The Ultimate Guide to Launching Your Startup

We all have ideas.

Some ideas might be great, some might be decent, and others are probably not that good.

Even if your idea is incredible, there’s a huge difference between having it and actually launching a successful startup.

That being said, it’s always helpful to have a guide to follow and help you get started.

While, realistically, it takes hundreds of small steps, we’ve narrowed it down to 10 steps you need to take to successfully launch your startup.

Use this guide as a blueprint and come back to it as many times as necessary.

1- Make a strategic, actionable plan

Don’t get me wrong — this is not about writing up the typical business plan. That’s outdated.

Having a legitimate plan in place is a great way to stick to your strategy, increase your chances of securing investments, and successfully growing your business.

While not the most exciting step, it’s crucial for receiving funding and scaling your startup down the road. You need to set up its foundation — strategy, budgets, and legal matters — before you can create and roll out your product or service.

You’ll want your strategic, actionable plan to cover the following:

Pro tip: Avoid excruciating detail — you’ll end up setting up your business in a way that even tiny errors in assumptions can lead to catastrophic outcomes. Don’t make the mistake of making your startup business plan look more like you’re planning to launch a rocket ship rather than drive a car.

Startups are designed to confront situations of extreme uncertainty.

Be sure to have a true north, a destination in mind. To achieve that vision, employ a strategy, which includes a business model, a product road map, a point of view about partners and competitors, and ideas about who the customer will be.

2- Validate your product

Let’s say you have a great idea. Maybe it’s toothpaste tablets, subscription boxes for pets, family-friendly coworking spaces … whatever it may be.

You’ve named it and outlined how it solves a problem that your customer faces. And you’re excited about it!

But that doesn’t matter … at least not as much as how excited your customers are about it. Ideally, excited enough to be willing to pay for it.

By talking to your potential customers and understanding what their wants, needs, and expectations, you can avoid investing in products or services in which your customers aren’t interested.

The same goes for competitor research.

This is how you can avoid wasting resources — by ensuring your idea and product will be well-received before you take the time and money to create it.

Market research is a must when it comes to building a startup. It helps:

• Define and engage with your target audience and learn more about how you can help solve their problems with your product or service.
• Analyze your competition, research their product or service, pricing structure, messaging, and unique selling proposition, and better understand how you can set your business apart.
• Formulate your positioning statement for your product and your brand.
• Fuel your go-to-market strategy, which outlines how you’ll present your product or service to its intended market.

All in all, market research and product validation keeps things accurate and aligned with actually proven market concepts as you launch your startup.

The way forward is to learn to see your startup as a grand experiment. The question isn’t how to build my product? The more pertinent question is should my product be built?

3- Secure adequate funding

You’ll need the appropriate capital to launch your startup.

Obviously, startups costs vary from industry to industry, so your startup may require more or less funding depending on the situation.

Did you know that a great majority of startups are funded by the founders or by friends and family? That’s called bootstrapping — when a business owner pays for the business expenses.

We have a wonderful free webinar titled “How to raise money for your startup” of which you can definitely benefit from.

That’s not to say you shouldn’t get funding. If done right, working with investors can give you more than money — it can provide meaningful connections, advice, and mentorship.

Let’s circle back to our business plan for a minute.

All business plans contain a financial plan, which usually includes:

• Balance sheet
• Sales forecast
• Profit and loss statement
• Cash-flow statement

You’ll use your financial statements to define how much funding you need to raise in order to get started.

Getting a bank loan is ancient history. There are other, more optimal, ways of securing funding for your startup, for example:

• Incubators, for example, help startups accelerate their growth by providing support through training, office space, mentorship, and network connections. Incubators, however, usually demand quite a bit of equity from your company before you even get started.
• Crowdfunding is the process of raising money from your future customers and/or fans. It’s a great way to increase awareness and gain equity without giving away any ownership of your company. However, crowdfunding offers no mentorship or education like an incubator or a venture capitalist might.
• Venture Capital is private money that, for the most part, is given to startups that show high, long-term growth potential. Similar to incubators, VC is a give-and-take scenario — venture capitalists give money and take equity, thus gaining a seat at the table for company decisions. You might want to consider if you appreciate the extra voice — some do, others don’t.
• Angel Investors are high net worth individuals who are frequently entrepreneurs themselves. They look to fund startups in the same industry as their own and sometimes co-invest with other angel investors or group of investors.

Pro-tip: if you find a potential investor, make sure you know how to pitch your idea quickly and effectively. You need to have your financial numbers memorized forwards and backward.

Refer to your business plan — make certain it’s attractive so you can hand them a copy, but also be sure to nail down your verbal explanation of your startup strategy.

Once you secure the adequate funding, you can proceed to the next steps in launching your startup.

4- Surround yourself with the right talent

You’re probably going to need some help in launching your startup. It’s critical to find the right, motivated, talent with the appropriate skill sets.

Sure, you may recognize that you’ll need some staff and maybe a manager to help run your startup. But, is that it?

Where do you start? How many people do you need?

In the tech industry, for example, research shows that the great majority of startups are small teams — often no more than 5, built off of around $1 million in funding!

Other, less scalable industries, might require much more staff.

Imagine if your business is in the restaurant industry. You would at least need wait staff, cooks, and managers.

It’s worth mentioning that it is essential to provide your team with a platform where they can communicate, collaborate and get involved in the growth and innovation process. Be sure to install transparent feedback loops for your team so they can openly give feedback on ideas, your business, strategies, etc. — further driving the innovation process.

Pro-tip: Always, no matter your industry, make sure your overall strategy is lean, agile, and flexible. Keep your utility costs down. Be open to hiring remote workers, going global, and eliminating country borders.

5- Seek out the right consultants

It’s always wise to consult with lawyers, accountants, and financial advisors.

Unless, for some reason, you’re an expert in law, finance, and accounting, these three individuals can help save your startup some significant money in the long run.

Like we mentioned before, venture capitalists and angel investors usually have a ton of experience and a great source for mentorship, guidance, and consultancy.

The right legal team, in particular, can help protect and monetize your idea with patents.

Patents can help you make money with your idea as a startup. They facilitate venture capital investment, guarantee your freedom to operate, help secure joint ventures and partnerships, allow you to increase your market share, and increase the chances your startup will be acquired.

Pro-tip: Venture capitalists love patents — patents can increase your startup’s valuation by $1 million! Get the right guidance, work out your numbers, and don’t miss out on all the benefits!

6- Establish a strong IP strategy

There is absolutely no doubt — intellectual property is one of the most worthwhile investments for your startup.

Your ability to protect and assert these rights can determine your success or failure.

Unfortunately, in the midst of numerous factors that go into launching a startup, the word “Intellectual Property” is often not considered a priority. And sometimes, when it is considered, there’s a misconception that IP is simply too expensive.

It’s true. Some patent agencies can end up being pricey, but that’s not always the case. For example, at KISSPatent, we have transparent, reasonable, and fixed-price processes that are well-suited for all sorts of different needs and budgets.

In today’s competitive and dynamic environment, IP can be a unique selling proposition (USP) of the product or service, and it certainly helps create a sustainable and defensible differentiator for your startup.

By owning IP, a high entry barrier is established, thereby helping you grow your venture faster with respect to your competitors’ offerings.

IP is always given high valuation by investors. They want to see what IP a startup has, how it was developed and what rights the company has towards their use.

IP is, in fact, an asset for its owner and has a commercial value attached to it.

It’s important to spend some time and budgeting, at an early stage, to formulate an IP strategy for your startup to provide a strong foundation for future growth, investment, and potentially even an IPO or sale.

Pro-tip: Get ahead of the curve and avoid the most common patent mistakes. There are specific steps and a specific order you must stick to or you may risk not being able to protect your startup at all!

For the rest of the steps to launching your startup, head over to our blog and check out the complete article — you won’t want to miss the next crucial steps!

Consider us your partner on your startup journey. Regardless of what stage you’re in, we know it’s an emotional, risky, difficult, scary, exciting, and rewarding journey. We’d be honored if you make KISSPatent a partner on your path towards growth and victory.

We are your go-to resource for all things Patent and IP! Learn how you can secure and grow your startup with instructive daily insights from our Learning Hub: https://kisspatent.com/learning-hub

Still hungry for more? There is a wealth of information in our Resource Center! Explore our ebooks, whitepapers, webinars, and more: https://kisspatent.com/resourcecenter

If you have questions regarding your particular business scenario, don’t hesitate to reach out. We’re more than happy to help! Schedule a call with our experts here: https://kisspatent.com/contact

Originally published at https://kisspatent.com on May 31, 2019.