The idea for this post has been in my head for some time. The idea did not take its form immediately - there were several moments in recent months when I suddenly understood something new about the future post.

Just because a harsh reality exists doesn't mean you shouldn't. Best time to become an entrepreneur is not tomorrow, not next week, and certainly not in a year. This time is right now, this very second, and here's why.

The time of your life will be yours

I give this reason first because it is the reason that motivates you to create a startup the most.

This activity takes a lot of time, but it's an exciting activity! This is an adventure that you will remember for a lifetime, whether you succeed or not. It was once said that everyone should try to become a rock star once in their life.

While writing this article, I realized how much I really love all this - and uncertainty, and the feeling of victory, and failure, and meetings with clients, with the press and so on.

I can't imagine what I would do without all this, and if the same can be said about you, then you will eventually feel the same way.

You can create something from nothing

Few professionals have the strength to create something out of absolutely nothing. Perhaps right now you have some kind of "crazy" idea in your head that you can bring into the world. It exists for the time being in the form of a sketch on a napkin or a file with a picture, etc., but in the end it will become a reality.

There is a chance that this idea will affect the lives of many people, millions of people around the world. Few people could achieve this even 20 years ago. Now it is possible for everyone and everywhere.

I rarely express myself so categorically, because I understand what it costs, but I absolutely sincerely believe that opportunities to launch a startup can turn up absolutely anywhere. Of course, in poor countries it is more difficult, but still possible.

This knowledge is now available

Once upon a time, entrepreneurship was like a closed club or some kind of secret art. In order to comprehend the intricacies of entrepreneurship, it was necessary to spend a lot of money on attending seminars and buying smart books.

All this can be done now, but now you can learn entrepreneurship in a different way. Everywhere can be found real stories successful or unsuccessful businesses. They are everywhere, even on this very site, they appear hourly in posts on news sites, daily on Mixergy, and you can find a lot of them on Twitter.

Detailed instructions on how to go from zero income to a profitable business, all knowledge about all stages of this path are in the public domain - and for free.

"Cloudy" Computing and Web Applications get you started at no extra cost

Ten years ago, a lot of money was required for software and hardware to start. If you were planning anything on a grand scale, it might take an initial outlay of half a million to buy the equipment YOU need.

The software for internal needs cost a lot, despite the fact that the choice was small. The software required for development was even more expensive. Now we have at our service a developed system of open source databases and development tools, as well as "cloud computing" systems.

Thanks to this progress in software, the so-called. "startup weekends" - three-day work sessions with the support of IT experts, where a crude idea can be turned into a well-thought-out project.

It’s even inconvenient to write such things, because we come to almost everything ready. A web service like Amazon EC2 costs money, but now you can use it for free to test a project at an early stage.

Of course, your own time isn't free, but it's saved thanks to libraries and frameworks like JQuery and Ruby On Rails. All chances are that if you need something, you will find it, and for free. And if not, you will at least find someone to consult with.

Place doesn't matter - in the beginning

I still keep thinking that depending on the type of business and the scale achieved, one or the other geographical areas may suit you better or worse. But these days, you can run your company from anywhere in the world and be famous everywhere.

I see more and more companies operating in a wide variety of locations in the US and abroad. Take a look at Balsamiq, WooThemes, or see where Backupify comes from (out of Kentucky!).

The ability to have access to clients is now available globally, and your team can also be distributed in space thanks to what was discussed above (cloud computing).

Working together face to face is a good thing, but it's much easier to book a plane ticket once every 8 weeks than to settle in California.

If the location of the firm bothers you, then don't worry anymore.

Resist the urge to settle in Silicon Valley right from the start. If geography will matter to your cause, you will understand it in due time. Most importantly, you can start right now, and right from where you are, without spending money to impress your customers.

Media attention can be gained overnight

In order to start a business, get the attention of the press, it was necessary to hire an expensive advertising company and pay 10 thousand dollars a month.

Nowadays, a good product with a well crafted story can become famous overnight and get the attention of the mainstream media. Look at Chat Roulette. While not a great business, it is a prime example of how a company can gain exposure and good press overnight.

There are more ways to get clients than ever before

Acquiring a clientele has always been difficult. It took a lot of money to start making money.

On a large scale, of course, and now it will take a lot of money to create a "sales machine" optimized in terms of CAC (user acquisition cost), LTV (user monetization), etc., but to get started, you can use a lot of channels for obtaining clients.

PR, inbound marketing, search engine marketing, private life events, platform-based distribution, direct selling, affiliate programs, and many other channels. They can be used strategically without spending a lot of capital.

Why is it important? It's like having more spare "lives" in a video game. Many channels will not work, this is life. But with more channels, you have more opportunities for success.

A startup starts earning your living pretty quickly

It used to take a new business years and years of unprofitable work to get to the point where it starts making enough money so that you at least have enough to live on. Moreover, for this it was required to invest a lot of money at first, usually in the form of savings and loans.

In our times, everything is different. You can start charging for software and increase the number of customers at some (low) level on the profitability scale and quickly get to the point where at least your cost of living pays off. In addition, we live in a subscription and subscription economy, where revenues are recursive.

Without even talking about such things as the techniques of accelerating the turnover of securities, buyers these days are such a gift that comes back to you again and again. It won't make you rich overnight, but it's enough for a development team to create software and make a living for 6 months.

Starting a venture company usually looks different, but the lifestyle of software vendors can often be exactly that. 37 Signals decided to remain an independent team, but if they wanted to raise money and show rapid growth, they could have done it a long time ago.

Capital can be raised over a wide range if you need it

The world of capital raising is going through an interesting transition right now. As entrepreneurs have fewer required milestones to go through, a new class of investors is emerging who are pursuing smaller and smaller projects.

In the past, getting a project up and running required a larger sponsorship or a larger share of the issuance of first preferred shares to be exchanged for debt. Transactions took time, and conditions fluctuated widely.

Now the spectrum has been greatly expanded. You can get funding from YCombinator or from TechStars at the level of 18k just for the idea and the presence of a capable team, if the project has a number of advantages at the "seed stage", you can raise 250-500k.

And traditionally, a larger attraction of funds from informal investors of the first stage ("angels") will bring about a million dollars to the figures (the same can be achieved by issuing preferred shares with conversion into debt obligations).

In fact, when you think about it, I don't recall a case where such a full share issue at the initial stage of the project succeeded ... A word of caution: many people think that they need to raise money just because they read about it in the newspapers.

This is the wrong approach. Money should be raised only for a specific reason. In the case of a small initial investment of about 18k from YCombinator, it is usually required to present the first working version of the product, which can be provided to customers for testing.

Any amounts above this should be strategic and have in mind certain consumers and what should attract them. If you do not yet know what it is in your case, do not rush to attract money yet.

You will make friends and connections that will stay with you for life.

This is one of the top three reasons to start a startup. The friends you make will stay with you for life. There will be a connection that unites you. Only another entrepreneur can understand what an entrepreneur is going through.

We tend to stick together and the bond that is created between us is very deep. I've been doing this for about five years since I was in my 20s. Many of my friends have now become my friends right then, at the time when I started the first business. In addition, the world is very small, especially if it is a world of high-tech entrepreneurship.

Many give up along the way and come to the conclusion that entrepreneurship is not for them. If you stay in this circle long enough, this circle shrinks and you see that people who started at the same time as you have gone far ahead.

For example, when I first met Noah, he was just starting out at Facebook. Now he's doing big things on Facebook and Mint, created Get Gambit, and competes with it himself with AppSumo.

I can give a dozen other examples. It's wonderful to see that your friends are holding on to the saddle and starting to succeed.

The number of new platforms and technologies is staggering

Most of the platforms that exist today didn't exist 36-48 months ago. Mobile still had a significant market share, while MySpace still dominated. The opportunities for building new companies that have now appeared are truly remarkable.

The more new technologies appear and the more companies, over time, can be created on their basis. Without Facebook, we wouldn't have Zynga, and without the iPhone, we wouldn't have companies like Square. Without the development of network and cloud computing, there would be no companies like HubSpot or ZenDesk.

You risk significantly less if you find out if you are on the right track.

It used to take many months and considerable expense to find out if you were even good at anything. Now things are different. You can find out if you missed or not in less than 60 days.

If you hit the mark, keep drawing your line. If you miss, adjust your aim a little and take the next target. This game does not accept zero scores.

You should not be afraid of failure, but do not miss the lessons it will bring.

Test your ideas on Amazon Mechanical Turk, talk to customers, book a few keyword tests on Amazon, and see if you're wrong.

You can do all of this with virtually no capital outlay and overcome the biggest hurdles in a startup's first 6 months of development if you know if you're really doing something for someone.

Traditional work, by and large, is not so reliable as a startup

Oh, of course, you are an excellent engineer or trader. You can find a great job, maybe even a six-figure salary, right now. Throw in the other benefits and everything looks great.

But here's the thing: no job is secure in our world. Wall Street collapsed almost overnight, and many large companies went down the drain completely unexpectedly. Building a startup at least gives you some control over your means of income.

If you get fired, that's usually the end of the story, period. When the equivalent of "getting fired" happens to you in the startup world, you can resist. You can persevere and continue your work.

The worst thing that can happen is not so bad actually

It's not as bad as it seems when you think about it in advance. If your startup fails, you will suffer psychologically, emotionally, and financially. This will last for a while. To different people it happened to be in a worse situation, and then triumphantly get out of it.

If things don't go well, you either a) try to start a new business, or b) join another company you believe in, or c) give your life a new direction.

Failure at a startup does NOT mean failure in life. I am not at all trying to minimize the difficulties that the failure of an enterprise brings with it. I'm just trying to say, "You'll recover and come back to life to fight again tomorrow."

Results

If something tells you to do it, and you really believe in it, then go ahead and do it. We need more startups as they are the vehicle for change that can save the world.

Why do you think now is the best time to start a startup? What makes you plunge into the world of entrepreneurship?

The world is one, the Internet erases borders - and that's great. But only for those who have already received investments. And if you have just drawn the first prototype of your drone-vacuum cleaner for catching flies, a long road awaits you. Because talking with a business angel over a freezing Skype from Kostomuksha is to wake up the business devil in him. For presentations and negotiations, you need a personal presence, which means you need to go where there are accelerators, business incubators, technology parks and other nests of investors.

In America - Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, Seattle, and, of course, Silicon Valley, where any beggar has a startup presentation with him.

In Canada - small town Waterloo, where the Blackberry is fighting for its life and a young seed of startups is growing, many of which are associated with a half-dead giant.

In Germany, Berlin.

In India - Bangalore, a local analogue of Silicon Valley, where investors from all over the world come to get hold of shares of very high-quality Indian startups.

In Russia - Moscow, where there is Skolkovo, and besides it - well-known accelerators and venture funds: IIDF, GenerationS, Farminers. Also Kazan, where the Pulsar Venture accelerator works, and St. Petersburg with iDealMachine.

Choice of helpers

It just seems that there are a lot of ideas around, but little money. There really isn't much to invest in. In reliable banks, rates are zero. In stocks, the risk is high, but the return is not very. But a successful startup gives up to 1000 percent per annum - there will definitely be those who want to help.

FFF - from family, friends, fools (family, friends, fools). They will finance you a little at the start, because they managed to have common genes, study together or be optimists.

Business incubator. If the project is impressive, the incubator will provide space, office equipment, and a coffee maker for a small fee or share in the project. Unfortunately, they don't give a secretary.

Accelerator is a business incubator with training and supervision options. The purpose of the accelerator is to polish the project so that when reading the presentation, investors do not have suicidal thoughts. And then sell. Business angel - will buy out a share from the accelerator if he believes in the growth of the project. There is no clear boundary between an accelerator and a business angel, they can replace each other. But business angels are usually pickier.

Venture fund - from here you will receive the first big money. Or you won't. The Foundation can spend hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars on your project, but only if everything is already working and growing at the pace of a broiler chicken.

Answers on questions

This step will be repeated every time, from investor to investor. And it's the easiest thing to stumble on. So first, answer the questions for yourself.

Does anyone need your product? Most startups close because the product is not needed. Yes, the public simply has not yet grown up to an application that identifies a German philosopher by the first volume of the text. But it's better to understand it right away.

Is it a venture business? If we are talking about 25 percent per annum, it is easier for an investor to buy a pub in Munich. A startup can only attract it with a tenfold profit in a short time. This is the essence of venture business: big win for a big risk.

Do you have something to show? Investors want to see an MVP (minimum viable product) - a product that can be sold immediately, even if it is raw. That is, the drone prototype should at least bounce. Can you scale quickly? To grow 10x quickly, a business must scale quickly. To make 100 more pubs is a year and a billion. Enabling new distribution channels for an app is a week and a million. And which is more attractive?

Is there a competitive advantage? Riveting the same Facebook but with purple buttons is a feat that will not be appreciated. Investors are advised to "seek pain" - to find out from buyers what they are missing in the existing solution to a certain problem.

Is it a seasonal business? The Santa Claus emergency call app will set a record for downloads in new year's eve, but for the rest of the year only bored penguins will be interested. And it's a pretty narrow market.

Decor

Startup co-founders who discuss pre-seed in a coworking space over a glass of smoothie often forget that the output will still be a banal LLC or CJSC with tax reporting and staffing. Or GmbH, Ltd, LLC, SRL - depending on the country. Therefore, any investor will want to see at least basic documents.

Confirmation of the existence of a legal entity. Charter, memorandum of association, extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, certificate of registration. The whole procedure of pumping money into a startup is accompanied by transfers of shares from one hand to another. The investor must be sure that not a single detail in the design of the legal entity will interfere with this.

Registration of intellectual property. If you came up with a rubber suitcase that can hold everything, and immediately shared the idea with the whole world, as we do now, the investor, at best, will pour you strong sweet tea to relieve stress. Because someone else has already patented the product and is preparing it for sale. All your ideas must be formalized, there must be contracts for others.

Receiving the money

Pre-seed stage. There is a team, there is a working prototype, there are first buyers, there is no money for a full-fledged launch. At this stage, it is better to go to three Fs, or engage in bootstrapping - this is how they delicately call shaking out a piggy bank, laying an apartment in a jar, selling your favorite collection of Bryansk porcelain. Accelerators at this stage give money only to very tasty projects. The amount of investment is usually 1–1.5 million rubles.

seed stage. The rights are issued, the market is studied, growth graphs are drawn in Excel, the economy is calculated. Here you can connect an accelerator or a business angel. The main mistake of a startup at this stage is generosity out of desperation. If you give the first investor a third in the enterprise, then in the course of the next financial injections, other people's shares will exceed 50 percent. And venture funds believe that a startup with a small share of its own loses motivation - they don’t give big money to them.

Round A. The project worked for a year or two, the unit-economy (income-income per client) is positive, the growth is continuous and there is still room for growth. This is the stage at which an accelerator or business angel is ready to sell his stake to a venture capital fund. This means that you are waiting for communication with a large investor who will pour 50–100 million rubles into your business.

Round B. Everything is going well, and the investor proposes to start scaling in a serious way, at the international level. Here, up to a billion rubles can be poured into the promotion.

IPO. The secret dream of any start-up and investor, for the sake of which everything is started, is the launch of the company's shares into free circulation. The procedure is not fast, it requires transparency and good accountability. But it is on the stock exchange that your share will be valued in money and can immediately turn into money, you just have to give an order to the broker.

Round BBB (beach, boat, blond). Yes, we read in your business plan about the mission and benefit to society. But after all, everything was started for the sake of this round, right?

Growth Technologies

A startup can be launched with only an old laptop and a mobile phone. But there must be something new in them so that the chance of success is higher. For example, new information technologies specially designed for start-ups. If you don’t know about these, then your competitors probably already know.

VTsOD. A virtual data processing and storage center is when you are rented out the power of a cloud service and you create a virtual machine there with up to sixteen cores. Rostelecom has such a service: it rents out the capacity of the National Cloud Platform. Scaling - for example, with an increase in site traffic - can be done quickly and without contacting technical support.

Virtual PBX. If your startup is tied to a lot of incoming calls, you need several lines. And to buy them separately - the entire tranche of round B will just go away. But a virtual PBX gives a bunch of lines and numbers of internal subscribers on one city number. Again, scalable.

VPN network with protection against DDoS attacks. VPN stands for Virtual Private Network - virtual private network. That is, you do not pull cables around the office, but rent a virtual server and work through it. Rostelecom also protects tenants from DDoS attacks - this is when villains overload the server with requests so that no one can enter.

Virtual contact center. Instead of renting a semi-basement at the price of a suite at the Ritz and settling operators there, you can order a service that comes with Rostelecom's virtual PBX. In a couple of days, a contact center of any scale will be set up for you - it can be controlled remotely without buying new equipment.

Web video conference. If any meeting with partners and investors ends with beer and dancing until the morning, you should not risk your business. By connecting the Internet in Rostelecom, all participants in the negotiations can be united in one video conference without downloading new software and regardless of what browsers they have.

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• Translation

This guide is a series of classic blog posts by pmarca and real-life Mark Andreessen, creator of the Mozaic browser from which Netscape and later Mozilla grew.
Links are specifically given to old versions of sites, modern articles, stored in the Internet Archive.

In this series of posts, I will share with you my knowledge and experience in creating high-tech startups.

My experience in this area comes from working for three companies I co-founded: Netscape, sold to America Online in 1998 for $4.2 billion; Opsware (formerly Loudcloud), a $1 billion software company; Ning, an internet company providing a social media platform.

All in all, I've been fortunate since arriving in Silicon Valley in 1994 to have been involved with about 40-50 startups, and the participation has been deep enough that I know what I'm talking about. I have been a board member, business angel, advisor, friend of many of the founders, and venture capitalist.

So I will not only talk about those things that relate to my companies - most likely these will be stories from the life of various startups, in the fate of which I was directly involved.

My experience is based on working in Silicon Valley, its culture, people, venture capitalists, etc. Something will be useful in other parts of the world, something will not be useful. Caveat Emptor (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caveat_emptor)

With that explained, let's start over: why don't start a startup.

Startups, even after the crash of 2000, have always been covered in mysticism - everyone read how cool it is, how fun it is, investing in the future, free meals, table football and other goodies.

Certainly, there is a lot of great stuff in startups. In my experience:

The ability to control your destiny. You yourself won or you lost. Nobody tells you what to do. For people with a certain temperament, this is already enough.

The opportunity to do something new is the very “blank slate”. You have the ability, indeed the responsibility, to imagine a product that doesn't exist yet and create it without any of the limitations usually associated with large companies.

An opportunity to change the world - to give people a new way to communicate, a way to share information, work together, or whatever you come up with - to make the world a better place. Do you think that it will be easier for people with low incomes to lend? Launch Prosper. Do you think that television should have an unlimited number of channels? Launch Joost. Think computers should run Unix and use open standards? Start Sun.

An opportunity to create the perfect culture and work in a dream team that you can assemble yourself. Do you want your culture to be based around people who have fun every day and who enjoy working together? Or a team of tough competitors who compete in both work and play? Or a team that creates new technologies? It's up to you to choose, and it's up to you to build the right culture.

Well, money. A properly created startup can be very profitable. It's not just about greed - when everything works well, your team and subordinates will be provided for, they will be able to support their families, send their children to college, realize their dreams - and that's really cool. If you are very lucky, you will be able to do charity work and support other projects.

However, there are many more reasons don't start a startup.

First, understand that a startup will require from you such emotional upheavals and tensions that you have not experienced before.

You will constantly go from the euphoric consciousness that the world is yours to the depressing certainty that everything is gone, and back again. And so in a circle. And this is only with those who are emotionally strong and stable.

So much uncertainty and risk in everything you do. Will the product be released on time? Is it fast enough? Are there too many bugs? Will it be easy to use? Will anyone use it? Are your competitors ahead of you? Will there be press coverage? Will there be investors? Will this promising engineer join you? Will the chief interface designer leave you at Google? And so on and so forth.

Sometimes things will go well, sometimes things will go very badly. And the stress that will crush you will increase these emotional ups and downs to unprecedented levels.

Merry?

Secondly, in a startup, nothing happens by itself. Startup founders and employees immediately face this.

In a working company, no matter how poor and demoralized, everything goes on as usual. People come to work, code is written, interfaces are designed, servers are maintained, markets are analyzed, prices are studied, sales are made, wastebaskets are taken out, and so on.

There are no established procedures, rhythm, infrastructure in a startup.

In a startup, it can easily happen that the code is not written, the interface is not developed ...
People may not show up for work and the baskets may be full.

It is your responsibility as the founder to create and set up all these systems and procedures and get everyone to row. While not even in the right direction, just row harder to sail away.

Until you do this, nothing will happen. Unless, of course, you do everything yourself. Have fun taking out the trash cans.

Thirdly, you are often denied. Really often. If you haven't been in sales, you probably aren't prepared for rejection. It's not very fun.

Watch Death of a Salesman and Glengarry Glen Ross. That's pretty much how it is.

You will be refused by potential employees, potential investors, potential clients, potential partners, journalists, analysts... Time after time, time after time. And when they don’t refuse you, in half the cases they will call you back in a couple of days and still refuse. Start practicing smiling not for real.

Fourth, hiring employees is a terrible headache.

You'd be surprised how many people want to "just look".

Many people want to work in a startup, but when it comes time to leave their place of residence somewhere in HP or Apple, they change their minds. It’s easy for the average engineer or manager to be tempted into being an employee on a startup team—it’s possible to get involved in this exciting venture without actually doing the hard work.

As a founder of a startup, it will be extremely difficult for you to find a core team. When Jim Clark decided to start the company in 1994, I was one of a dozen people from various Silicon Valley companies that he spoke to about joining the startup that later became Netscape. And only I decided to say yes to him (mainly because I was 22 years old and there was no reason not to). The rest changed their minds and didn't. And that was Jim Clark, an industry legend who came from the Valley's most successful company in 1994, Silicon Graphics Inc.

How easy do you think it will be for you?

Then, even after you sift through a bunch of people and hire someone, it will be successful in at most 50% of the cases, and then if you are a big hiring specialist. I mean, more than half of the people won't fit into a startup - they'll be too lazy, slow, slow to move, or just plain nutty. And then you have to either live with them or fire them. What do you like best?

Fifth, and God help you, at some point you will have to hire leaders. You thought it was hard and risky to hire subordinates - wait until you have to hire a director of development, a director of marketing, sales, HR, etc.

Sixth, working hours.

There was a lot of talk in the Valley about how to balance work and free time, about how to start a startup and at the same time be able to live a normal life. Personally, I sympathize with this point of view. And I try very hard in my companies (at least in the last two), to do everything possible so that work does not crush people. But it is so hard. The bottom line is that startups are very costly and require a lot from people even in the best of circumstances.

Just because you want to give people a good balance of work and personal time, it's very hard to do that when you're running out of funds, the product isn't out yet, you've had a fight with the co-founder, and your competitor in Menlo Park, a company with a middle age of 19 years old, stepping on your heels. And so it will go almost all the time. Even if you can give this balance to your subordinates, you will not arrange it for yourself. In case you're wondering, yes, long work hours increase stress.

Seventh, it's very easy for a startup culture to go the wrong way. Because of the combination of the first and second reasons. Emotional buildup affects not only you, but the whole company. It takes time to establish a working culture. So that all people from the team understand what they are doing, what is the value of each, how they meet challenges and hardships. At best, you will have a constant activity created by people who gather, support each other, and together try to bring the dream closer. At worst, you'll get pessimism, bitterness, frustrated dreams, cynicism, bad morals, and depression. And you, as the founder, will not be as easy to influence all this as you think. Guess which of the two directions usually goes.

Eighth, there are so many unforeseen circumstances that can meet you on your way and hit you in the head - and there is nothing you can do about them.

Market crashes. Terrorist attacks. The vagaries of nature.

A startup with better funding, with a more experienced team who have worked harder than you, and quietly - suddenly releases a product that instantly captures your market and deprives you of opportunities - without you even knowing it.

At best, any unforeseen factor can cut off your funding, cause customers to delay payment or refuse to pay - and at worst, close your company.

Russian mafia (sic!) can start

Before creating your own project, you should find out what are the differences between small businesses and startups. Startup, startup - what is it, how to start the development of a project, find investors, achieve success. At the current moment in time, there are a huge number of small businesses that classify themselves as start-ups. But not all of them can be attributed to this category of projects that have bright distinctive features that distinguish them from other companies.

What is a startup

The word is a transliteration of the English startup. Startup - what is it in the classical concept, how are they looking for investors, sources of financing, which will contribute to the rapid launch of the project. The main feature of startups that makes them a potentially profitable business is the use of interesting ideas and promising undertakings. In addition, it is more important to gather a good team to start here than in the field of ordinary business.

Who is a startup

At the initial stage, in order to create a successful business, a team of people is recruited who are considered startups. Only these people are responsible for the successful implementation of the plan, initial capital, attracting an audience at presentations. Often students who want to earn money and achieve success become startuppers, but who do not want to work in firms, large corporations, or become entrepreneurs. They create a business plan from scratch, attract supporters, private investors in order to develop a unique product, own business capable of generating large incomes.

Startup and business - distinctive features

Businessmen realize themselves in ready-made industries, enterprises, and start-ups launch their business projects in conditions of uncertainty, high risk, and a minimal budget. Consider the key differences between a startup and a full-fledged business:

1. Scales. Entrepreneurs implement their ideas in already developed areas, they are limited by the clear boundaries of the industry. Startup has no such limitation. The very definition of a startup lies in the innovative ideas that constantly move it forward. Examples of successful projects: Google, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook network.
2. Rates of growth. The growth stage of a startup begins and lasts much longer than that of a conventional business. Without exception, all aspects of startup are aimed at the successful implementation of a product or service in the target community in the shortest possible time and in the most effective way.
3. Profit. At the stage of financing, determining the amount of investment, startups are looking for investors to promote their idea. The initial capital greatly depends on how advanced technologies the team can use during the development stage and after it. All this contributes to the speedy promotion, has a direct impact on profits.
4. Technology startup. The success of a startup is built not only on ideas, but also on innovative technologies. Many projects involve the latest developments.
5. Life cycle. A clear definition of the time frame for the existence of a startup is impossible due to the lack of boundaries for its development. It can fail at the very start or live for several decades, continuing to improve.

Startup projects - types and areas of activity

The division of startups into types, classes occurs not only in terms of knowledge intensity and the purpose of creation. Also, projects are subject to division according to less generalized features:

• Hobby. There are the most such projects on the startup exchange. They were created by people who tried to turn their lifelong passion into a profitable, interesting business.
• Creation for the purpose of enrichment. Starting a project just for the money can be a good motivation for the first time. Such companies are better thought out and organized than the first ones.
• Family project. This type of enterprise is widespread today, mainly occupies the niche of restaurants, hotel business, and the production of hand-made products.
• Global company. Startups can be called successful after reaching the global level. Projects in this category are unique, attracting clients all over the globe, and their life cycle will last for a very long time.

According to the degree of science intensity

The classification of projects by science intensity is unambiguous and has only two varieties:

1. standard company. Uses conventional technologies, does not require additional developments in the field of its activity. Examples can be companies in the hotel, restaurant business, hand-made products.
2. A company that uses innovative technologies. The second type is more complicated, it develops using the latest developments in the relevant industry. It may require significant additional funding, the search for large investors for its implementation, promotion, development.

According to the purpose of creation

The advantage of a startup is achieved by setting goals that are decisive in its start, development, promotion:

• Earnings. The basic, most common purpose of creating a project. Even if employees work “for the idea”, the project will not last long without profit.
• Idea. There are people who are ready to work for the development of a certain industry, information technology, economy, industry. Such companies have the least chance of success, but if the outcome is positive, they can bring huge profits.
• Set of professional team. A good, well-coordinated team of purposeful startups is capable of a lot, but it is very difficult to assemble it. Even if it fails, such a company can always start another project from scratch.

How to create a startup

To be sure that the project idea will become popular, you need to consider the very concept of a startup - what it is, how to start the development of the company correctly, what to focus on, in order to understand what they are based on:

1. Thinking through an idea. The key feature of the project should not have analogues in the country or region that will be involved in the promotion. You can come up with this idea yourself, buy it or order it on the startup exchange, borrow it from foreign analogues.
2. Team search. The people involved in the project do not need to know everything about the industry covered by the startup. This is welcome, but all employees can develop regardless of knowledge.
3. Drawing up a business plan. The plan is the most important part of any project, without which an accidental failure can be fatal to the whole idea. The development stage should be approached with all responsibility, which will contribute to product sales.
4. Search for investors or start-up capital. Even the most promising ideas cost a lot of money at the implementation stage. Finding finance is not easy, but it is possible. Investments can be provided by banks, friends, relatives, other people who are interested in the original idea.

startup idea

The popularity of startups is due to the innovativeness of the ideas on which they are based. The main idea should be unique, capture the attention of the client, be economically beneficial to those who invest money in the idea. To achieve these conditions, you need to study in detail the question: a startup - what it is, how they are classified, what ideas have already been developed, what innovations are based on. The following ideas are gaining popularity in the world at the moment:

1. Ecology. Waste disposal, optimization of treatment facilities, development of new ways of landscaping - all this is only gaining popularity and has a good chance of becoming a platform for the development of a new project.
2. Internet projects. Ideas in the field of IT, platforms VKontakte, Facebook, the Internet as a whole, have great potential for founding your own company engaged in website promotion, assistance in recording and storing the history of the Internet, the world, etc.

Drawing up a business plan

Startup - what is it, if not another form of small business, characterized by growth rates and large requirements for the amount of investment received? As in the case of an ordinary business, a startup needs a well-designed plan that will reflect all stages of development, the formation of a project. When developing a business plan, you need to consider:

• idea development;
• team search;
• analysis of the needs of the target audience, mistakes of predecessors;
• search for investments;
• analysis of possible risks;
• implementation of the idea;
• promotion, advertising, work with the audience.

Search for investors

All project participants, one way or another, want to earn. Potential investors invest in development in order to get a share. To attract people willing to provide financial support, you need to know where to look. In the startup area, the 3 F rule applies: family, friends, fools. What does it mean: family, friends, fools. These are 3 sources of start-up capital for startups. The second option is venture funds, banks that issue loans, or investors who earn money by helping start-up companies. Attracting investors is possible on special exchanges.

Project development

The progression of any such project proceeds according to the standard plan, which will be the same for a new technology to improve the environment or an innovative idea in the hospitality industry:

• birth stage;
• development stage;
• launch stage;
• growth stage;
• expansion stage;
• completion stage.

How to promote startup correctly

Promote a startup, startup - what it is, how to achieve maximum efficiency, attract a large audience, create a positive opinion about the business. To understand how to properly promote a company, consider the list of advertising platforms with maximum efficiency:

1. Social media. Create accounts for all in social networks Tell people about your idea. This will give a small influx of interested customers.
2. Internet advertising platforms. They have high efficiency, the ability to customize targeted advertising, which will be shown only to those groups of people that you yourself specify in the request.
3. Site creation. Your own web page will increase the chances of successfully attracting customers, supporters. The information offered there is not limited by the rules of any resource, but only by the imagination and needs of the startup.
4. Placement of ads. An archaic way that will allow you to attach to the idea of ​​the company not only Internet users, but also random passers-by.

Successful startup examples

There are many examples of projects that have been able to develop, achieve success, and become financially profitable. Such an ending for them was the result of a well-chosen idea, competent team work, effective promotion, selection of investors interested in developing the idea. To understand what a startup is and how to properly approach its development, consider examples of successful ideas that were positively received by the audience and still exist.

In the field of IT technologies

Information technologies occupy a significant part in the life of society. A well-organized startup in this industry can achieve a lot:

1. Microsoft. The development of the project began with orders for programming in the basic language. Now it is the largest corporation in the field of high technologies, software, which has developed thanks to extensive venture capital investment, support for the original ideas of Bill Gates.
2. Google. History of the largest search engine The Internet began with the desire of Larry Page and Sergey Brin to create a single integrated universal digital data storage library. Further research on this topic led students to create a popular search method, recruit a team, found a corporation.

Cooking and restaurant business

A kind of culinary startup - what it is, what it is characterized by, what features it has:

1. "Super bowler". The essence of the popular service is the ability to cook a dish at home, and then, posting its photos, recipe, description, sell a culinary masterpiece to the user who will be the first to book a treat.
2. Madwinebar. The idea of ​​creating a bar where people can taste delicious wine belongs to sommelier Vladimir Yuryev and chef Dmitry Evstigneev. The bar offers free tastings, special meals of the day.

Hand-made products

If a person knows how to work with his hands, he will not be left without work. This is true for startup Porch as well. A large aggregator engaged in the centralized collection and sorting of orders for repairing something, doing housework, creating things appeared in the city of Seattle, Australia, in 2013. The user can place an order or place a resume himself, indicating his skills and abilities.

Internet startups

A kind of network startup - what it is, what options for information projects exist:

1. "Writing in the Sand" The company has been successful thanks to Anton Velikanov. Inspired by the beauty of the coast of Costa Rica, the young man came up with a way for everyone to get a photo great place with a custom signature right in the sand. The site was created in 4 days, and the initial capital was only $100.
2. "Social Alarm". The idea belongs to Hrachik Ajamyan, who tried to develop an application that helps people wake up in the morning. His research showed that it is easier for a person to get up when an unfamiliar person acts as an alarm clock, and not a program on the phone. At the moment, the number of users exceeds 2 million, and a private investor who donated $500,000 helped develop the company.

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