A Brief Startup Guide, or How to Survive in Silicon Valley

My business story began long before moving to the USA. Back in my student years, in my third year, I began to service aquariums. It was interesting when you are still a kid, but you are already starting to hire people and start your own business.

But, as often happens, the first attempt to create a successful business was unsuccessful, and after the closure of the “aquarium” business, four years of the film industry awaited me.

We worked as line producers. The main task was to organize people and the work of departments. We managed to work in different parts of the world. After filming, I felt that I could realize any event.

However, I did not want to stay in Ukraine, and the desire to “go to IT” led to the entry into 42 school and a radical change in profession. It seemed to me that I was losing something without entering the IT sphere. Companies at the peak, something incredible is happening in this market, and I’m not there yet.

I have already moved to Silicon Valley as a programmer using the Green Card lottery.

There is no work – we will build a business

The search for work in the specialty was unsuccessful. With each failure of managers, confidence became less and less, and the desire to realize their business on the contrary grew. I realized that I will make the business faster than I find a job.

With such thoughts, I tried several ideas at the same time: website rental, online menus and photo coloizer, although they found a response from users, did not justify the investment.

But PostoHub it was different.

How it all began?

An internship in the team that developed Email Builder gave me the idea that people want to not only create beautiful emails, but also send them through one system without downloading.

Such functionality would significantly expand the capabilities of the service. Only to create it was not so simple. I started looking for people in Ukraine who can do this. Some guys responded and started working on outsourcing.

The idea is ready, the performers are found, there is not enough detail – to approve and start work. However, I did not take into account that the business in Silicon Valley operates on completely different principles.

Business without a contract – a car without wheels

The scheme for building a business is as follows: the founders of the company collect the right audience and monetize it through the product that other teams create.

Profit, as a rule, is divided in half or distributed in a predetermined proportion.

The Joint Venture Agreement, an agreement providing for the merger of two parties to create one company, turned out to be an alternative option for cooperation.

The development of the service itself lasted more than two months, but the company was in no hurry to approve the received contract. In the end, plans for further cooperation have changed.

After two and a half months, they sent me a completely different document, which states that they will only share the percentage with us. In this situation, we had no control.

Such prospects did not satisfy me and the team. In addition, conversion and audience estimates have clarified a key detail – there will be few customers.

Imagine: I am leaving the project in 3-5 years, and I and the co-founders have nothing. Therefore, we decided to move on independently.

Transformation into a full service

A successful solution was to find companies to integrate and attract customers. Thanks to this, PostoHub has become an independent, full-fledged service and received client requests.

But the release of the product dragged on. We had to refine every little thing in order to prevent mistakes at the very beginning. We even came to how we will work, but the release was constantly delayed. Many things had to be done without which the product should not be launched.

By and large, the goal of PostoHub is to simplify communication between the company and the client. Now the service works as an email marketing tool, but the functionality will be improved by integrations and transactions.

Thus, we want to close the small and medium business in communications, which would be simple, clear and inexpensive.

What about the money?

First, the project budget was collected by the team itself. But soon we received the first tranche from a private investor.

To be attractive to investors, you need some kind of track record and background. It’s just that they don’t give money, but if you have experience behind you, the money will find you.

In our case, Amazon was interested in PostoHub – we received $ 15 thousand. In work on the cloud service AWS (Amazon Web Services).

З чого почати стартаперу?

In the end, given personal experience, I’m sure that if you create a startup, you need:

• to test several ideas at the same time and not focus on one;
• do not develop an idea from scratch – you can always find something similar, for example, for CodeСanyon and continue working so as not to waste time;
• closely monitor the processes around: the problems that you or your employer face every day is a potential idea for a startup;
• to travel more is an understanding of the market, the needs of the audience and what can be introduced into us,
• constantly monitor the audience and listen to it, people themselves will tell what they would like to see;
  sell even when the product is not yet available, it is important to know: your idea will come or not.

Advantages of a startup in the USA

• motivation and support from others, screwing up is the norm;
• thematic hackathons and conferences for startups: at such events you can find useful contacts, demonstrate your project and attract investors;
• the opportunity to work on the entire English-speaking market;
• large companies allow you to create startups inside.

And what are the disadvantages?

• there are a lot of nuances in US law and their decisions take time;
• high competition, which has to deal with world top companies. The stakes are very high and lack of skill can be a major problem;
• raising money with a pandemic has become even more difficult.

Regardless of the country and niche, a quality idea, a professional team and a willingness to work for the result are a universal formula for a startup’s success.

A startup is a series of mistakes that you learn from. You can achieve success by starting with minimal budgets and working in your free time.

Source: nv.ua