My startup diary
Before you start reading this, I would like to state that, the following reflects only my thoughts and experiences. I am, by no means, a writer or expert.
Here are some thoughts/experience I've had so far investing time and money on my startup.
For the past 5 years I've been working to a company where I'm employed and, working also on this project of mine for the auto industry. Throughout this 5 years (so far), I've meet interesting people willing to partner up. So far, current date, 100% of those interested choose to leave due the following reasons:
- Time
- Result in short period
My project aims really high (maybe too high) and, it consists in competing on the auto industry market in 3 countries. Of course, it requires a load of solutions to make it attractive to potential customers and to be tangible so, in order to cover ground, I invested even more time building infrastructure to support the original business concept. Of course, time passes by and, coding and testing all required softwares is time consuming and tedious in which has no return of investment whatsoever.
I've never felt worthy of an investor (so far) because, selling "ideas" is not one of my talents and, I never met a partner willing to commit as I do so, I held myself working 2 jobs which, one pays the bills and the other to continue development on the mentioned project. I've spent countless hours on this project and, since the car industry was not one my expertises, I've built a free open-source software just so I could learn the industry requirements. Thanks to that, I was able to learn a lot of the industry and, retain contact with dealerships.
Long story short, here is what I've learned so far:
- A startup (like myself) needs 2 essential persons to be successful: the guy who builds the tools and the guy who can sell it. Both are equally important. Also (but not least), business plan is dynamic. You should have a clear goal but, never get stuck on just one concept. Fixation increase your chances to fail.
Let me know of your thoughts and/or suggestions. As I am still learning, I would be really interested to exchange knowledge on the topic.