It’s not easy to balance new features vs paying technical debt. I see building software like buying a house.
Very few young people can wait long enough to buy a house in cash - they need a mortgage.
Very few young companies can afford wait long enough to build perfect software so they need to borrow some technical debt.
Just like your mortgage, you need to pay back technical debt even though you’d like to spend your money (or ressources) elsewhere.
It is literally right there on the top right corner: “Startups are companies that are designed to grow and scale rapidly.”. With Food & Beverage you have to produce and sell inventory - you want to double your sales, you need to double your production. That doesn’t scale at the same magnitude as a tech company who sell the same service many times over.
With a cash strapped startup you do need to deliver version one fast and version two right. If you take the time to it right at the beginning, chances are that you will run out of money before the product is even out.
Worse, you might work your ass off building something polished that will not resonate with the market and generate any sales - so you will have to redo it all anyway. It is very very very very rare that a startup nails the product market fit on the first try.
There are other entrepreneurship subs, even food & beverage related ones that will probably more helpful. “Startups” refers here to tech companies that can scale exponentially - they have their own set of challenges that won’t apply to you. You will have some challenges that tech startups don’t usually have - like inventory.
Define large. Thousands of records? Millions? Bilions? Are records always structured in the same way? Is keyword search a requirement? If so that is often where performances can vary dramatically.
Who’s getting the money for what? I don’t understand your question.
To add to what other people are saying, in the early years you are more of a cofounder than a CTO. You have to do what it takes, whether or not it is part of the job description of a CTO. Once you get bigger you’ll fall more and more into the traditional CTO role as new hires will take over some of your non-traditional responsibilities.
In other words, the titles don’t matter much at the beginning.
I’d say the only thing that matter tech-wise is that you want your potential investors to be able to look at your deck without going through hoops like creating an account, instalingl some viewer or some shit. PowerPoint might be old, but everybody can open one easily. Personally I share PDFs made in something else.
If you are thinking of 50/50, just be very well aware of the risks. I’ve seen too many grown men (and women) cry because they are stuck in a deadlock.
AI will make content marketing worse - there will be too much of it and people will expect it all to be AI generated - so to be the same regurgitated content over and over. People will just learn to entirely ignore it.
$10K MRR is typically when you can start getting attention for the typical SaaS business. But that varies greatly by industry.
$10K MRR is typically when you can start getting attention for the typical SaaS business. But that varies greatly by industry.
You can’t employ kids, that illegal.
Kidding aside, a separate office space with clear rules with the kids is the only thing I saw work.
You need to TALK with them.
Well… this IS toxic. Couples are supposed to support each other in dreams and hardships. It seems you two may not have fully discussed this before getting into it. Maybe you didn’t know yourself how much work this would represent. It is a bit late for that but you have to sit down and talk this through.
IMHO she needs to be more supportive, but you two have to be realistic about how difficult this is going to be. 9 out of 10 startups fails and it usually takes years before it starts to really pay off. If your finances does not allow you to be without an income for a while, you do need a « real » job…
Is there a local tech incubator in your area? They are great places to meet like minded individuals.
Also friends… nothing beats a good old personal reference.
well… to successfully fundraise you need to master your narrative and have a thoughtful answer to all the typical questions. It is fine to get external help, but your deck must be perfectly aligned with your vision and plan and nobody these better than YOU. You do have a clear vision and plan in your mind, right? If not this is where you need to start before building a deck.
You’ll know when it’s time - customers will ask for it. (and that may never happen)
Actually being in Mexico could help you. I’m sure there are government programs and subsidies in your country that could help make do business internationally. Other countries also could have programs especially for you - I believe I saw something here in Canada to facilitate exchange with Latin-America.
The secret to success in business is to learn what you need to learn as quickly as possible. Best way to do it is through struggles and even failures. You’re young, I assume you don’t have a house or a family who need financial stability. You have little to lose. Go for it if you are still passionate about your idea.
The alternatives are selling licenses, selling ads, selling support or selling services. The problem with licenses is that they are not recurring so you have to come up with new stuff all the time to sell more, especially to existing customers. Selling support works fairly well for open source. Services don’t scale when you need twice the staff to double your sales.