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Tag: startups

  • Why You Need Help Building Your Startup MVP!

    Why You Need Help Building Your Startup MVP!

    Has anyone ever paid you for just an idea? Didn’t think so. It usually takes at least a solid MVP, right?

    Since we set up our company in San Francisco, we’ve been focused on helping startups build their MVPs and we’ve heard thousands of potential clients tell us that they have “THE” next big startup idea. We agree with the philosophy out here that confidence is really an important tool and we also believe that the mindset of “Fake it till you make it” is definitely subscribed to by most Bay Area founders. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, and it’s something that we adore about working in this region. Having said this, our CEO Lex’s response has always been the same since day one:

    “The idea is important, but it’s ultimately the execution, that sets successful products apart, and that’s where we come in”.

    So why do you need help building your MVP? First, for those that don’t know, MVP is a startup term for “Minimum Viable Product” meaning a product that may not be perfect and ready to support millions, but it will get you traction and prove the concept enough to get you the meetings you need. MVPs are important because they help prove that you’re on the right track. The key with MVPs is being able to iterate on the product early on, quickly and efficiently.

    Products naturally evolve during development with the more user feedback and market insight you gain. Hiring full-time employees takes time away from product development, fundraising and other important tasks for founders. If you wait as long as it takes to iterate several times and get it perfect, then you could be too late to the party and someone could have moved quicker to getting funded, and grown their team and passed you up. This is where services like ours come in, and help non-tech founders and other early stage startups with their MVP development, while they work on the business sides of things. Not only does this allow the startup to move faster, but it also ensures a better quality product and a lot less stressful nights leading up to your big pitch day.

    What is unique about newer solutions like BuildaTeam is that we aren’t just freelancers 8,000 miles away that you are need to explain the requirements to. We help you define and optimize those requirements and align them with your business objectives, leaving the legwork of writing the code to outsourced expert teams. This help founders ship early stage products both on web and mobile. Today there’s more of a paradox of choice on who to trust with your software development than flavors of ice cream from the Ice Cream truck guy. You need to pick the right solution either hiring in-house or outsourcing but the fact is, you don’t need to be an incredible tech developer or software engineer yourself any longer as much as you need to be a really good manager. You need to find the right solution for your team, and move quickly so you can get it right, before you run out of cash.

    “Unless you’re already an entrepreneur with at least one nine-figure exit behind you, the answer is no. The reasoning behind this is simple: People buy products, not ideas.” – From a recent Fox News article on a similar subject.

    So if you’re in charge of a startup that is moving too slowly with development for your liking let’s chat. We can help. Email us: hello@BuildaTeam.io 

  • The BuildaTeam Story!

    The BuildaTeam Story!

    Over the past few years, I have co-founded several startups where I got to wear many hats and manage remote freelancers that needed well written specs. I faced all challenges of hiring and managing remote teams. But little by little I got a hang of it and after trial and error I figured out a recipe for having great distributed teams that actually ‘get sh*t done’ and it doesn’t need to be re-done. After our previous startup got acquired I was in a position to choose a new adventure. I figured that I should leverage my experience and help other startups get sh*t done. BuildaTeam was born.

    In order to build an A+ team that could help me, I came up with a 4-step interview process. Slowly we grew our expert network from the core E-Commerce Services (Magento,  Shopify, Woocommerce) to Mobile Application Development, Custom Software Development, and building MVPs for startups on Meteor.js. The team varies depending on the requirements smart Project Managers, Senior Developers, Creative Designers.

    As a complete service, BuildaTeam.io now creates and manages exclusive expert teams from S. America and Eastern Europe that cost less than one internally hired expert. Similar companies exist in abundance of course, but those solutions can be either extremely pricey or lack quality. This is why we have been focused on not only delivering quality dev work, but also on being the product owners advocates – we make sure we use the best suiting technology, help cut off unnecessary costs, recommend marketing strategies, help select the best 3rd party providers.

    RoyalRobbins is a multi-million dollar online clothing retailer whose eCommerce store was developed by us. Their E-Commerce Manager, Mea had this to say about BuildaTeam’s software development services:

    “The customer service that BuildaTeam provides is unmatched. You can’t get help like this from other development companies. The whole team is so accessible and responds quickly.”

    Another recent customer, DejaWho’s CEO, Alex, had this to say about working with BuildaTeam to bring their mobile app to life;

    “I thought that buildateam.io did an absolutely amazing job creating my app DejaWho! We came to them with absolutely no technical background, no technical scope, basically with just an idea of how we wanted the end result to look like. Lex and his team did an amazing job with the discovery phase, getting an understanding of what we wanted, and they built this app from conception into acceptance into the app store. As any start-up app company, we had many changes to our original plan and the team was always there to talk us through it and would implement them into new versions within the next day or 2. The process was remarkably efficient and I would recommend this team for any app builders. Great team!”

    And here is one more from the CEO of PrideBites:

    ‘BuildaTeam is not only the most skilled developers we have ever worked with, but also the most time oriented. I highly recommend their work, and truly enjoy working with such good people.’

  • 5 Rules for Startup Media Engagement

    5 Rules for Startup Media Engagement

    If you’re a young startup, there’s little doubt that you’ll eventually need to get media exposure, one way or another. If you want to get noticed, and don’t have huge budgets for paid ad campaigns, then you need to know how to access and engage your target users through free media channels. Well we recently read an awesome, and actionable article on Forbes and since we at BuildaTeam.io are all about helping startups grow faster through unparalleled web and mobile development services, we felt it was only right to share the wealth. Below are some great tips for engaging through the different media channels:

    Use Twitter….no seriously.

    Our marketing guy always preached to us…”Make your own story”, so start there. Then find the fastest and most direct route to a journalist who will use it. Twitter has to be one of the quickest, easiest and most effective ways for an entrepreneur to find media opportunities. Just type #journorequest into the search box to uncover dozens of requests from journalists looking for help with stories on every business topic imaginable. You’ll be unlucky not to find at least one that relates to your business, so hit Reply, and tell them how you can help. Keyword there: HELP. Offer help, don’t just ask for help.

    LinkedIn offers additional routes in. With a bit of research into the publications and business areas you are focusing on, you can track down the various journalists who cover them. Forget the rules about not sending requests to people you don’t know; busy journalists keep open house on social media

    Be ready for the response…

    If a journalist responds positively to your reach-out or Twitter reply, make sure you can deliver what you have promised them. Press releases are useful as background, but you’ll need to be available, sometimes at very short notice, to jump on a call to answer a few questions. Great images are a godsend to an editor, while a live website is essential, as they will want to check your business out.

    Leverage the news

    It isn’t just journalists who are always on the lookout for fresh angles on news stories to generate extra media mileage. Entrepreneurs can do it as well. Keep an eye on news within your own industry sector, and make yourself available via the channels outlined above, to provide insight for the relevant local, national and trade publications. Over time, you can become a ‘go to’ expert, and have journalists chasing you. And tune in to any opportunities to comment on broader issues, for example, how a cut in interest rates, or changes to employment legislation could affect small businesses.

    But be ready to move fast – news travels like wildfire across social networks –  and work on building a list of good media contacts; journalists and bloggers who write in the media space where you want your business to be seen.

    It’s also worth looking several weeks and months ahead and earmarking annual celebrations, Valentine’s day and Halloween, not to mention the countless National Days of and World Weeks of, such as Volunteers’ Week or Mens Health Week. You may be planning something interesting or unusual and definitely newsworthy, that that ties in with the event theme.

    For example, Bring Your Pet To Work Day is celebrated by working pet owners everywhere, but maybe it happens every day in your business. Readers will want to know how and why. These events are also highlighted on journalists’ calendars well in advance, and they will welcome a quirky business case study, or industry expert to give their story an edge. These are valuable, easy to find opportunities that will make  your startup stand out, and get your story and your brand shared.

    To read the entire article click here: http://www.forbes.com/sites/alisoncoleman/2016/09/30/four-rules-of-media-engagement-for-startups/#5db31ff72ea8

     

    Credit to Forbes, we love you!