Hey everyone, I’m here looking for some advice on what to do next. So, here’s a bit of background: I’m not a tech person but I’ve been working on this idea for a while. Since I don’t have the tech skills or enough money to fully hire an agency, I’ve been trying to find a tech co-founder, but everyone in my circle is more into finance and marketing.

Recently, I found a company that helps you polish your pitch and raise funds. As a uni student, I didn’t have much but I put my 10k into their program because it looked solid with great testimonials and they seemed picky about who they took on. I didn’t find any red flags, so I went for it and shared all my research, ideas, validation, UI/UX, product info, and so on. But then, I discovered they’ve launched a very same startup under a different name. They seemed really into my ideas after a thorough review. Now I’m wondering, is this just a coincidence or a breach of confidentiality? What should I do about this situation with the firm? Also, as a non-technical founder who’s now 10k down, what are my next steps?

  • sizzle-d@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    Are you married to that idea, or want to start a tech company? It’s very possible to gain customers and provide a solution without building custom software as your starting point.

    If the problem is painful enough, you could provide a solution that customers will pay for today. You can then use this early revenue to fund the building software. Which will hopefully allow for an increase in revenue and potential scale.

    Depending on your idea, many tactics will allow you to do this.

    Here are a few examples:
    - Use humans to provide the service manually and progressively automate the work
    - Use no-code to solve a smaller part of the problem
    - Presell the solution to someone who was thinking about building something similar in-house

    There are many more tactics out there, and you can get creative and develop some of your own.

    This will also open up more options for building your tech. You will have funding to hire an agency. Or have the kind of traction that will attract a better technical co-founder.

    Another option would be to apply to an accelerator.