizational structure and a formalized income scheme.

A kind of "Tao of a startup" was written, for sure, more than once or twice. We propose three more points to the set of "laws successful startup". The biggest mistake is not to try at all.

A kind of "Tao of a startup" was written, for sure, more than once or twice. We offer three more points to the set of "laws of a successful startup."

Starting a new business takes a lot of time, requires determination, perseverance and dedication. Those who dare to start their own business are already successful in themselves.

At least these people tried and found out that their idea works (or doesn't work, because a negative result is also a result). The biggest mistake is not to try at all.

1) If you have an idea for a new business, don't wait for the right time to enter the market. Starting a new business is the best moment.

It is important to remember the following: going on this exciting journey, at least you were absolutely sure of one thing - that you had chosen the right idea for a new business.

Make sure the job you're taking on is worth your time and resources. Even a great idea can fail if not implemented correctly, but a not-so-great plan can lead to success if you are flexible enough and ready to maneuver at the right moment.

In order for your startup to be successful, you must first meet three conditions:

start with a good team, create something really useful for consumers and spend as little money as possible.

You can be a great leader and master all the intricacies of management, but if the people with whom you start a business are not able to form not just a good, but an excellent team, your undertaking is in danger of failing. Engage real talents who may even be smarter than you. The future of a startup is determined by the people you recruit or hire.

Your team is able and will determine the direction of your business. A single recruiting mistake can cost you your entire business, but a smart and balanced approach to staffing can lead your business to success.

2) Carefully analyze your idea to make sure that your product is really able to solve the problem you set and meet the specific needs of consumers.

Is there a demand for New Product or service you are going to create? If you are already involved in the business, is your the target audience application or service that you are preparing? How many users ( regular customers) do you already have and what is the growth rate of the consumer base? What signals and attitudes do you receive from your customers through feedback channels?

The only way to know if your product will sell is to stop wasting time and launch it in beta with tester feedback. This way you will be able to know what is working and what needs to be changed or fixed.

3) Move your startup forward by carefully spending your capital on only what is really necessary to achieve the goal.

Focus your costs only on critical launch points. Invest only in priority areas and areas and try to maximize profits. This process can take a very long time until you achieve the expected results. The road to success is long and bumpy. You must have enough perseverance and faith in your choice to keep you moving even when others lose hope of success and give up.

The path to creating another Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram can only be mastered by the persistent and not the faint of heart. Twitter co-founder Biz Stone once said, "A clear plan, perseverance, and ten years ultimately ensured the success that came overnight."

Development various industries makes it possible to increase the volume of products, as well as improve its quality. This is just one of profitable directions when introducing new technologies in business. Each industry seeks to improve or modernize its functionality. Such types of optimization bring financial success to any project. More and more young people, having a sufficient level of knowledge, are trying to develop one of the priority areas in business. It can be information technology, programming and so on.

Startup Challenges

Thanks to such innovations, many companies with branches around the world are developing. However, at the initial stage, such enterprising people are not always noticed. This leads to the fact that a business idea that has a positive economic effect is lost without getting a real implementation. It's all about funding the project. Not everyone can collect the right amount to launch your own startup. Therefore, we have to look for opportunities on the side, attracting investors, sponsors, and investors.

Financing a startup in our country is a complex and multi-stage process. businessmen old school not fully open yet modern technologies and information innovation. Therefore, they do not always meet proposals from young and beginning entrepreneurs. Another snag lies in the legislative regulation of the entire entrepreneurial activity. If the startup system in the West has been developing for more than 10 years, then in the post-Soviet space it only has to go through all the stages in order to implement the model of development and financing of each really worthwhile idea.

What is a startup

If you do not delve into the economy, a startup is in fact a start-up company that has good idea for development and in the future can be profitable. However, the nuance of such an organization is that it does not have the proper funding for the full implementation of its project. This is how young firms created by novice businessmen are perceived in Europe and America.

Financing a startup is a complex and gradual process. The problem lies in the individuality of each solution. Depending on the direction of the idea and the business model, investment in it can be full or partial. It is not so rare that several contributors become willing to become participants and share. In addition, it is necessary to draw up an accurate economic model that allows you to calculate all possible risks when investing funds and the stages when the cost part will go to zero.

Russian startups are almost no different from European ones. The only difference is that domestic start-up projects appeared relatively late, which makes it possible to create companies based on the already established experience of Western colleagues. In reality, although each system has common roots, it has great differences due to financial and legislative regulation, as well as the mentality of the entrepreneurs themselves.

Innovative technologies in business development

Startup financing is especially active in new and less competitive industries. The constant modernization of the digital space leads to the fact that new ideas appear in synthesis with information technology and science. More and more on domestic market thanks to this combination, their own software developments appear.

Computerization allows you to develop your business and raise profitability to a new level. It is this industry in startups that is the most attractive for investment. Due to the large number of different types of operating enterprises in the country, it becomes possible to improve the quality of their work by introducing modern systems and automation of many work processes.

Phased development

Funding a startup is a multifaceted process. Here it is necessary to rely not only on future economic indicators, but also for the period of relevance of the idea during its implementation. Often, already at the stage of financing and launching a project, it loses its liquidity, so it is necessary to calculate such a nuance at the planning stage.

Each has its own purpose. Easier and less expensive is the creation of a company and the design of the very future object for investment. It was during this period that a team of young entrepreneurs creates an exhibition sample of an investment model for potential investors and those who later want to become a participant in the development of this concept.

Types of investment in the project

Startup financing in Russia has its own characteristics, like any other investment industry. A young business is not without advantages and disadvantages. All investment options are divided by the volume of costs incurred. For example, in order to receive an amount of 1 million dollars (approximately 67 million rubles) for the development of a project, you need to contact business angel communities.

This successful entrepreneurs, whose main task is to invest own funds in various projects with the aim of further earning on the development of new models of production and information business. Such an action will allow you to get the opportunity to develop the project to a certain stage. For further promotion, larger amounts may be required, which can be obtained from banks or venture funds.

Financing Technology

Startup funding in Russia needs to be protected by civil law. This refers to a certain type of transactions. This makes it possible to legitimately regulate and give each party rights and obligations. The main type of investment in start-ups is a fan.

The conditions for financing a startup of this type are that entrepreneurs do not invest in a project, but in a business idea. At the same time, the investment amounts are small and are calculated based on the potential profit in the future. Another form of investment is deferred. By the type of action, it resembles a framework agreement, when the previously transferred amount of money from the investor is allocated for each stage of business development.

Selection of investors

Financing start-up projects is further complicated by the fact that it is necessary to search for investors on your own. In Russia, online platforms are not yet well developed, where entrepreneurs with free funds select various startup platforms for investing in them. The founders of a young company themselves, based on the required amount, should look for those who would invest in it.

Venture capital funds are one of the most frequent models for investing in young, but profitable projects. However, they put forward a number of serious requirements when concluding a contract. Therefore, it is important to assess all the risks and understand whether it will be profitable to cooperate with such structural divisions in the future, when the company begins to receive net profit.

Promotion through exchanges and the Internet

Startup funding sources can also be found online. This is a more complicated process, but many successful young companies received their first sources of funds through online platforms. There are entire forums and exchanges that are created to connect investors and those who are looking for sources of funding.

However, each online platform also has a number of requirements. It is worth familiarizing yourself with the concept of patents and copyright in advance so as not to become a victim of scammers who promise to invest funds after reading inside information or technological process. Usually, after the transfer of data, such citizens or companies simply disappear.

Getting grants

Financing of start-ups at the initial stage can also be carried out at the expense of the state or regional budget. Large domestic corporations are ready to become investors for many young and ambitious projects. All that is needed is to find the appropriate event and register according to the specified rules.

The form in which the idea is presented may vary. Therefore, it is worth familiarizing yourself with all the requirements in advance. Grants can reach up to 100 million rubles. However, only research institutes that have the opportunity to seriously approach the creation and modeling of the project can count on such funding.

Development loan

How to find funding for a startup if entrepreneurs refuse to invest in it? This is a difficult question. However, banks, noticing the activity associated with the development of entrepreneurship among the young population of the country, began to develop suitable financing programs for them. Large institutions form extended credit limits for business development. All that is needed is to submit a properly designed project.

Funding amounts may vary. It all depends on the assessment of the idea submitted for consideration. It is important to send to the bank not only the very model of the future technology, but also to conduct a small study aimed at assessing all possible risks. It would also be useful to have a business plan, which indicates all items of expenditure, as well as the timing of the first profit and the business's exit from a net loss.

Responsibility of the parties

How to spend startup funding and develop the project? Practice around the world shows that young entrepreneurs who have received large funds for the development of their successful project do not always strive to get down to business right away. There are many high-profile cases when startups were closed and their founders disappeared. As a result, they simply stole money and left for other countries, taking advantage of legislative flaws.

Today, however, the financing model has largely changed in a positive direction due to such incidents. Each of the participants in the transaction has new rights and responsibilities. For misuse Money startup participants can be sued. It is also noted that after several such cases, when unfortunate entrepreneurs received real terms for fraud, the rest became more careful in spending the allocated funds.

What to pay attention to

An investor with full funding for a startup is a fairly rare element of a young project. But there are exceptions. Having formed own project, you need to find a niche for its implementation. Successful cases often become when young professionals create a separate company to develop an innovative solution for specific application in another organization. This allows you to find the target audience where the technology will be needed in the future.

When the concept is formed, you can send invitations to participate in the project to everyone potential consumers of this technology. This will not only draw attention to the project, but also create competition. According to the rule market economy, demand always creates supply.