Step Guide on How to Create a Startup in 2023

If you are not experienced in creating startups, these questions arise first. The idea seems wonderful and you have all the opportunities, but you hesitate whether this startup will ever be successful, what to start with and where to go. The lack of technical knowledge may even make things worse.

It is also worth noting that even experienced startupers have no guarantee that their idea will work. Therefore, we are going to describe the step by step startup creation process and a few lifehacks.

What to do first if you have an idea of a startup?

First and foremost it is crucial to do market research in order to figure out whether somebody has already brought this idea to life, what your current level is, whether you are competitive.

In case of absence of such a product, your next step is to find out whether this product is necessary at all.

Still overall, how do you know if an idea will work?

You can find more information in our article. How to come up with an idea for a startup so it WORKS? 

Determination of the target audience

First of all it is necessary to determine who your product is for. The narrower the segment of your target audience is, the clearer may its pains be defined and satisfied. Thinking that your startup is for all people and should be appealing for everyone is the worst mistake.

What exact need does your startup serve and whether this need exists at all

Each newly created product or service should satisfy some need. Here are two significant points. This need should exist in your target audience. There is also a chance that your target audience is not aware of the existence of this need - we are talking about the creation of a new market here. In this case, the in-depth analysis should be made and prerequisites of the opportunity of having such a need should be found.

Identification and analysis of competitors

At this stage it is essentially to figure out whether this startup already exists in the world and if you are, at least theoretically, able to compete with it. If there are several direct competitors, they should be well analysed and your possible place among them should be defined. However, it is undoubtedly better to find a free niche and it possibly can be done thanks to minor changes of the primary idea of a startup.

Benefits of your startup over competitors

What are the advantages of your product or service? Why should it be bought? Even though the niche is free today, competitors will appear one day in all probability. Therefore, you should be ready for this from the very beginning. Less costly and of higher quality are not valid benefits. In the first case, you will depend on your product’s price and will not be able to respond to market changes properly. In the second case, most competitors will assert that their products are of high quality as well and it would be hard to prove in the communication without previous testing and a great number of favourable reviews.

Monetisation

Any kind of business (besides social) is created in order to make money. How to earn money on a startup? When will the startup be able to break even? When will the first earnings start? The answers to these questions should be considered at the outset of the creation. Writing a business plan is even better. Sometimes it happens that the idea is fascinating and you wish to start developing it, but you do not feel like calculating the figures. Nevertheless, investments have to be returned some day as well as own funds are not desired to be lost, on the contrary it would be awesome to increase them.

Investments

If you have already thought over the previous points and everything looks positive, you may proceed with the paperwork and search for investors. There are countless ways of searching - from offline to online, from acquaintances to investment funds. One of the great places for familiarisation with funds and investor base is Crunchbase.

Search of performers, division of roles

More details on searching for the investors are provided below. The team’s truly sufficient technical level and understanding of the product are significant. Our Embrox company holds free consultation first in order to determine the needs and the further direction.

MVP

Is perfectionism a strength or a weakness? In the case of startups it is rather a drawback. It is recommended to start with the creation of the minimum viable product with basic functional features, which may be further improved. At this stage it is crucial to set priorities of what exactly may attract the user and what may be secondary and able to wait a little until version 2.0 of the product. Why the usage of cross-platform development can be useful for the creation of the MVP can be found here Cross-platforms for startups. Trends, statistics and frameworks. 

Marketing

In order for the product to be bought, people need to be aware of its existence. The simple posting of the application in the stores will not make it marketable, no matter how wonderful it is. That is why marketing strategy should be created. This strategy is desirable to be created at the beginning of the development as minor changes in the product may significantly influence its sellings. Marketers are worth being involved into UI/UX, determining target audience and its needs. You can find more in the article Marketing for startups. 

What are the 3 technological startup types?

Low Tech - simple technologies that are easy to reproduce. They are inexpensive and most commonly used for practical purposes. Additionally, low tech makes up a high percentage of GDP and workplaces worldwide. Most daily utilised useful applications are low tech - from electronic notebooks to websites of cafes or shops. The main essence of Low Tech startups is that their emphasis is not on the technologies. They may be highly successful and profitable.

Hi-Tech - new technology with advanced features and capabilities, which is commonly focused on specific issues of enterprises and industries. Hi-Tech are reinterpreting main processes, business-models and changing society’s behaviour towards existing services, products and, accordingly, the way of living. Hi-Tech startups have a good inflow of direct investments and make key contributions to the economies. Hi-Tech startups take less time to enter the market in comparison with deep tech, but more time compared to low tech. They focus on capturing market shares, therefore the venture capital investment is favourable.

Deep Tech concentrates on solving problems of humanity. Deep tech is revolutional, but reaching the market is time-consuming. It requires large investments as well and works only if there are technical and business experts, who are able to support the significant amount of necessary research and development. Deep Tech is hard to reproduce and its patented technology is typically classified. The main fields commonly are: artificial intelligence, aerospace, chemistry, energy industries. Technologies of this kind are frequently so groundbreaking that cover several areas at once.

Find out more in the article Deep Tech, High Tech and Low Tech. So what startup is better? 

How To Build A Hardware Startup

At the initial stage, a hardware startup guide is indistinguishable from just a software startup. Changes are taking place at the technical stage, when it is necessary to identify the performers of the hardware part and the level of mechanical and electrical engineers.

You can find more about the creation of the NPD in our article

New Product development: From An Idea To A Fully Workable Product 

We have a separate department of highly experienced mechanical and electrical engineers with outsource projects. The advantage of the cooperation with us is our ability to build complete hardware startups from the initial idea.

How do you build a tech startup team?

At the outset, it is significant to figure out who exactly should deal with the development of your startup.

• Outsourced team
• Own team, created for the specific startup
• Division of roles between outsourced and own teams

Which kind of team to choose depends on

• Technical complexity
• Services cost
• Available staff
• Desired level of involvement in the process

The example of our Embrox company. We have extensive experience in working remotely and implementing the full product development cycle, both hardware and software. Therefore, the cooperation with us is beneficial and convenient for the startups. However, we are ready to carry out the development of a certain part of the product if needed. Find more information here. 

Who should ideally be a part of a startup team:

Increasing the team is mainly necessary when a huge new project or several projects appear. One of the great options in this case is starting the cooperation with a ready outsourced team. The advantages of such cooperation are the absence of outgoings on the recruitment, HR, working places, social and motivationals programs. The opportunity to work with such a team on different projects is also beneficial as there is no need to be concerned about the further workload in the event of ending the project.

Options for cooperation models can be viewed here.

How to build motivated and productive hardware remote work teams

Best of all is to start the cooperation with a team that already had the similar experience and established logistics of purchasing parts and components. The opportunity of creating the working prototype in place and testing it is also essential, because this will significantly reduce production time and costs. It is worth paying attention to whether the company is involved in manufacturing support itself, or perhaps it has established cooperation with tested factories. It may simplify the communication and reduce production time to a great extent.

It is convenient if the outsourced company is able to implement the full product development cycle, including management, just as we do, because no extra time and money is spent on establishing the communication and automatisation of the processes among diverse companies, which are likely to be located on different continents.

How do you create a developer task?

It is crucial to be aware of several things while forming tasks:

• The more detailed description of the task is, the fewer questions and clarification may arise. Accordingly, less time will be spent.
• Business communication significantly differs from technical communication, so it is worth finding a common language with developers.
• The tasks have to be clearly and concisely formulated.
• The priorities should be set.
• The requirements, wishes and deadlines have to be defined.

If there is a lack of technical knowledge in this field, we highly recommend involving a specialist for forming tasks. For instance, our company assists in the creation of technical specifications at the initial stage as we have experience in cooperating with non-technical owners of startups.

In summary we would like to assert that having made solid analysis, calculated all opportunities and risks and found the professional team, the startup has every chance of success.