3 ms·
> In its early stages, the only thing a startup “absolutely needs” is traction; traction will have to happen before everything else; before funding, before medi
by smanuel 12y ago
> In its early stages, the only thing a startup “absolutely needs” is traction; traction will have to happen before everything else; before funding, before media exposure, and now before co-founders as well.
Well, the author just described a good portion of the startup scene which do many of these things before traction. Traction happens because of media exposure, which happens because of funding, etc.
> and now before co-founders as well
If the founder is the CTO, yes. Otherwise, how can you get traction without a working product. I don't get it.
- yeka 12y ago> Traction happens because of media exposure, which happens because of funding, etc. I believe funding isn't the only source of media exposure. You can get traction by creating something people want first, then use a lot of channels like HN itself, reddit and product hunt to get your initial traction. Those initial efforts may get you in an accelerator, or even get you your first seed round. So I think there is a lot a founder can do before hitting the funding milestone.
- smanuel 12y agoI don't think HN, reddit and PH can help much with consumer products/services or for some sectors like... healthcare. > by creating something people want first You can create something people want and people may never know about it.
- nadac 12y agoIt's true that for some startups, it's hard to start without a product, but that's rare. A perfect example would be any of the the "fake-it-till-you-make-it" startup success stories out there, who launch a crappy MVP with just some front, and do the work manually on the back until they get some paying customers and can build the actual product that'll do the work for them.