What do you think the key to starting a good technology company is in the current market? Recent reports have shown that entrepreneurs often think that having impressive technology may be enough on its own, but these reports warn that this is seldom the case.
These entrepreneurs are looking for issues that their already-developed gadgets and devices can solve, and doing that is approaching things from the wrong direction. As a successful business owner like Carl Freer will attest, entrepreneurs need to start by finding the problems, and then they need to work to solve them, rather than simply hoping that some device that they love will solve a problem as a fluke.
This approach is important for two reasons. First of all, many people who open startup companies need investors to get behind them so that the companies can grow. They may have a good idea, but they may lack the capital to bring it to reality. Studies have shown that investors are more interested in companies if it can be shown how the company’s products meet certain needs and solve problems. Investors will be more prone to give the company backing in these cases, whereas they may not be as impressed by devices – no matter how innovative they are in their own right – if they don’t think there is any real application.
The second reason why this approach is important is simply in connecting with consumers. People do love technology, and they may be swayed to buy something that they don’t need just because it seems cool or trendy, but this won’t work on those who do not have a lot of disposable income. They won’t be able to justify spending extra money that they don’t have on something that they don’t really feel like they must owen, no matter how cool it is. If they can see a viable use for it, though, they will stretch the budget and buy it because it will feel like a good purchase, something that can make their life easier or solve a problem they have been having with their current devices.
In reality, these two reasons are very similar. Investors, after all, want to see that there are going to be sales so that they know that they will get their money back. When a device is already in demand, even before it has been produced, they know that those sales will follow. Therefore, developing something that consumers actually want and even need is the key to getting the investors up front and the key to getting the consumers after the product is released. They work hand-in-hand to make a company successful.
To some degree, this is the reason why technology always grows off of itself. New developments are made to make older technologies better. For instance, the development of the smartphone has provided a boost to technology companies that specialize in cloud computing because people are now taking pictures with their phones and storing them on the cloud, something that they did far less often with basic cell phones.
Anyone who is starting a new tech company has to keep this strategy of solving problems in mind. Their first move should be identifying what consumers are asking for and what they cannot get out of current devices, and then new technologies can be specifically created based on these studies.
