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Can you please give me advise on my early startup game plan?
I'm trying to start a company in the real estate tech space. Currently, I'm validating the problem, looking for the best customer-problem fit by being aware of its frequency and intensity. I'm using carrd.co to build quick prototypes to investigate the problem with potential customers. Up until now, life is good, and YC's advise is working amazingly.
But I have two obstacles that are really weighing me down. The first is that my job at a bank is making it hard to talk to users, as I can't talk to them after work or on weekends (they're just not there). The second, is my lack of coding skills. I can build quick, good looking prototypes just fine on Carrd, but I know that I'm going to need a co founder to launch something that works and improve it on a bi-weekly basis. Plus, there's a huge legal aspect with my idea, so do I need a third co-founder with a legal background? So here is my game plan to solve each, but I want your opinion, whoever you beautiful person are:
The Job:
I'm trying to secure fifteen minute talks with users during working hours to investigate the problem. That's pretty doable. But, that's not so useful when showcasing prototypes to see if whatever solution I have is actually helpful. I’m saving up money to go on an entrepreneurial break. But I need to save enough to afford a living for and my wife, and enough to pay off a loan I have. In the interim, I’m changing jobs to get a better salary and I’ll start using my annual leaves once a week to increase the time I can spend on my start-up. Whenever my leaves run out, I can just take unpaid ones. The problem here is that it’s going to take me more than a year (two more or less) to save enough money and payout the loan.
The skills:
I’m currently using website builders to make prototypes. But the options I’m working have some limitation. I am thinking about building a functional website as soon as I pinpoint the needs of my customers with the help of an IT development company, then outsource the work on iterations to freelancers. That's the most cost effective way I can think about, but it will still cost me. I just don’t know how much. I firmly believe that finding a technical co-founder is the way to go, but I need to double down on searching for one in my circle. In terms of the legal expertise, it's critical because the nature of our problem requires a solution with adequate agency cost mitigation. This might need big bucks to outsource.
Now the question is: what part of my plan is wrong, what is missing, and what is actually good?
Love to hear your guidance,
Thanks!!
- kidgorgeous 4y agobubble.io is a popular no code tool. As far as the interviews, hire a freelancer on upwork.com or fiverr.com. You can even find bubble.io devs on there. Good luck.
- FaresAlgahtani 4y agoThank you so much! Bubble looks very promising. For the interviews, I really believe its something I should be involved in. The Eureka moment you have when interviewing customers is something that's hard to delegate
- FaresAlgahtani 4y agoWould love to hear more opinions and suggestions