Resilient

4Idea to Product: Building a Startup

Your biggest problem of the day should be how you are going to bridge the gap between where you are and where you want to be.

—Sevetri Wilson

There are many paths to take when starting a company. The two I continuously focus on in this book are: starting with funding and starting without funding. Each path from idea to product will look totally different because while some founders will have luxuries to begin with, others just won't.

Starting With Funding

If you start a company with funding you'll have money available to cover expenses such as engineers, marketing, and product development for a year or two at a minimum. This money can come from your personal account, a friends and family round, or outside investors.

In the case that you start your company with funding, you will have the luxury of being able to spend time on customer and product development. You'll be able to focus on:

1. Finding the problem(s)
2. Looking at potential solutions and interviewing customers about these solutions, hopefully using a mockup or quick prototype
3. Developing a minimal and viable product, and then consistently improving the product over time as customers are using it

Starting Without Funding

I would argue that your focal area when starting your company with little or no money is much different than if you did have money. Without funding, you need to focus on staying as lean as possible! As I discussed in my book Solid Ground, it's much easier to start ...