More often than not, an aspiring entrepreneur without any
technical background will find it much harder to start a tech startup.
Although it is getting easier to pick up programming skills with
platforms like Codecademy, Khan Academy and the likes, learning enough
technical skills to be proficient enough for your tech startup still
take a long time.
So what can a non-technical founder do?
As it turns out, there are plenty of things a non-technical
founder can do to kick start a tech startup. Here are some suggestions:
Test Value Proposition
What is the biggest pain point that your startup is solving, and how do you communicate that to your target audience?
That may be one of the most important question a founder
must answer. Fortunately, you can find the answer without having any
technical skills. There are a couple of ways you can find out what
message and value proposition resonates best with your target audience.
1. Facebook Ads or Google Adwords
Test value propositions by creating a different ad for each
proposition. Run these ads on Facebook or Google Adwords (or even both,
if your budget allows it) and track which value proposition gets the
most clicked. This will be the proposition that best resonate with your
target audience.
If you’re not sure who exactly is your target audience,
which isn’t an uncommon problem when you just started out, you can also
test that with ads. Just target different value propositions with
different set of audience and track which audience/value-proposition set
gave you the best returns.
2. Landing Pages
If an ad (usually limited to 70 - 90 characters) cannot
fully encapsulate the value you are creating, test it with landing pages
instead. There are plenty of tools out there to help you create landing
pages without needing you to know how to code. Here are some of them:
Start Making Money
Nothing validates your idea better than people putting
their money on it. You can do that on your landing page, or you can
leverage on existing platforms for that.
If you’re interested to start a hardware company, you can test it out
by running crowdfunding campaigns on sites such as Kickstarter and
Indiegogo.If you’re interested to start a software company, you can test it out on Fiverr. Fiverr is a marketplace where you can find people to do tasks (or called ‘gigs’ on the site) online for $5. Since an algorithm is just automated human intelligence, you can start testing your idea by providing a service manually.
Here are some examples of different kinds of software businesses, and how it can be converted into gigs on Fiverr.
-
Homejoy (Marketplace) – “I will find and validate qualified home cleaners in your vicinity who fit your schedule.”
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Moz (Saas) – “I will analyze your website and give you ideas on how to improve your site’s SEO.”
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Groupon (E-commerce) – “I will bring you hundreds of new customers to your offline store.”
Design And Test Your Product
As the visionary of your product, you can start designing
how your product should look like. The most basic way of creating a
prototype is to draw it on paper. Otherwise, there are free or cheap
tools that can help you create a clickable prototype:
Once you have a prototype or mock-up of your product, talk to your
users to find out what they want and what they like and don’t like about
your product. The best way to do that is to meet your users and watch
them ‘use’ your prototype, but that may not always be possible.Another alternative is to install a live chat tool, such as Olark or Zopim (both have free plans), if you have a landing page or existing website. Otherwise, you can create short usability tests on UsabilityHub.
Demonstrate Value To Bring A Technical Person On Board
At the end of the day, you need a technical person (whether as a co-founder or a founding member) in a tech startup. And the best way to attract a smart technical person to join you is to demonstrate that your business has value and you are the best person to run this. The three tips above should help you get started on it. Good luck!
Credit: http://fi.co/posts/11181
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