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Ask HN: Ok. I have the MVP. I have a small feedback. What is next?

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Re: Ask HN: Ok. I have the MVP. I have a small feedback. What is next?

#41

The single necessary and sufficient condition for a business, says MIT’s Bill Aulet, is a paying customer. https://stripe.com/atlas or use a paypal button. Adapt this mentality. No investor will ever give you money. Make sales. Learn. Adjust. Repeat. Good Lucky! ;-)

I'm thinking more about support than money. I can run it for some time on my own for sure... But registering the company, talking about marketing, helping with sales strategy all these things.. I definitely need them more than money.

It sounds like an accelerator would be helpful for you, since they will be able to provide mentorship on marketing, sales, and legal advice if they're any good.

But I would be hesitant to pay (much) to join one, there seem to be a lot of faux-accelerators out there preying on small companies. Ideal would be one that accepts people based on merits. Paying a few hundred dollars a month is reasonable, but giving up 10% of your company is not. That mentorship just isn't that expensive to provide to you.

The founder of a startup must learn marketing and sales. This is unavoidable. You're the only one that deeply understands the product, and hopefully the market segment. If you don't understand the market segment, you must learn yourself. No marketing expert or sales firm will do as well as you yourself will.

Once you've figured out how to sell it, which a mentor can help with but not substitute for, then you can train a sales person to "replicate" it. Once you have some example sales, you can define your "customer profile" which any sales person will need to have in order to know who to target in outbound sales to develop leads. Then the sales person would mostly be working on qualifying those leads to see if they truly are a good fit to sell to, and ultimately mostly just following up with them to move the process forward.

Basically, assume that you are the lead sales person. That has to be your role now, there's no other option. Find the training you need, even if it's just an online crash course in sales. Don't hire a sales person until you feel confident you could clearly define not just that you need sales or vague ideas about who your target market is, but what characteristics of a customer to look for are.

Sales isn't really all that hard. But it's also not easy, it requires a lot of willingness to hear "no" and not feel bad about it or move heaven and earth to get them to say yes. They won't. You need to be methodical and persistent, not take anything personally ever, and try to eliminate leads from your list of possibilities as fast as possible if they don't truly look like they'll turn into a sale. That's the only way to do it efficiently.

(I am talking about enterprise sales, FYI. I don't know much about consumer sales.)

EDIT: I noticed elsewhere that your customers appear to be companies. In that case, I believe my advice above applies well. You're likely to have a modest number of customers, who are hopefully paying a fairly high amount per customer. This is the mode in which enterprise sales work best, since it requires a bit heavier a touch (i.e. calling specific people at a potential customer to followup) than consumer sales.

Re: Ask HN: Ok. I have the MVP. I have a small feedback. What is next?

#43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stripe Atlas might be too soon for you... Focus on getting some sales first. While Stripe Atlast is great (and cheap!) for what it is (setting up a US bank account and a Delaware C-Corp) do realize that you'll have to file taxes in the US from now on. If you use a payment provider (like Stripe, which is awesome!) you'll be able to charge people from the US just the same without going straight to tax hell. Sell, sell,…

Looks like you are right, but how can I setup payment system without the EIN number? Stripe won't allow it

I built Slyme (https://5ly.me) and couldn't find any usable payment platforms. I live in India and couldn't automate payments from the US. This is really a big problem. Stripe is expanding to other countries in the future though.

Re: Ask HN: Ok. I have the MVP. I have a small feedback. What is next?

#44
post #2

1. Do you need an investment? Is your strategy completely dependant on getting funded? You should always build a company with Bootstrapping in mind. If you can survive without external funding, then it will be much easier for you in the long run. Funding will help you to grow, rather than survive. 2. You can always join startup accelerator or hub, they will help you out, often for free. 3. Yes, sounds like this is th…

1. I do need the support to implement the legalization part (I don't know how to run c-corp or something) 2. For free? What is the profit for them? 4. Suddenly not, I rely on 3rd party providers and they cost me some money. The problem is that I can't edit post right now. So here is the link: https://goandcall.me (I've got very bad communication and copywriting skills but I promise I will improve them). The main idea…

1. You are definitely overestimating how hard this is. Look up contract CFO firms, and you should be able to get part-time support for logistics like that (as well as helping you get your books set up and do taxes).

2. Many are non-profits or have a mission that is unrelated to them making a profit. They often are funded by VC firms, companies who would like to provide services to companies in the accelerator once they have money (law firms, etc), and companies that want to raise their own credibility in the startup scene (3dsystems, or area-focused companies like GE maybe funding accelerators that work in batteries). Some also get government grants.

Re: Ask HN: Ok. I have the MVP. I have a small feedback. What is next?

#45
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you look into Stripe Atlas? - they do all the work of setting up the company and bank for around $500.

I did look, but it looks like overkill for the initial start (I don't even know will someone buy the product or not).

you have an MVP that sounds like you've actually honored the "M" part (as many fail to). You find it useful already. Do you honestly think you won't be able to get $500 worth of customers? If you really think that, then just stop. It's not worth your time, because $500 worth of customers is nothing. I'm assuming you're charging more than $1.

If you can get more than $500 worth of customers then who cares? All businesses have costs. The question is, can you recoup them?

Yes, you can incorporate yourself online for like $150, and about an hour with google will tell you which form of corporation is the best fit for you. Probably S-Corp I'd bet. C-Corp is probably overkill.

BUT regardless of if you use that Stripe service or not, use their $500 barrier of entry as a guide for if it's worth continuing or not, because obviously it's enough to make you pause.

Re: Ask HN: Ok. I have the MVP. I have a small feedback. What is next?

#46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't get the customers without registering the company (stripe won't let me go live :) )

Is it not viable using a personal Paypal account at this stage?

starting a business with your finances managed by a company that can, and will, close accounts, and freeze funds for no reason at all is crazy. Especially when they frequently do it when someone suddenly starts making decent money, something all new startups hope to do.

paypal is a dangerous idea to build a business on. Use a real bank that is legally forced to act in a responsible manner with regards to your funds.

Re: Ask HN: Ok. I have the MVP. I have a small feedback. What is next?

#47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More legal advice is always nice but it costs and may not add significant value. Registration tends to be straightforward and necessarily formalizes ownership structure to a significant extent. That said, lawyers may be useful for contracts. If the OP has concerns about registration costs, my advice would be to hold off lawyers at this stage and get a customer first.

Can't get the customers without registering the company (stripe won't let me go live :) )

I don’t think that’s right. You can have the account in your name AKA sole proprietorship with a dba and then change it to the legal entity later (you may have to migrate to a new account, I can’t recall) but it’s not too hard. Anyway until you have paying customers I’d put off everything else.
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