When building your startup, you have two options; raise funds or bootstrap. The business plan way of raising money for your venture still has its place.
2. Establish Networks & Connect
• Prepare a list of professionals to connect with them,
dig-out your full resources to get a contact detail of
professionals
• The best source is internet where you will find bunch of
professionals
• Join relevant groups on LinkedIn, YCombinator,
and Reddit to connect with people that can help you.
Conferences are also great; just attend the right ones.
3. Get Customer Input
• Get feedback for your product before you build it.
• Interview your prospective customers to determine their
problems
• Then, provide different solutions and identify the ones
the prospects seem to favor.
• Finally, ask the prospects if they will be willing to pay for
the solution
4. Listen to Customers
Listen to the needs of your customers.
Use your customers to determine what to provide and how
to provide it.
Before you make a full offer, test the waters with your
customers and let them drive your offer and marketing
strategy.
5. Use Partnerships
• Use partnerships to grow your business.
• When promoting your startup or product, identify other
people in your space that can help you get the word out.
• Partnering with an established company can help to
build credibility for your startup.
6. Use Influencers
• Identify a number of key influencers in your industry and
form a good relationship with them.
• Focus your efforts in building a relationship with
influencers that have followers and that can market your
startup to the right audience.
•
7. Trending Topics
• Generate buzz for your startup by riding on the coattails
of a currently trending “hot topic.” 99designs used this
strategy to create buzz on their startup. When GAP
unveiled a logo design, which was heavily criticized on
the web, 99 designs took advantage of the happening
with a crowdsourcing competition to show what its
community can deliver.