<commit_before>---
title: How to launch a startup
summary: Are you curious how to launch a startup in the fast and effective way? Here's not the answer, but you can understand how to achieve it
categories: startup
tags: launch
date: 2022-03-30 09:09:09 +0000
cover: https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2021/10/26/19/44/field-6745014_1280.jpg
redirect_from: 
# todo: remove this article
- /startup/curated-list-startup-launch-platforms/
- /startup/free-ideas-for-the-next-startup/
layout: post
---

<!-- todo: remove this before release -->
Check SEO meta: https://metadescriptiontool.com/




I launched few projects, but every time I felt like I'm not able to do it and probably never finish it. I learnt a lot from books or from online articles, but all the time the phrases were repeted over and over with the same content.

As all my blog posts, I'll be straight to the point, because this article is not only for you, but is for me too. Is a way of taking notes while I'm learning and in the moment I write these lines the learning process is still active.

So how to launch a startup, line by line.

## Find your idea

![find your idea for startup](https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2017/02/13/08/54/brain-2062057_1280.jpg)

The cliche "find problems around you and solve them" is somehow true, but not all the times problems suround you. What helps me is to watch problems of my clients (I run a [software agency](https://cmevo.com)).

But REMEMBER, your idea don't have to be unique. Competition is good and it helps you to grow. I made this mistake with many ideas, thinking that I don't have any chance if my product is not unique. The product is not you, is not your software, it's about the team and the know how, more than everything.

By time to time I am curious what others wants to build and some of the websites that I check are these:

- <a href="(https://www.indiehackers.com/group/ideas-and-validation" target="_blank">Ideas and Validation Group from IH</a> 
- <a href="(https://needgap.com" target="_blank">needgap</a> 
- <a href="https://kern.al" target="_blank">Kern.al</a> 
- <a href="https://plygrnd.xyz" target="_blank">Plygrnd</a>

Your idea may suffer many changes over time. Don't worry, that's normal, you need to adapt and switch fast in order to stay upfront.

## Validate idea

![validate idea](https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2019/09/29/22/06/light-bulb-4514505_1280.jpg)

The validation of idea is very important because we are subjective with our creations. Not all the time your idea is good. So a cold shower is benefic, and the startup idea validation is exactly that.

Talking with potential customers can be benefic from many perspectives: understand your product/service, understand if your idea is not good enough yet, the customer's needs, what they miss in the current solution.

### Where to find prospects

Everywhere can be a customer! What a generic response, right?! It is true, let's dive more in. 

#### Watch your competition audience

Basically if you don't know exactly where your customer can be found, start watching your competition, later we talk [how to analyze competition](#analyze-competition). Your competition is already in front of customers with a product or a service. But don't worry, you don't need to steal the competition's strategy, actually is not quite correct to do that, better analyze them and improve their strategy or product. 

Start looking at their website, social media, do they manage other channels like Facebook groups, discord servers, newsletter, Telegram groups, Twitter communities, etc? Because yes investigate how people interact with them.

Maybe your niche is not well defined, you don't have competition yet or you don't know where to start from. I suggest to start talking with people that you think might be your customer. It can be chaotic in the beginning but at least you talk with people.

#### Use social media

![validate idea with social media](https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2016/03/03/10/17/social-media-1233873_1280.jpg)

You know that social media can be a very powerful strategy? I like to talk with potential customers via Twitter, LinkedIn, even Facebook or Instagram. Is simpler because you're one step ahead against email. It's easier for them to reply there and the discussion can be more informal, doesn't have to stay in the same way as on email.

<!-- todo: go deep with each platform: twitter, ig, fb, linkedin, reddit -->

#### Email

![validate idea with email](https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2018/03/22/02/37/email-3249062_1280.png)

As mentioned before, personally I find it harder to talk with prospects via email. You're a stranger in their inbox and they know it. 

In order to capture their atention try to go straight to the point and keep the email very short. Present yourself or your business (depends who's more relevant) as an introduction and talk what you put on the table, what's their benefit from that discussion and why should reply. Don't talk about you, the introduction was enough, talk about the benefits of your product for their business and how it can be integrated. Try to close the email by having a strong call to action, inviting them on a meeting, a demo or what you need more.

As a recommendation I have few books on the cold call email subject:

1. The follow-up formula by <NAME>
2. Cold Email Hacks - How to bet more customers with winning sales emails by <NAME>

### Who should you talk with

![who should you talk with to launch a startup](https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2017/05/04/16/37/meeting-2284501_1280.jpg)

This is a heavy question, because usually we tend to talk with the closest people. In almost every article or book I read it was mentioned to not even thinking to talk with your family or friends. Because they can be subjective and reply based on emotional background. And somehow this is true, unless you build a product or service which targets family or friends, in that case they are your target.

Your target audience is important in the beginning and even later. But try to focus for the first time indentifying the most important customers. The one who is ready to buy imediately. Later, when the startup is well defined, you'll have marketing campaigns, sales people which will find new ways of finding new proespects and customers. Until that time you need to start from somewhere, so keep it low, keep it fast. Remember, your startup values nothing at this moment, you don't have money to spend.

So I write two paragraphs and I say nothing right to the point.

In the beginning talk with people who needs your product or service. Go there, find a way to talk with them and simply ask, they can reject you, push a bit, if they're not interested move forward. From each talk you can discover something, even the fact that they are not interested can be something to learn from: even the product is not for them, they are not the most important customer or you did something wrong, don't worry you'll learn. But start talking with them, is just that simple, just breath and send an email or DM via social media. What costs you? A rejection?! Are you going to launch a startup or you're too scared of rejection?!

If you choose an audience and discover they are not interested, maybe you did the wrong pick. Redefine the audience and go over again until you find someone interested. If no one is interested probably the idea is not good or you did something wrong.

### How many people should you talk with

![how many people should you talk with to launch a startup](https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2016/08/16/09/53/international-conference-1597531_1280.jpg)

3 people, because 3 is a magic number, at least in a fairy tale. How to launch a startup when you talked with 3 users? That's not exactly a validation, is more a self validation or fear of failure.

Talk with many, a lot, 3 - 5 - 10 are not enough. Talk with 100 or 1000 because you need to learn from them what are their problems. Guaranteed talking with 1000 people you can find some patterns that repeats, they have some similar issues and probably they need something specific that cannot be found at competition. Except that you break the fear and improve your communication skills.

### What to talk about with prospects

![how to talk with prospects](https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2020/11/08/11/22/man-5723449_1280.jpg)

Go there, make an intro and offer some context, be honest and tell them the truth. Don't offer all the details from the beginning, just keep the intro short. If they are interested will reply.

Start the discussion by telling them who you are and what you need, in a manner that you try to offer them something, try to help them. People tend to discuss more about them, so using this in your favor can make a big difference. Tell them what you want to build and how you can help them. Then ask if they have a moment for a chat/discussion.

Tell them about what you already know as being their biggest pain and how your solution solves that. After you gain the trust, ask them what other problems they face and how they currently handle. Take notes, these can be your next features. Pay attention at the solution they use currently and ask why they choose it, if they tried something else or not.

Did they searched for a similar solution with yours or not? Try to find the impostor pretending to have an issue. We as persons tend to complain, some of us more than others, so take care when a customer lies about his issues. You can identify if the biggest pain is as big by asking how he solve it right now, how hard is to solve it and what he did to find a better solution. You know that people say:

> if I would have an app that do this for me, that would be great, now I only use Excel"

then you ask 

> did you searched for any tool that may help you, any app?

Take in consideration their response, because this is a red flag. If they never tried to find an alternative for Excel, that means they don't need it, the issue is not so big for them.

I'll give you a story. Once I tried to build a management app for freelancer personal trainers who helps them to manage bookings of the clients, the progress of client and many more. I talked with personal trainers on Linkedin and ask them about this issue and the most of them answered either the gym offer them this tool or they use the classic agenda taking notes on paper.Some of them answered before that a mobile app would be very helpful, but when I asked about the current solution and if they searched an alternative the answer was exactly this

> no, I did not. I take notes in my agenda, I'm used to.

See now?! If they did not the minimum effort of searching for an alternative, would they pay for yours? I agree that maybe your solution is unique, but did they at least search for, a simple search o Google can be a good sign.

### Pitch the product before is built

Previoulsy we talked about telling on short their biggest pain, in order to establish your authority and win their trust. But after they talk about their problems and you find that their issues are solvable with your solution -> go in action. Is the moment when you tell them about your solution by centring the features on their issues, don't talk about 1000 features that you have, because they don't understand them and get bored. Explain how your solution will solved their problem A, B, C. Probably they have some questions and that is good, answer to that, but don't lie, tell the truth always, even if your solution doesn't fit 100% to their problem. Later your lie makes more problems than the income you gain from the sale.

Is your product or MVP ready yet? Hope not, because in this phase you should focus on discovering their problem and after these discussions you can switch and adapt the initial idea. But if you already have something built, that's it, is fine.

Tell the customer if your solution is not built yet and when you estimate to be launched. They shouldn't care, stay chill, they need the solution, remember?! Is not a problem to tell them that you're currently working on it and soon will be ready.

You shouldn't sell from the first meeting, make sure that they feel comfortable, because is important to establish some trust between client and you. Later you have time to sell, now just validate. Now is the time to ask them about pricing, based on their pain level how much would they pay for your solution. Here you can offer them some context and guide them if you for example plan to use a specific pricing model.

Questions as the following may help them to reply with your expected answer:

> How much would you pay per day/month/year/user?

If they don't like the direction of your question for sure will reply

> I would like to pay 10$ every time when I use the service, but not ready for a subscription.

And this is an option too, because they can offer you a different vision. If many people goes the discussion in that direction, probably you need to switch the pricing model.

Don't force to get an answer from them with any price. If they stay closed to "I don't know", try to offer them some ranges that you already have in mind based on your product or that you saw at competition.

Is the moment to tell them what is your opinion regarding the price.

<!-- todo: ideas -->
- ask what they need immediatly to sign with you
- offer discount if they buy early (50-70% lifetime or it depends), if they ask about guarantee you can tell them is like a risk for a future investment, but offer them full refund if they're not satisfied with the final product after release.
- read The mom test
- build a LP with buy now button

### Where to start from

<!-- todo: ideas -->

## Build the product or service

You're good now and probably know how to launch a startup. You have the idea, is validated and need to define the product or service, but still don't know what to build or what the product should contain initially or later.

Don'y worry, go after competition and see what they offer.

(#analyze-competition)
## Analyze the competition

![analyze competition](https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2020/08/09/14/25/business-5475658_1280.jpg)

How to launch a startup when you don't know what's the startup, right?! Check what others do and try to do best. But remember, some of their features are already validated by you or by them with a real audience, so you have to build them.

In order to analyze competition you can do it manually using search engines and type down advantages and disadvantages, but except this old fashion way, you should check their online presence and how to do this if now using [Tools for Analyzing Your Competition](https://whyboobo.com/startup/resources/tools-analyzing-competition/). In this article you can find a list of articles about tools and how to use them.

But you know what, is there a simpler solution?! Maybe yes for some of you, you can search on platforms or websites where [people talk and share their startups](#where-to-launch-startups). Some of your competitors can be already there, some of them build in public and you can take advantage of to learn about their main problems and improve your product.

### Check reviews of competition

Checking reviews of your competition can be a very good selling pitch for further customers. When they complains about some issues about a product, you take notes and do it in your product. Be cautious, not every feedback have to be implemented, but if many people complains about the same subject and you solve it, then you may get some new clients.

In the same time take in considereation the strong points, what the customers of your competitor mention as very good? You should have it at least at the same quality. As a customer you need to offer me more, because for me is an extra effort to change my current provider, so you need to offer me more value.

### I don't have competition

![how to launch a startup with no competition](https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2021/05/25/09/51/road-6281973_1280.jpg)

I doubt!

There are some new fields where your startup can be unique and there's no competition. But for the most of you the competition is there, just try to strive more finding them. Don't stop after the first search on google, try more keywords, use the tools below to generate keyword suggestion and try with many variations. I saw people who say how they build the mvp in 24h, maybe is possible but is not mandatory. Try to learn about the new business you start.

Enough for those who are lazy and just read this material to check it as done, but don't take action. Let's talk about those cases when you don't have competition for real. It can be harder, but not impossible. In this case you need to look around, find similarities with other startups or domains and make analogies with them. Is not 100% accurate, but it may drive you on the right road.

### Talk directly with competition 

As you saw, there are indirect methods to check competition using online tools or offline tools, but sometimes you can go directly to the competition and ask. I know what you're thinking, why now and why would they answer? They don't! But you don't go to them and talk as you do it with your friends, find a context and pretend to be one of their client, maybe you already are and it can be better.

Talk with them about your main questions, but try to find the best way of asking this. I have to tell you a story about how I failed once by checking the pricing of my competitors.

[Skip the story](#mvp)

Recently I started to document myself for the next project that I would like to build. Is a SaaS solution for farming leases management. And I started to find competition. The first step was accomplished easier, by searching them online. I found a list with 4-5 competitors and I decided to go deeper. Some details are already presented on their website, but for some reason, not everything is online (I suspect they think that they can hide, Mr. Sherlock is in action.. no way for you to escape).

What would you do in this situation? Go further and find their clients to talk about them or go directly to them and talk. I decided to go after them and ask for pricing. Check the website, find the email: "that's it, just an email away from the pricing".

And I started

> Hi, I'm a client who wants to try your services. I want to ask how much you charge for your software. At your disposal...

The reply came:

> Sure sir, can we have a phone call to talk more about our offer.

I send them an email because my discussion had to be written because in that way I can search about their question and simulate the best client, but on the phone call, I may fake it wrong.

I had the phone call and they asked me for details about my farm, the area, the company name, and what field size I lease. And 0 responses for any of these, but I cannot look stupid, right?! So I had to invent something and I told to the lady that I'm the nephew and my uncle has the farm and I need to find all the details and come back.

After this discussion, I understood a valuable lesson. Be prepared all the time, try to be one step ahead of your competition.

### Analyze the competition - Resources

- <a href="https://www.toptal.com/product-managers/freelance/product-designer-guide-to-competitive-analysis" target="_blank">A Product Designer's Guide to Competitive Analysis</a>
- <a href="https://www.shopify.com/blog/competitive-analysis" target="_blank">How to Conduct a Competitive Analysis for Your Business (Plus a Free Template)</a>

(#mvp)
## MVP (Most Viable Product)
<commit_msg>Update post<commit_after>---
title: How to launch a startup
summary: Are you curious how to launch a startup in the fast and effective way? Here's not the answer, but you can understand how to achieve it
categories: startup
tags: launch
date: 2022-03-30 09:09:09 +0000
cover: https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2021/10/26/19/44/field-6745014_1280.jpg
redirect_from: 
# todo: remove this article
- /startup/curated-list-startup-launch-platforms/
- /startup/free-ideas-for-the-next-startup/
layout: post
---

<!-- todo: remove this before release -->
Check SEO meta: https://metadescriptiontool.com/




I launched few projects, but every time I felt like I'm not able to do it and probably never finish it. I learnt a lot from books or from online articles, but all the time the phrases were repeted over and over with the same content.

As all my blog posts, I'll be straight to the point, because this article is not only for you, but is for me too. Is a way of taking notes while I'm learning and in the moment I write these lines the learning process is still active.

So how to launch a startup, line by line.

## Find your idea

![find your idea for startup](https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2017/02/13/08/54/brain-2062057_1280.jpg)

The cliche "find problems around you and solve them" is somehow true, but not all the times problems suround you. What helps me is to watch problems of my clients (I run a [software agency](https://cmevo.com)).

But REMEMBER, your idea don't have to be unique. Competition is good and it helps you to grow. I made this mistake with many ideas, thinking that I don't have any chance if my product is not unique. The product is not you, is not your software, it's about the team and the know how, more than everything.

By time to time I am curious what others wants to build and some of the websites that I check are these:

- <a href="(https://www.indiehackers.com/group/ideas-and-validation" target="_blank">Ideas and Validation Group from IH</a> 
- <a href="(https://needgap.com" target="_blank">needgap</a> 
- <a href="https://kern.al" target="_blank">Kern.al</a> 
- <a href="https://plygrnd.xyz" target="_blank">Plygrnd</a>

Your idea may suffer many changes over time. Don't worry, that's normal, you need to adapt and switch fast in order to stay upfront.

## Validate idea

![validate idea](https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2019/09/29/22/06/light-bulb-4514505_1280.jpg)

The validation of idea is very important because we are subjective with our creations. Not all the time your idea is good. So a cold shower is benefic, and the startup idea validation is exactly that.

Talking with potential customers can be benefic from many perspectives: understand your product/service, understand if your idea is not good enough yet, the customer's needs, what they miss in the current solution.

### Where to find prospects

Everywhere can be a customer! What a generic response, right?! It is true, let's dive more in. 

#### Watch your competition audience

Basically if you don't know exactly where your customer can be found, start watching your competition, later we talk [how to analyze competition](#analyze-competition). Your competition is already in front of customers with a product or a service. But don't worry, you don't need to steal the competition's strategy, actually is not quite correct to do that, better analyze them and improve their strategy or product. 

Start looking at their website, social media, do they manage other channels like Facebook groups, discord servers, newsletter, Telegram groups, Twitter communities, etc? Because yes investigate how people interact with them.

Maybe your niche is not well defined, you don't have competition yet or you don't know where to start from. I suggest to start talking with people that you think might be your customer. It can be chaotic in the beginning but at least you talk with people.

#### Use social media

![validate idea with social media](https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2016/03/03/10/17/social-media-1233873_1280.jpg)

You know that social media can be a very powerful strategy? I like to talk with potential customers via Twitter, LinkedIn, even Facebook or Instagram. Is simpler because you're one step ahead against email. It's easier for them to reply there and the discussion can be more informal, doesn't have to stay in the same way as on email.

<!-- todo: go deep with each platform: twitter, ig, fb, linkedin, reddit -->

#### Email

![validate idea with email](https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2018/03/22/02/37/email-3249062_1280.png)

As mentioned before, personally I find it harder to talk with prospects via email. You're a stranger in their inbox and they know it. 

In order to capture their atention try to go straight to the point and keep the email very short. Present yourself or your business (depends who's more relevant) as an introduction and talk what you put on the table, what's their benefit from that discussion and why should reply. Don't talk about you, the introduction was enough, talk about the benefits of your product for their business and how it can be integrated. Try to close the email by having a strong call to action, inviting them on a meeting, a demo or what you need more.

As a recommendation I have few books on the cold call email subject:

1. The follow-up formula by Steli Efti
2. Cold Email Hacks - How to bet more customers with winning sales emails by Steli Efti

### Who should you talk with

![who should you talk with to launch a startup](https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2017/05/04/16/37/meeting-2284501_1280.jpg)

This is a heavy question, because usually we tend to talk with the closest people. In almost every article or book I read it was mentioned to not even thinking to talk with your family or friends. Because they can be subjective and reply based on emotional background. And somehow this is true, unless you build a product or service which targets family or friends, in that case they are your target.

Your target audience is important in the beginning and even later. But try to focus for the first time indentifying the most important customers. The one who is ready to buy imediately. Later, when the startup is well defined, you'll have marketing campaigns, sales people which will find new ways of finding new proespects and customers. Until that time you need to start from somewhere, so keep it low, keep it fast. Remember, your startup values nothing at this moment, you don't have money to spend.

So I write two paragraphs and I say nothing right to the point.

In the beginning talk with people who needs your product or service. Go there, find a way to talk with them and simply ask, they can reject you, push a bit, if they're not interested move forward. From each talk you can discover something, even the fact that they are not interested can be something to learn from: even the product is not for them, they are not the most important customer or you did something wrong, don't worry you'll learn. But start talking with them, is just that simple, just breath and send an email or DM via social media. What costs you? A rejection?! Are you going to launch a startup or you're too scared of rejection?!

If you choose an audience and discover they are not interested, maybe you did the wrong pick. Redefine the audience and go over again until you find someone interested. If no one is interested probably the idea is not good or you did something wrong.

### How many people should you talk with

![how many people should you talk with to launch a startup](https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2016/08/16/09/53/international-conference-1597531_1280.jpg)

3 people, because 3 is a magic number, at least in a fairy tale. How to launch a startup when you talked with 3 users? That's not exactly a validation, is more a self validation or fear of failure.

Talk with many, a lot, 3 - 5 - 10 are not enough. Talk with 100 or 1000 because you need to learn from them what are their problems. Guaranteed talking with 1000 people you can find some patterns that repeats, they have some similar issues and probably they need something specific that cannot be found at competition. Except that you break the fear and improve your communication skills.

### What to talk about with prospects

![how to talk with prospects](https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2020/11/08/11/22/man-5723449_1280.jpg)

Go there, make an intro and offer some context, be honest and tell them the truth. Don't offer all the details from the beginning, just keep the intro short. If they are interested will reply.

Start the discussion by telling them who you are and what you need, in a manner that you try to offer them something, try to help them. People tend to discuss more about them, so using this in your favor can make a big difference. Tell them what you want to build and how you can help them. Then ask if they have a moment for a chat/discussion.

Tell them about what you already know as being their biggest pain and how your solution solves that. After you gain the trust, ask them what other problems they face and how they currently handle. Take notes, these can be your next features. Pay attention at the solution they use currently and ask why they choose it, if they tried something else or not.

Did they searched for a similar solution with yours or not? Try to find the impostor pretending to have an issue. We as persons tend to complain, some of us more than others, so take care when a customer lies about his issues. You can identify if the biggest pain is as big by asking how he solve it right now, how hard is to solve it and what he did to find a better solution. You know that people say:

> if I would have an app that do this for me, that would be great, now I only use Excel"

then you ask 

> did you searched for any tool that may help you, any app?

Take in consideration their response, because this is a red flag. If they never tried to find an alternative for Excel, that means they don't need it, the issue is not so big for them.

I'll give you a story. Once I tried to build a management app for freelancer personal trainers who helps them to manage bookings of the clients, the progress of client and many more. I talked with personal trainers on Linkedin and ask them about this issue and the most of them answered either the gym offer them this tool or they use the classic agenda taking notes on paper.Some of them answered before that a mobile app would be very helpful, but when I asked about the current solution and if they searched an alternative the answer was exactly this

> no, I did not. I take notes in my agenda, I'm used to.

See now?! If they did not the minimum effort of searching for an alternative, would they pay for yours? I agree that maybe your solution is unique, but did they at least search for, a simple search o Google can be a good sign.

### Pitch the product before is built

Previoulsy we talked about telling on short their biggest pain, in order to establish your authority and win their trust. But after they talk about their problems and you find that their issues are solvable with your solution -> go in action. Is the moment when you tell them about your solution by centring the features on their issues, don't talk about 1000 features that you have, because they don't understand them and get bored. Explain how your solution will solved their problem A, B, C. Probably they have some questions and that is good, answer to that, but don't lie, tell the truth always, even if your solution doesn't fit 100% to their problem. Later your lie makes more problems than the income you gain from the sale.

Is your product or MVP ready yet? Hope not, because in this phase you should focus on discovering their problem and after these discussions you can switch and adapt the initial idea. But if you already have something built, that's it, is fine.

Tell the customer if your solution is not built yet and when you estimate to be launched. They shouldn't care, stay chill, they need the solution, remember?! Is not a problem to tell them that you're currently working on it and soon will be ready.

You shouldn't sell from the first meeting, make sure that they feel comfortable, because is important to establish some trust between client and you. Later you have time to sell, now just validate. Now is the time to ask them about pricing, based on their pain level how much would they pay for your solution. Here you can offer them some context and guide them if you for example plan to use a specific pricing model.

Questions as the following may help them to reply with your expected answer:

> How much would you pay per day/month/year/user?

If they don't like the direction of your question for sure will reply

> I would like to pay 10$ every time when I use the service, but not ready for a subscription.

And this is an option too, because they can offer you a different vision. If many people goes the discussion in that direction, probably you need to switch the pricing model.

Don't force to get an answer from them with any price. If they stay closed to "I don't know", try to offer them some ranges that you already have in mind based on your product or that you saw at competition.

Is the moment to tell them what is your opinion regarding the price.

<!-- todo: ideas -->
- ask what they need immediatly to sign with you
- offer discount if they buy early (50-70% lifetime or it depends), if they ask about guarantee you can tell them is like a risk for a future investment, but offer them full refund if they're not satisfied with the final product after release.
- read The mom test
- build a LP with buy now button

### Where to start from

<!-- todo: ideas -->

## Build the product or service

You're good now and probably know how to launch a startup. You have the idea, is validated and need to define the product or service, but still don't know what to build or what the product should contain initially or later.

Don'y worry, go after competition and see what they offer.

(#analyze-competition)
## Analyze the competition

![analyze competition](https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2020/08/09/14/25/business-5475658_1280.jpg)

How to launch a startup when you don't know what's the startup, right?! Check what others do and try to do best. But remember, some of their features are already validated by you or by them with a real audience, so you have to build them.

In order to analyze competition you can do it manually using search engines and type down advantages and disadvantages, but except this old fashion way, you should check their online presence and how to do this if now using [Tools for Analyzing Your Competition](https://whyboobo.com/startup/resources/tools-analyzing-competition/). In this article you can find a list of articles about tools and how to use them.

But you know what, is there a simpler solution?! Maybe yes for some of you, you can search on platforms or websites where [people talk and share their startups](#where-to-launch-startups). Some of your competitors can be already there, some of them build in public and you can take advantage of to learn about their main problems and improve your product.

### Check reviews of competition

Checking reviews of your competition can be a very good selling pitch for further customers. When they complains about some issues about a product, you take notes and do it in your product. Be cautious, not every feedback have to be implemented, but if many people complains about the same subject and you solve it, then you may get some new clients.

In the same time take in considereation the strong points, what the customers of your competitor mention as very good? You should have it at least at the same quality. As a customer you need to offer me more, because for me is an extra effort to change my current provider, so you need to offer me more value.

### I don't have competition

![how to launch a startup with no competition](https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2021/05/25/09/51/road-6281973_1280.jpg)

I doubt!

There are some new fields where your startup can be unique and there's no competition. But for the most of you the competition is there, just try to strive more finding them. Don't stop after the first search on google, try more keywords, use the tools below to generate keyword suggestion and try with many variations. I saw people who say how they build the mvp in 24h, maybe is possible but is not mandatory. Try to learn about the new business you start.

Enough for those who are lazy and just read this material to check it as done, but don't take action. Let's talk about those cases when you don't have competition for real. It can be harder, but not impossible. In this case you need to look around, find similarities with other startups or domains and make analogies with them. Is not 100% accurate, but it may drive you on the right road.

### Talk directly with competition 

As you saw, there are indirect methods to check competition using online tools or offline tools, but sometimes you can go directly to the competition and ask. I know what you're thinking, why now and why would they answer? They don't! But you don't go to them and talk as you do it with your friends, find a context and pretend to be one of their client, maybe you already are and it can be better.

Talk with them about your main questions, but try to find the best way of asking this. I have to tell you a story about how I failed once by checking the pricing of my competitors.

[Skip the story](#mvp)

#### How I've been caught by competition trying to find their pricing

![pricing of competition](https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2017/03/01/09/10/animals-2107902_960_720.jpg)

Recently I started to document myself for the next project that I would like to build. Is a SaaS solution for farming leases management. And I started to find competition. The first step was accomplished easier, by searching them online. I found a list with 4-5 competitors and I decided to go deeper. Some details are already presented on their website, but for some reason, not everything is online (I suspect they think that they can hide, Mr. Sherlock is in action.. no way for you to escape).

What would you do in this situation? Go further and find their clients to talk about them or go directly to them and talk. I decided to go after them and ask for pricing. Check the website, find the email: "that's it, just an email away from the pricing".

And I started

> Hi, I'm a client who wants to try your services. I want to ask how much you charge for your software. At your disposal...

The reply came:

> Sure sir, can we have a phone call to talk more about our offer.

I send them an email because my discussion had to be written because in that way I can search about their question and simulate the best client, but on the phone call, I may fake it wrong.

I had the phone call and they asked me for details about my farm, the area, the company name, and what field size I lease. And 0 responses for any of these, but I cannot look stupid, right?! So I had to invent something and I told to the lady that I'm the nephew and my uncle has the farm and I need to find all the details and come back.

After this discussion, I understood a valuable lesson. Be prepared all the time, try to be one step ahead of your competition.

### Analyze the competition - Resources

- <a href="https://www.toptal.com/product-managers/freelance/product-designer-guide-to-competitive-analysis" target="_blank">A Product Designer's Guide to Competitive Analysis</a>
- <a href="https://www.shopify.com/blog/competitive-analysis" target="_blank">How to Conduct a Competitive Analysis for Your Business (Plus a Free Template)</a>

(#mvp)
## MVP (Most Viable Product)

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