One mistake tech startups make while developing software

Many tech start-ups make a huge mistake developing software, here is why.

We get many enquiries at Wubbleyou which begin like this:

🚀 Startup: We would like to develop a product which does X, Y, Z to solve {Insert very hard problem here}

🧙 Wubbleyou: Great, that certainly sounds like our type of partnership. Bear with us while we ask some questions. What have you done to test {Insert very hard problem here} so far? How do you know it can be solved? Is there the demand?

🚀 Startup: We anticipate testing that once we've built the MVP- it's the only way to test it

🧙 Wubbleyou: It sounds like a hard problem. We agree it would be easier with bespoke software. But have you tried delivering it manually and testing demand? Have you tried cobbling something together in Excel or No Code?

🚀 Startup: No, because we don't want to put potential customers off with something poor

🧙 Wubbleyou: What if you invested time and money to build something amazing and they still don't want it? Does your business have the runway to invest in multiple iterations at this stage?

🚀 Startup: Yea, that would be an issue..

🧙 Wubbleyou: Can you think of any early adopters who would overlook issues in your prototype because they see genuine value in your idea?

🚀 Startup: Yea, now that you mention it!

The reality is unless you can write code, building software without testing the core concepts is wasteful. It can be life threatening for your business. The first version should be scrappy and a bit embarrassing. But by using early adopters, you can test that the idea is commercially/technologically viable. What can be achieved in your team with 40-80 hours of time to test core assumptions?

I don't want clients:

❌ To go insolvent
❌ To whom we can't deliver value
❌ With whom we won't build a long-term relationship

If we build software for clients with critical assumptions, the risk of one of these occurring is high.

The best approaches from customers who succeed have built something scrappy to test it. They have then exhausted its lifespan before building a software product. They know it sells. They have customers crying out for changes they want to see. These started as:

💡 Excel spreadsheets which make your eyes bleed
💡 WordPress websites so overburdened with plugins, it's a miracle it even loads
💡 Extremely manual process which works but doesn't scale
💡 Using a no-code platform to make a prototype (We do this as a service!)

What do they all have in common? They're cheap to execute and can be improved rapidly until they reach their natural limitation.

When their first iteration is generating revenue, and their customers require changes which are undeliverable in its current state? Then talk to us.
We can create a custom platform with clear need/confidence to unlock the next level of scalability.

Do the absolute minimum to validate that {Insert very hard problem here} is worth solving before doing anything else. Your chance of success will be much higher.