Coming up with a great idea is the very first step on the journey to ship it to market. Building a startup can become truly challenging for the founders and the whole team. What difficulties are waiting for you on this journey? In this post, we are going to discover the biggest challenges you might face.

#1 Finding Out a Product Market Fit

When building and launching a product, ensuring a great experience for your future customers is a must and is of the utmost importance. Your product- and user-market fit has to solve specific customer problems. We all have always known that product-market fit is crucial, however, the user-product fit should be put in the forefront for your startup to succeed. Even more important, the product-user fit is a significant step in the journey to your market fit.

According to HubSpot “product-market fit occurs when a company’s value proposition, customers, and distribution channels align. It’s the perfect balance of all three pieces. If two of the three are aligned, you’ll probably enjoy some short-term success, but you’ll struggle to sustain it. And what is product-user fit? It’s your happy user who you are listening to.”

Unfortunately, there are lots of cases where the lack or neglect of product-user market fit leads to failure. As a result, the market is not ready for your idea or just doesn’t understand the product and how it can help them. How to avoid this?

First, start with an analysis of your UX challenges, finding a user-product fit, and understanding your business goals through product UI. This can help you incorporate a compelling user experience that will satisfy users’ needs and make your product shine.

#2 Putting Together the Right Team

Finding the right people to build a startup may be difficult. It might be more than difficult. However, having a solid team by your side means not only a good internal crew but also external support, such as seasoned advisors or business partners. The first and most important component of a supportive team is trust.

Stephen M.R. Covey in his book The Speed of Trust says,

“Above all, success in business requires two things: a winning competitive strategy, and superb organizational execution. Distrust is the enemy of both. Establish trust throughout your team, and you’ll be rewarded.”

Also, you should identify and prioritize positions that your business needs. The candidates you choose will determine and establish the core of your business. Be thorough and meticulous about who is going to join your team.

#3 Creating and Launching a Minimum Viable Product

As a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is based on the Lean Startup philosophy, it emphasizes learning end-user behavior and their feedback at each stage before starting development and enhancing the product.

Why an MVP is important and how it can benefit you?

1. It leads to a More Desirable Product

Creating an MVP means you get a better understanding of the end-users’ interests and preferences before developing the full product. Thus, your end product will appear to be more useful than it would if you didn’t start with a minimum viable product.

2. It eases tests of hypotheses & features

Developing a core set of functionalities can help you test your business concept at an early stage, without undue risks.

3. It reduces development time & cost

If you have limited resources, building the product step-by-step in less time and at less cost will help you go to market quickly and painlessly.

4. It minimizes risks

By getting feedback at an early stage, your business can identify and resolve your product’s weaknesses. “Doing extended development of an unreleased software product is building a tower of hope on a foundation of assumptions.” – Shawn Crowley

5. It accelerates time to market

In a fast-paced market, you’ll be able to release faster. You can also show potential investors a product that is real and show demand as soon as possible.

6. It optimizes further investments

An MVP can help you optimize further investments, and enhance the product’s growth along with organic customer traction.

#4 Seeking a Funding the Right Way

There are tons of information about how startup funding rounds work but it would be great to gather all rounds and hints in one place. We created an infographic with an overview of the basic funding rounds.

To sum up

Users are extremely picky today. Creating the product that is sustainable and ready for drastic market changes at any time implies building a Minimum Viable Product with its numerous benefits in the bag. 

So, are you ready to build the next unicorn?