Startup time to market

Good day!
A little less than a week ago we started publishing ( 1 , 2 ) a series of articles on the design and prioritization of startups. A separate conversation on this topic causes the failures of startups and the passage of the projects of the “valley of death”. One of the main issues of this topic: Stage, on which it is necessary to bring the project to the market. Does it make sense to bring to the market another raw product, retaining its birthright, or to bring out a licked and perfected project that will score with the quality of its competitors?

“When is it worth bringing a product to the market?”

Here there is a confrontation between investors and authors of the project. On the part of investors, it is important to bring the product to the market more likely in order to get an opportunity to assess its real economic potential, increase the capitalization of the project, get the first Cash Flow. On the other hand, the fear of the market forces the authors to endlessly bring the product to perfection.

The Internet knows examples of successful projects at both extremes.
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The founder of the popular shopping club KupiVIP commented on the development process in such a competitive environment: “I wanted to build a business and just started to run, because I was 100% sure it would work, e-commerce would shoot . Accordingly, I did not have a testing phase. When I learned that another person was working on a similar idea in parallel with me, I gathered the whole team and said: We will start in six weeks and go online! ”

The app "Hypocrite" Vkontakte was at the peak of popularity recently. Although it does not have an excellent design, the UI is far from perfect, the idea went pretty well . However, with a daily audience of about a million people, the Hypocot did not bring much income. Why? I think the product was not ready for its glory, its monetization system was not thought out well enough , and the developers just did not have time to navigate. I think a super idea can make a product popular, but in order to ride the wave, you need a highly professional team and a full awareness of the priorities for product improvement in real time.

Based on the personal experience of investing startups, I can say that such moments always cause long discussions between investors and authors. And the current Flashells project we are investing is no exception. In short, this SaaS service is aimed at creating, integrating and socializing online stores.

At the moment, the project is in working phase, but still far from perfect. However, after lengthy disputes within the team with the participation of investors, it was decided to start in the current state in order to avoid problems similar to those faced by the application "Hypocrite", and to adapt the service in a timely manner . Also, early release simplifies the task of collecting and preparing a loyal customer base. It is worth paying attention to the fact that the project’s entry into the market did not in the least prevent its further development and revision. On the contrary, this allowed for a clearer definition of priority areas.

For example, the project team faced an adaptation dilemma during the release period, roughly presented below:

Reality in the face of user behavior statistics, feedback and competitor behavior indicated a significantly higher priority for socialization, usability and the appearance of the product components.

The investor usually identifies the following criteria for the readiness of a startup to enter the market:

• It is suitable for use by the target audience.
• It solves the basic problem posed.
• The project is obvious imperfections and flaws. And sometimes outright bugs (Yes, yes, it is always important to know what can be improved)
• The team is ready to quickly adapt the project, highlight priority tasks and quickly solve them.

If you, as a start-up, answer “YES” to each of them, dare!

You can not wait forever. Time is one of the most important IT resources. It is necessary to probe the market and choose priority directions of development and improvement, without investing in secondary, secondary things. Get ready to start as soon as you feel that the project solves the basic task, otherwise you risk to miss the moment. Moreover, what exactly the moment, how to catch and use it - this can be found only in the field. Such things as popularity are extremely elusive and unpredictable, you should not count on them, but you must be ready to operate with them in a timely manner.

You can not produce and frankly raw product that simply does not perform any of the tasks assigned to it. In this case, there is a risk of losing reputation.

Naturally, it is necessary to prepare the project for an early release. Competently submitted project hires users for free as testers, managers and creatives. It is necessary to react quickly to the collapsed reality, the project must be alive !

For someone it lies on the surface! For us - this is confirmed in practice.
For those who prefer the opinion of authorities I advise you to read the book “Rework: Business without prejudice”, where this idea can be traced throughout the book

And finally, I want to wish good luck to all startups, especially beginners! Do not bury yourself in constant improvement in your own sandbox, do not be afraid to enter the market, try, get feedback and adapt!