How to Start a Tech Company: A Step-by-Step Guide from Idea to MVP for Aspiring Female Entrepreneurs

Tech is a rapidly changing industry– Chat GPT, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and lame lawsuits against funds that seek to even the playing field even just a little bit for Black women (ahem, FU the– terribly and ironically named– American Alliance for Equal Rights). It can all feel like it’s moving really fast.

One thing remains the same: founders who are not technical make incredible founders. Who values them? Angel investors, venture capitalists, and, most significantly, customers. Why? Generally because nontechnical founders are passionate about solving a problem that they have personally experienced. This is true if you want to start a tech company to solve a problem you experienced in your personal life or to fill a gap in your industry or to scale the brick-and-mortar business you already own. You know your target market better than anyone and you are deeply empathetic to their needs, values, and aspirations.

So can you start an innovative tech business without a technical co-founder? Ab-so-lutely. You do, however, have to gain some important skills so that you can effectively and confidently lead tech teams.

If you’re a woman with a brilliant tech startup idea but are unsure where to begin, you are in the right place! This guide will walk you through the pivotal steps of starting a tech startup and provide you with the tools to build a money-making business and products people love so that you can live life on your own terms.

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Step 1: Identify a Pain Point

The journey begins with a solid idea based on a real problem that real people experience. This is about more than asking people if you have a good idea. It’s about discovering how intensely people experience the pain point you identify and how committed they are to solving it– aka will they pay you for it?

Experiment with several versions of a problem statement.

I believe [who] will [change/take up this behavior] to [avoid this pain/seek this pleasure].

Set a time for five minutes and write as many versions of your problem statement as possible.

Our example:

Tech AF Founder Community believes first-time female founders will join a safe, supportive community in which to build their business to avoid wasting tens-of-thousands of dollars and precious time in the customer discovery, product development, and fundraising phases.

Ready to dive into this work?? Check out the free resources in our Tech AF Founder Community. The first free resources are an in-depth workshop and e-book on identifying your Problem Statement– taught by a successful female tech founder who has coached hundreds of founders just like you! Take me to Tech AF Founder Community.

Step 2: Perform Market Research

Market research is also an ongoing process. We’re going to say that a lot. At the beginning, your goal is to understand your target market, their needs, and who your competitors are.

• Create an ideal customer avatar. Who do you want to help? What are their ages, genders, income levels, and defining demographic identities? Where do they hang out and how do they consume their news and information?
• Develop a competitive analysis. You want to understand everyone your customer avatar is currently turning to to solve their problem. If there are several well-loved and successful solutions already in the market, maybe you can come up with another aspect of the problem to solve. Perhaps your competitor is just an excel sheet– this is pretty common. If your solution involves expensive features, then hiring an intern to do an excel sheet might be the option your prospects choose.

Tools like Google Trends, Keyword Planner, and industry-specific forums can provide invaluable insights.

As a first-time tech founder, you will iterate and utilize your competitive analysis continuously. At this first stage in your startup journey, this visual tool is for you. By comparing your idea to your greatest competitors, you can easily see where there are gaps in the market or opportunities to explore. Another competitve analysis tool is a SWOT (Strengths Weakness Opportunities Threats) analysis.

Step 3: Validate Your Tech Idea through Customer Discovery

Once you’ve honed your idea, it’s time to validate it. This is the crucial step that nearly all first-time tech founders– heck, nearly all founders– skip. There are a number of reasons for this including ego, over confidence in your idea, or feeling embarrassed or intimidated.

For women, many of us have been culturally or socially conditioned to play small and not want to take up people’s time on something new to us. When it comes time to share your customer discovery surveys, you may be shy to post on your LinkedIn, social media pages, or email your networks. You may assume people are thinking “Who does she think she is?”

In our experience working with hundreds of startup founders, this is usually not true. Your networks want to help you– especially if you’re solving a problem that truly impacts them. Nonetheless, we must pause here.

What does customer discovery entail?

In our Founder Academy, we push our students to perform in-depth customer discovery (so they don’t waste tens-of-thousands of dollars building a product no one will pay for). It is possible that you will have multiple user personas/ideal customer avatars.

We recommend trying to get 100 survey respondents in order to secure approximately 30 customer interviews– and build a base of early adopters.

The survey should be 10 questions. Your goal, perhaps counterintuitively, is not to dig into details. It is to filter survey respondents and identify those who match your ideal customer persona. You request a 30-minute interview with those matches to dive deeper into the nuances of their pain points and how they solve those problems now. As you go, analyze your results– looking for patterns.

When you start to hear the same information over and over again, that is when you can move on.

Step 4: Iterate, Pivot, Move Ahead, or Move On

In truth, as an entrepreneur always receiving new information, you live in this step. Your willingness to be nimble and listen to your customers and the market is what will help you succeed.

In your customer discovery phase, you learn valuable information about your target market(s).

Pivot: All of your interviewees are experiencing a pain point quite deeply– one that you never even considered. They keep taking you off topic to discuss it or speak passionately about it. When you ask furthering questions, they dig in. This is a good indication that they care more about that pain point than the one you identified, and they don’t yet have a solution. This is an opportunity to change the direction your’re heading to solve that problem instead. Start again from Step One.

Tech AF Founder Community brings first-time women tech founders together in a safe, supportive community to build money-making tech businesses and products people love so we can live life on our own terms. Learn more.

Iterate: You didn’t quite understand the nuances of the problem, the solution you had in mind is one they have already tried or are uninterested in adopting, or perhaps the target market is broader (woohoo!) than you anticipated. Whatever the reason, you are taking a slight turn in your path with an iteration. Start again from Step One.

Move Ahead: You are on point with your target market, your customer persona is experiencing this pain problem deeply, they are ready to pay you to fix it right now. Signs this is true is that they want to be kept in the loop, they’re enthusiastically leaning in, and they have tried many avenues to solve their problem already.

Move On: Sometimes, we explore an idea and it isn’t viable. In our books, this is a major success of performing customer discovery. You did not waste your time or money. It’s time to move on to another excellent idea.

Step 5: Develop a Digital Data Room

A well-structured business plan has been replaced in recent years with a digital data room. The data room has everything in it that is essential for securing funding, leading tech product development teams, and guiding your startup’s growth. It includes your executive summary, founder story and team, product presentation, and the visual aids you need to show what your product is and how it behaves in the hands of your users.

Step 6: Build a Prototype

With a validated idea and a solid plan, it’s time to bring your product to life! A prototype is the very first model of your tech product. You can learn enough tech to be dangerous AF with a program like Tech AF Founder Academy where you are learning how to wireframe, develop user stories and site architectures, and build a clickable prototype that you can put in someone’s hands so they can interact with the model of your app.

You can also work with a skilled software developer to build a functional prototype. If you have funds, you can pay them. If not, you can exchange equity.

Step 7: Test and Iterate with Your Users

It’s time to call back all of those interviewees who were excited about your product! Put your prototype in their hands and watch them use it. Observe what they get excited about, where they get stuck, and if their needs are truly being met. User experience (UX) is crucial; gather feedback and make necessary iterations to enhance your product’s usability and effectiveness.

Watching users interact with your prototype will show you where they get stuck, what features they love, and what isn’t working. If you can be in person, let them use thee prototype on their own device. On Zoom, have them share their screens and record the session (with their permission).

Step 8: Legalities and Intellectual Property

Protect your innovative ideas through proper legal channels. Consult with legal experts to register your business, trademark your brand, and explore options for patenting your unique technology.

Step 9: Build your MVP (and Fundraise)

A Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is the first version of your product that includes enough features that early adopters will purchase and use your product. It doesn’t contain all the bells and whistles, but the minimum features that solve enough pain points well enough that people will pay for it. At this point, you’ll want to lead a tech development team or perhaps go the no code/low-code route.

But first, you have to raise the funds to get there. Your options include bootstrapping, crowdfunding, angel investors, venture capitalists, undiluted funding through grants or pitch competitions, accelerators that offer funding for equity, or strategic partnerships. We will dive more into this topic soon, so hit subscribe to be notified when we do! If you start talking to investors before then, just know this: don’t give away equity to anyone you don’t want to be in a long term relationship with.

In conclusion, starting a tech startup is an exciting and attainable goal. By following these pivotal steps, from ideation to joining a supportive community, you can turn your innovative tech idea into a successful reality. The tech industry thrives on diversity and fresh perspectives, and your contribution as a female tech founder is invaluable. Embrace the challenges, seize the opportunities, and embark on your journey to create the next big thing in tech.

Ready to take the first step? Navigating the startup world can be challenging, but you don’t have to do it alone. Join the Tech AF Founder Community– an online community for female tech founders and access a wealth of educational resources, live virtual events to meet investors and networking opportunities to kickstart your tech startup journey. The free version of online community will take you to the next step in your founder journey: creating your problem statement!