Do you dream of starting your own company and make a meaningful change in the world? Entrepreneurship is one of the major global trends nowadays, and if you also plan on launching your startup soon, it is worth seeing how the land lies. Startups may initially sound like risky business because of all the surrounding uncertainty but with the right technical knowledge, you’ll be well equipped and ready to dive into a new adventure.
From my experience working in a bespoke software development company with unicorn startups (valued more than US$1 billion) on its portfolio, I know that all kinds of factors contribute to a company’s big success. Usually, even exceptionally good ideas aren’t reliable predictors of success. Instead, you’ll need a solid business model, initial capital, reliable software development partners, and a devoted internal team to attain new business heights.
Nowadays, media cover full of startup success stories from all over the world, so everything you read about is actually possible for you as well if you have a clear vision and strategic partners on your side. Read further to find out more about software engineering behind a startup:
- What is the Role of Software Engineering in a Startup?
Essentially, software engineering helps startup founders write code that solves problems and supports their business model. It’s important to understand the business side of things and how they affect what you’re doing. For example, if you’re working on a B2B product that’s going to be used by 1,000 companies, you need to know which features are most important for the first 100 customers and build an MVP (Minimal Viable Product) first. It is rarely the case that your first product will be your best one, so make sure you ask for client’s and end user’s feedback regularly. This will help you find product weak spots that you can communicate to make design improvements.
The sense of urgency among startup founders and product managers to constantly innovate and change markets is real. If your product is not recognised as desirable and relevant by your target audience, think about possible feature optimisations, friendlier UI/UX design etc. As most of the emerging startups use cutting edge technologies such as blockchain, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Augmented Reality (AR), wearables etc., make sure you concentrate a lot of effort into mobile optimisations, as more than half of the web traffic comes from mobile devices.
- Decide if Outsourcing is Right for You
What do all successful business leaders have in common? They all surround themselves with highly skilled individuals and know the importance of task delegation. No matter the level of seniority, we each have 24 hours available, and as a startup founder, you should learn the value of time. To take off some of the pressure, especially in the beginning, consider the option of choosing a nearshore outsourcing partner to help you with non-core business tasks like custom software development.
Ask yourself what type of know-how does your in-house team have? Which particular tasks do you absolutely insist on staying in-house, and what’s your team capacity to perform them (e.g. project management, software architecture design, quality assurance etc.)? How do you plan to get startup funding? Set up a meeting with your startup partners and discuss whether you have the technical talent to build business solutions on your own or whether it would be more reasonable if you hire a vendor company. Choosing a technical team with experience in software engineering in your field, be it in finance, logistics or healthcare, guarantees you a high-quality system and a shorter time to market.
- How to Endure Rapid Development Cycles
Rapid development cycles are a normal practice these days thanks to the surge in the adoption of Agile software development worldwide. In order to engage your tech partners throughout the whole development stages, established Agile methodologies like Scrum or Kanban can come in handy. In addition, the element of collaboration along with clearly defined individual responsibilities should be evident in architecture, design, coding and other project-related tasks. Practical visual tools like Kanban or Trello boards or Jira Sprints are a great way to keep ongoing tasks well organised and transparent.
Another thing you can do that will foster continuous development is to automate processes as much as possible. For software engineers, distractions and time-consuming processes are the two main progress blockers that can slow down development processes. Numerous productivity solutions out there, e.g. Zapier or WorkFlowy, can help your team improve workflow and handle repetitive everyday tasks.
- Can I do All This by Myself?
There is no harm in reading inspirational articles on how to run a one-man show and be the next Elon Musk, Steve Jobs or Jeff Bezos. As long as you stay down to Earth, at least. Even if you are e natural genius, have deep programming knowledge, and exceptional coding skills, chances are you’ll still need a team to succeed. In the initial stages of startups, the workloads are so heavy that no single person could do it all on her or his own. The good news is that many young and talented software developers intentionally choose startups over big corporations because of the team culture, enthusiasm and faster career growth.
In this article, you can find a nice overview of the key responsibilities and role division of software engineers in a startup context. When hiring tech experts as part of your startup, make sure that they possess both extensive theoretical knowledge and can also provide practical experience with the technologies you plan to use in your product or service. Ideally, the dev team should have previous field experience that can be backed up. Moreover, during interviews, sense their work ethics and attitude, as it is essential not to just be able to pinpoint a problem but to actually have the knowledge to solve it
- Stay Open to Emerging Tech Trends
If you are open to emerging technologies, your startup has a greater chance to succeed because it will catch an innovation wave in a new, still unsaturated market. Adaptability and innovation will always be crucial criteria to secure competitive advantage, so don’t let new trends pass you by. To illustrate my point, just search for NFTs (non-fungible tokens) and see how they still make global media headlines, and you’ll hopefully understand the potential of booming trends.
Blockchain technology and products (not just cryptocurrencies) based on are certainly here to stay, so if you’re serious about your startup, make sure you always strive to remain relevant and to adapt to the ever-changing customer needs. AI and its subtype Machine Learning and IoT devices are also hot topics that have no intent to stepping down anytime soon. Thus, once you’ve embarked on your startup journey, keep on exploring new business opportunities to realise with a reliable software development partner on your side.
