So you have an idea for a startup, but you need resources to build the website or application you've envisioned. You are advised to pick one of two paths—build a team yourself, or find a technical co-founder who can build the product for you. But are these really the best options to give your startup idea the foundations it needs to succeed?
We'd like to present a third option—hiring a development studio to build the product for you. Here are some of the myths busted that keep entrepreneurs from taking this route:
Myth #1: It's Risky To Let a Development Studio Build Your Startup Idea
As an entrepreneur, you're often told to find a technical co-founder to help you build your idea. The challenge is that risk abounds from all sides:
- The best candidates for technical co-founders have either started their own companies or currently work at successful companies. Few are willing to work nights and weekends on your idea (they are too busy with their full-time jobs). You will likely have to settle for someone greener who might lack the expertise or experience needed to build a product from scratch.
- You may give up significant equity in exchange for gaining a co-founder, which could cost you down the line. Your equity affects all future financial decisions, including term sheets for future investment rounds.
- Even a great technical co-founder can't do it all by him- or herself. You may end up launching a hacked prototype that doesn't scale or must be completely rewritten later, or you may have to build an in-house development team to get the job done right, which is costly, especially if you are just testing your idea.
A development studio has the expertise and resources you need to build micro products that help you manage risk. For example, when David Vinokur (LinkedIn profile) came to Fuel Startup with an idea for his niche social network, we helped him manage risk in three ways:
- Product Risk - In a 6-hour working session with all hands on deck, we mapped the requirements we collected to the vision he had described for the product. This ensured that we were building what he imagined and minimized the product risk.
- Scaling Risk - We were also proactive in looking for potholes on the road to completion. We knew David wanted to expand the social network from a website to a mobile application in the future, which is why we built it for scalability from the beginning.
- Market Risk - We provided the micro products David needed throughout the project to gain feedback from his potential customers so he could evaluate and manage market risk. Furthermore, since we completed a year-long project in five months, David was able to gain feedback quickly, without having to invest a year of his life into an idea that might not work.
"We came to Fuel Startup with an inkling of a niche offering that we wanted to build quickly to test the market," David said. "Rahul and his team contributed significantly to fleshing out the idea and helped bring the project to life."
Myth #2: A Development Studio Can't Shift When Your Startup Does
In fact, some development studios, like Fuel Startup, specialize in agility. We do not believe in waiting for months or years to view how your product is shaping up, and believe this is a dangerous place for a startup to be. Startups fail or succeed on their ability to prove that an idea has merit, which requires customer feedback at multiple phases in the process. That's why the Fuel Methodology has foundations in both lean startup and agile development.
When we worked with Tiffany Morgan (LinkedIn profile) on building her ecommerce site, she came to us with ideas and examples taken from other ecommerce sites that inspired her. In her own words, "Fuel Startup was able to work through every crazy idea I sent them from looking at other ecommerce sites that I liked. The team never stopped helping me brainstorm and found solutions to many problems I encountered with the new business model I was working on."
To give you an idea of how we accomplish this, we speed up the communication loop with regular updates from our project managers, project demos throughout the process, and our transparent online project management tools that show you who is working on what. This enables us to identify problems right away and quickly adjust the project, tasks, and schedule to address your needs.
Myth #3: Development Studios Are Expensive
Development studios may require an upfront investment, but in many cases they can save you money, time, and costly mistakes and setbacks due to already having the right expertise on board, ready to work with you.
When we worked with Victor Polanco (LinkedIn profile) on his rental games site that specializes in games for young children, he had already worked with a different development studio to produce the first iteration. "We needed someone who was completely unbiased and technically competent to do high-level diagnostics and fix scalability issues. We also wanted to improve consistency on the site," Victor said. Rather than hiring a sysadmin, security expert, and testing team, he was able to utilize Fuel Startup's expertise to quickly get his website ready for launch. "Phase 2 focused on testing, fixing, scrubbing, cleaning up, and making sure everything worked. The engine was revved up, but it hadn't been tuned. The Fuel Startup team came in and took the noise out."
We eliminate a lot of project waste by utilizing our clear communication model and by mapping the gathered requirements onto your vision to make sure we are producing exactly what was ordered from the beginning. We also further lower our costs through efficient distribution of tasks without compromising quality. With our above-mentioned approaches, we are able to lower the cost of your project by 40-50%, compared to most agencies in Chicago, without any loss of quality or communication.
Conclusion
You might think that working with a technical co-founder or building a team in-house are the only two options for bringing your idea to life. But have you considered the third option: hiring a development studio that can build your product in iterations, quickly? If you are interested in getting in touch with us about your startup idea, we know you won't be disappointed.
