10 Tips For IT Startup Founders

Dina Ruslan—Founder and CEO at CODIFY.

So many people are hustling to become the next big tech entrepreneur—but not everyone knows that about 90% of startups fail. 10% of startups fail within the first year. Across all industries, startup failure rates seem to be close to the same. Failure is most common for startups during years two through five, with 70% falling into this category.

The main question: Why do all those startups fail?

According to the startup founders, reasons for failure include money running out, being in the wrong market, a lack of research, bad partnerships, ineffective marketing, not having the right team, etc.

Over the years of working in IT, and founding startups that both succeeded and failed, I have come up with 10 steps and reminders that have guided me away from making any repeated mistakes.

1. Choosing the right team and setting up the right HR processes are always at the top of my list. In startups, the most crucial thing is the team. The right team can execute any idea! Always make sure to pay attention to HR processes: recruitment, interview process, onboarding, team building, motivation and offboarding.

2. Most startup founders make the common mistake of concentrating solely on product building, without trying to sell the product they are building. After spending several months, or even years, along with thousands of dollars, founders realize that they can’t sell the product. And they blame the product, market and so on. First, you have to sell the idea or MVP of the product. Only then go and build the product based on clients’ feedback. After picking the right team, set up sales channels.

3. In case you don’t have enough of a budget to build a strong sales team and sales scripts, fear not. In the modern era, some startups manage to understand digital marketing tools so well that they can gain users simply by creating compelling digital content via Instagram, Facebook, Tik Tok, Youtube and other social medias. If you are building a startup and don’t have huge budgets, try digital marketing with a focus on storytelling and interactive content.

4. Once you’ve successfully tested your idea and sales strategy, then you can invest time and resources into the development process: work with developers, choose the right tech stack, tooling, architecture and infrastructure to make sure your product is stable and scalable.

5. I think Apple has made a powerful case for the importance of design for across all products. In the current market, design is too important to put off until last minute. Make sure to work with designers to create the best user experience and interface. Clean-looking UI will help with onboarding clients easier, while well thought UX will help to retain users.

6. Have you noticed that most of the products you liked right at their launch somehow got worse once they become popular? Like that Thai food place, which was amazing when just opened but then over time, it wasn’t that good. They lost the quality that made them unique! It’s integral for every growing startup to prioritize quality in order to maintain growth. Don’t turn away your current clients through bad product quality.

7. Client onboarding and user training cannot be ignored. Work with clients to prepare their infrastructure for your product. Work with users to prepare them to work with your product. Overall Client training is always important for all types of startups, especially B2B tech startups.

8. Many startups stop talking to clients once they’ve won them over. Actually take time to meet clients, talk to them and hear their pain. Make sure to work with existing clients to help them answer ongoing questions—doing so will turn them into your product ambassadors.

9. There is a saying in the USA: you can’t avoid Death and Taxes. And most startup founders make mistakes with their first startup by lacking knowledge of accounting and taxes. Make sure to have a person work with monthly budgets, expenses and taxes. Never try to break the law when it comes to a tech startup. Because tech startups are very easy to track and always have digital records.

10. Cash Flow and/or Investment. Always understand how much cash you have and what your cash burn-down rate is and when you will run out of money. Running out of cash is one of the key reasons why startups fail. I always recommend paying attention to your expenses and income. When your startup will reach the break-even point.

The above tips are just based on my experience and can’t be treated as the only right way. Every founder has to choose their own way, but hopefully these tips will help some tech startup founders avoid the same mistakes that I once made.

The most fascinating part about building a startup is that you can always be the next founder who hacked the system to find a new way to come up with some new groundbreaking way to codify the world!

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