If there’s one major hindrance when it comes to entrepreneurs wanting to launch and build successful tech startups, is that they lack technical ability, skill and advisory. Unless you can find yourself a technical co-founder, or even if you have a technical cofounder, not understanding the core basics of technology will halt your progress in increasing your chances of success. You can argue by solving the problem by hiring developers, or outsourcing your initial MVP, but do you really know what you’re doing? Is it cost-effective? Do you have the right tech stack for your product? Do you have the right security?
You don’t have to be a technical rockstar or coder to understand the core basics around building a strong tech product. Taking these 6 essentials into account will ensure you know your product better than anyone else, and you know exactly what you’re developers are doing.
1. Which Language? Do I need to know code?
Firstly, if you’re a CEO, no you don’t need to know code – however, it’s not a surprise pattern to see that most successful unicorn founders have strong technical ability or were previously developers in their careers.
The real questions that need to be answered are;
- Do you know what the main languages are the rapid development? (i.e. Ruby on Rails, AngularJs, PHP, NodeJs, Python, etc.)
Why do you need to know this? These technologies are pivotal for early-stage startups. These coding languages are super powerful when it comes to prototyping and split-testing for consumer behaviour.
- Which framework should your product by built with in coordination with the development language?
Most of the time, your developer will tell you which one is best. Frameworks have various characteristics in relation to their performance, hence reading about main development frameworks will certainly increase your knowledge.
2. Which architecture?
Planning out the entire technology stack for a new web startup is a process wrought with errors. Hence, developers will plan and highlight the preferred tech platform and technical design to launch a product. Here are some questions and research for you to cover;
- What type of architecture makes sense for my product?
There are numerous architecture frameworks for building products and not knowing every single one of them won’t affect your chances for success. Understanding the differences between MVC, Service-oriented architecture, microservices and others, will help for your technical knowledge, but not vital. It will be vital when talking to developers or hiring developers down the track. If you’re someone starting out new or outsourcing, a technical friend will be able to answer this question for you.
3. Servers
(via arstechnica.com)
What most non-tech founders get caught up in is the cloud around about how they are going to build their product. Well, what about when the product is finally launched/released? What happens then?
- Which server do I need? AWS, Azure or Rackspace?
To keep it simple, they all have the one common goal: ensuring your product is up to perform for your minimum user base, speed and scalability. They all do have various characteristic and are more applicable towards certain platforms, so researching the main servers for hosting your application for global use is essential.
4. Do I need Security?
The answer to this is yes. I’m not necessarily talking about someone hacking your product features, or your website, etc – I’m referring to someone hacking your data. In many cases, your data is your IP, and I can assure you don’t want that to be hacked.
- How can I make sure that no one steals the data that I care about?
Security can be a confusing topic if you aren’t technical. You will need get a technical advisor for this question. These questions will also come into play once you have a technical co-founder or hired a developer, but what about if you’re going solo in the early-stage? Do you need to worry about securing your data from day 1? Again, the answer is yes. Technical advisory will be key.
5. Development Lifecycle
(vi timtrott.com.uk)
I’m hoping that despite not being a technical founder or have minimal technical background that you know the answer to this question.
Agile, agile, agile!!
If you’re from the corporate world and have come across digital project development, I’m sure you have heard of the ‘waterfall method’. In startups, everything must be agile. Rapid, cost-effective and short development cycles are crucial for your startup’s success.
6. Costs
After taking all the above essentials into account, now it’s time to finalise the last argument around building a successful business – cost.
- What will my idea cost me in time and dollars to build if I use a freelancer, offshore contractor or full-time developer?
- How much do I need to build for my first version?
To give you some rough price points, to build a simple iPhone app can cost you anything around $1000-$3000, a medium complexity app around $10,000 and if you’re looking to build something around enterprise, then the price will be north $25,000. What it really comes to understanding is what you need, and this reflects back to your business model. Set your own timeline. Make sure you’ve done the customer research. What did your customers say? What do they really need and why? How much are they willing to pay? This should answer exactly what you need to have for the first version, and ultimately, how much you need to sacrifice from your pocket.
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