| Just want to throw out the encouragement that you're farther ahead than most startups already, and you're following the guidelines of lean startups properly. I think you have more problems than just solving "technical" challenges. Here are my 2 cents. 1. I can think of only 2 ways to solve your technical shortcomings: (1) invest in yourselves by taking the time to self-teach the technologies PROPERLY (or hire competent programmers who can and is willing to tutor you), or (2) making the products as simple as possible technically before you hire someone to implement your product prototype. I don't know how urgent is your timeline for (1) to work properly, and you may face expense and IP issues with (2) shall you go that route. I don't know enough about your situation to comment properly. You will need to reassess what combination of the two you want to implement, since you're not at the point where you can hire beyond the founders permanently. 2. "Innovation" and "revolutionary" are just fashion trends in the tech industry. It's more important for you to be the first group to solve specific problems properly according to your customers. I believe your products are already a good starting point for you to collect feedback from your customers. Then you can use the feedback to improve your products, offer a new product that could tailor their similar needs, scale up the business you gain from your existing customers, or ramp up your marketing efforts to reach similar people. 3. Being too obsessed with your competition is a waste of time and effort. You need to be aware of what they are doing, but I would suggest making your customers happy first. I would also suggest solving your receivable problems before paying attention to dealing with the competition. 4. I wouldn't say I would recommend you to keep fighting or give up. I would however suggest you and your co-founder to take some time off (perhaps during the downtime if there are some). You sound like you really need the downtime (uninterrupted by distractions) to really reflect the following. Clarity in them would help guide your next courses of action: - Can you remain the group who can solve specific economic problems in the society the best way possible for your customer demographic?
- Can you remain lean and agile yet scale your market penetration in your current markets to the point of domination?
- Do you have the technical ability to create the offerings for your market? 5. Your inability to let go of the ownership is understandable, yet I believe it's emotional. If you aren't confident about getting a good valuation, trying to get seed funding is indeed a waste of time (I believe you'll fare better if you execute 4 and 3 first). I recommend you to ask why you even want to fundraise through seed funding in the first place. Are you trying to sell the company in the future? Or is what you're doing just too difficult to make and scale without the money? 6. If you're still having trouble coming up with comfortably profitable ideas, I would recommend adopting a habit of talking to people as regularly as possible (weekly is a good starting point). You'll only get profitable if you tailor to enough people who are willing to pay to eliminate the problems. If you would like to discuss more privately, please feel welcome to send me a message at stanigator at gmail dot com. |