10+ Resources for beginning startups
Startups are born every day. Some of them become a real gold dwelling for their creators. But only a few. It goes without saying that launching and promoting your startup is hellish, hard labor. And it begins almost immediately after you managed to light up to become a pro banner: you need to soberly assess the prospects of the idea, get feedback from potential users, bring the project to mind. Furthermore: you have to put a maximum of effort to learn about your brainchild journalists, investors, and possible partners. Today we offer to your attention another collection of international resources that can be useful to those brave startup creators who are not stopped by the difficulties listed above.
So, you are tired of working for “someone” and took a strong-willed decision to do your project. Most often the founders of the startup know exactly what the project will be, but sometimes people are motivated only by the desire for self-realization. In any case, it is important at least to first understand whether the idea “shoots” or not. Here the following resources can help you:
1. The Trendwatching website allows you to keep track of current trends. It is a valuable source of information for forecasting and preliminary assessment of public interest in your future start-up;
2. When the trends are outlined, it’s time to think about the concept of the future project. Not so long ago Eric Stromberg developed a matrix with ideas for start-ups, to which we dedicated a separate post. It can serve you well in the planning phase.
3. And one more resource that will help you make sure that you are doing everything right, and the idea of your strap is valid (on a fee basis).
4. To get feedback and identify pitfalls it may be useful to discuss your project with those who know in this sense – the same startups. Here, the community in Slack for founders of startups from around the world will help you. In addition to exchanging experience, you have the opportunity to establish connections with investors and representatives of the press.
When the preliminary stage is completed, and you are convinced that your idea is worthwhile, relevant and engaging for the target audience, it’s time to implement the project and search for the investor if you do not have enough money and do not expect help from outside.
- Then the fun begins. You will have to think through the logo and the name of your project, start a website, do a lot of things that are not natural to you, for example, draw up documents or keep accounts. Do not let yourself panic: for sure, this or that resource can solve your problem.
Searching for investments, you can go one of two ways: to contact investors directly or to resort to the help of specific resources. We recommend that you pay attention to the following list of sites:
5. RusBase Pipeline
6. InvestGo24
7. Startup Network
8. NA partner
9. StartTrack
10. Start2Up
11. Gust
Also, there are databases on the venture market, where you can find investor profiles. As an example, we can bring the largest external resource CrunchBase or its Russian analog Data.
- In parallel with the search for a source of funding, your startup should be struggling to the fullest. It is important to do everything so that someone is on hearing – thus it is also very easy to attract the attention of investors, and, of course, the consumers themselves.
Place a link to your site on all resources for start-ups that you will find. Of domestic resources for this purpose will suit.
Regularly there are new resources: they are also worth keeping track. For example, just recently opened a portal for creators of startups BHAGs, which is currently at the beta stage.
Find external resources for placement even easier: there are entire collections of the best sites for promotion. Here are just some of them:
12. 100 Startup Directory To Submit Your Startup
13. 131 Quality Startup Directories and Review Websites
14. 65 Sites to Discover or Promote Startups, Apps or Tools
So, the startup path is thorny, but, fortunately, at any stage, you can find tools and developments that will greatly facilitate the task. We wish you success in implementing and promoting your projects!
The best way to start is to START. Have a problem worth solving. Build a solution for it. Many famous startups started with just one or two people. I won’t list them as there’s too many to list. But a recent example that comes to mind is Whatsapp, which was just bought for $19 billion after only 5 years since starting and having just 50 employees. It was started by one guy, who later brought on another guy as a co-founder. Both of these founders were laid off from Yahoo and couldn’t get jobs at Google or Facebook, so they started their own company. In the beginning, they only raised $250,000 USD from their friends and family.