When is Your Product Ready, Is Fundraising Going Well and How to Hire for Unfamiliar Positions

The Startup Help Desk

In this episode we answer questions submitted by founders just like you, including:

• When is my product ready for launch?
• When will I know if my fundraising process is working?
• How do I hire for positions where I don’t have any experience myself?

You can submit questions for us to answer on our website https://www.thestartuphelpdesk.com/ or on Twitter @thestartuphd - we'd love to hear from you!
Episode Notes
Reminder: this is not legal advice or investment advice.
Q1: When is my product ready for launch?
As Jack Dorsey explained to Ash during his time at Klout: “if you’re happy with a launch you’ve waiting too long.”
Your product is ready for launch as soon as someone is willing to use it. Thus, launch immediately, test, iterate, launch again. What is the simplest version of your product that can deliver value to your customers? Identify the smallest slice of the problem to solve. Launch the simplest version of the product that can solve that slice.
To create the simplest version of your first product:

• Step 1: Solve it manually.
• Step 2: Create a prototype in Figma, Sketch, Invision.
• Step 3: Use a no-code builder.
• Step 4: Then build.

Don’t be afraid of starting with no product at all. If you can do it manually - start there.
You may say, "but we are a hardware startup. Does this strategy work for you us, too?"
Yes! You can build and test small parts or smaller versions of product very early - and that customer feedback will be just as important as it would be for a SaaS business.

Q2: When will I know if my fundraising process is working?
If you’re going to fundraise, you need to plan for 90 days of focus and at least 100 first meetings.

• Everyone – even the very best fundraisers – hear "no" 90% of the time.
• Most people get their yeses towards the end of the process, as they get better at pitching and responding to feedback. This generates more momentum.

So, the bad news: you don’t really know if your fundraise is working until you’ve done the full 100 meetings.
That being said, there are common signs that may indicate your fundraise is not working:

• If you hear similar concerns and no follow-up, it’s likely not going to happen.
• If you don’t see a constant progression in engagement, it’s likely not going to happen.
• If you are talking to an investor for a few weeks but no discussion about terms, it’s likely not going to happen.

Q3: How do I hire for positions where I don’t have any experience myself?
Everyone deals with this! Here are strategies to help you overcome this challenge:

• Talk to people who are in those positions at other companies. What do they look for?
• Hire recruiters that specialize in those fields, i.e. sales focused recruiters.
• This is a great chance to leverage the expertise of your investors, advisors, and colleagues. They do not need to lead the hiring process – rather, they can either:
  • Work with you to create a process to evaluate a candidate.
  • Evaluate final candidates before extending an offer.

The best candidates for a role should help you understand what they will do and why it will help.
Also, talk to other founders that have recently hired successfully for a related role. Ask them how they evaluated a candidate and what skills the candidate has that justified the hiring.