Creating a startup is inspiring especially when you know the giant digital brands started out pretty much the same way. Or in the case of Elon Musk with Zip2, was able to sell it for $300M. Right now, the highest-valued private startup in the world is Bytedance (Toutiao), from China, which has an estimated worth of $75 billion.
Although the Cinderella startup story is very aspirational and lucrative, the reality is that 90% of startups fail for a variety of reasons from funding leadership and operation expenses. That’s 9 out of 10 startups born will die in a span of 3 months after being established. That doesn't even mean a smooth sail afterward since you will be entering different growth milestones. If you want to know more about startup mistakes to avoid click HERE .
The good news is that the creator economy has empowered a larger number of startups to start, assess and review their key performance indicators. One of these tools is no-code which draws down the learning barrier in creating websites, apps, and even automated programs to maximize technology even for regular people. As a startup goes through the perilous business cycle, how can no-code help businesses become better? Read on to know more about this.
Knowing the Startup Life Cycle and No-Code’s role
The startup life cycle varies for different organizations but we will focus on the stages on where no-code can be a big help.Stage 1 - Discovering a Problem/Creating a Solution
This is the ideation phase where an idea is born. This is the initial market research to review what problems can you focus on and what solution will you specifically work on. This is the birth of a startup where you need to understand and overcome the challenges of the industry.
You can do focus group discussions where you really need to understand the customer. You can also run demand tests to get the data you need. At this point, you can need to have data that can guide you as you grow your brand.
How No-code can Help:
No-code platforms such as Notion and Airtable are great tools to organize data with the team members.Stage 2- Building your MVP
At this stage, you might either be funded by a VC or bootstrapped. This is where you should manage expenses, hire the best people and map out a clear vision for your product. The main challenge is not to burn through limited resources and maximize them. Apart from operations, this is where you also start your marketing process to be able to gather enough people and customers to give data that are reliable.How No-code can Help:
No-code is an inexpensive way to start building your MVP where it’s just a landing page or a mock-up. You can check the other kinds of MVPS HERE so you can see which of them will fit your business. Since it’s an MVP, you need to find the product-market fit which means constantly measuring customer data. If you want to know more about finding the product-market fit, visit our blog post HERE as well.Stage 3 - Growth Spurt
Congratulations! This is the time when your business is getting regular customers and there is a manageable amount of income coming into your business. At this stage, there should be more focus on running the business with structure and system. Better accounting and management systems should be in place.How No-code can Help:
You can build a simple but customized management system with no-code. By utilizing this, you can either integrate it with store-bought accounting software or even learn from it. On top of that, as you gather reliable data, you can start immediate iterations with no-code and launch them faster.Stage 4 - Finding your Footing
This is when you are established already and the business is thriving well. At this stage, focus should be on improving operations and productivity.
How No-code can Help:
Automation is one of the best investments a company can make. You can read more about it HERE where we posted how beneficial automation can be in terms of financial and employee trust within the organization. There are a number of no-code automation platforms to help your business. You can also apply artificial intelligence (AI) to business processes to make it more efficient.Stage 5 - Maturity
Not so many startups make it this far. This is the time when business grows year over year but competition becomes stiff. Atthis point, some founders decide if they can scale this project further or if they will exit.
How No-code can Help:
No-code can assist businesses at this rate for micro-projects and see which one will stick. It can be a sister company, complementing product or service, or simply use to improve certain departments like marketing and even customer relationship management.No-Code and Startups Go Hand in Hand
No-code enables anyone to create anything easily and fast. Startups can really maximize this as they build., grow and maintain their business. Since no-code is just beginning, we see a promising future for startups as well. As Gen Z shifts its long-term plan away from corporate life, we also see the potential for them to shift to building their own startups since it's very accessible. Failing a startup has now become a right of passage and all you need to do is learn. No-code makes it easy to start over and rebuild your startup business.