The tech and SaaS market is more saturated than ever, but there are plenty of opportunities for tech companies to emerge as giants with well-executed products and thoughtful strategies. We’ve put together a guide for ambitious founders that explains how to start a tech company that can reach that potential.

How to start a tech company as a non-tech founder

The basis of any successful tech company is a good idea. For customers to buy into a product or service, it needs to solve some sort of problem, and it needs to do it better than what’s already on the market.

The problem that some founders face is that they have absolutely no experience in tech. This can make the journey more difficult, but it doesn’t mean success is impossible.  Founders have the opportunity to surround themselves with industry specialists — including the agency chosen to actually make the product.

For many founders, the journey begins with research. This involves understanding what’s already out there and ensuring there’s a space in the market for your product and your company. It also involves researching to find the best team. Do you choose an agency or freelancers? What does that mean for your own role in the company? These are all things that are very important for a non-tech founder. A good idea alone isn’t enough to guarantee success, but when partnered with strategy and a great team it can be a lethal combination.

Next, the financials come into play. Is there a reliable way to source or create this product and is it profitable? Many new companies require some upfront funding and this is typically the stumbling block for many with great ideas. There are sourcing and investment options out there that can work for any business – you just need to be patient in assessing the options. Many investors specialise in specific industries with tech being an incredibly popular route.

How to start a tech company: The guide

Starting a tech company is slightly different, you don’t typically have inventory, but you do have a product that needs to be ready to sell. But, how do you know if your product has high-growth potential?

The SaaS market is one that is constantly growing and provides plenty of opportunities for new tech businesses to grow and evolve. With the right business model and a high-quality final product, the sky’s the limit, as we’ve seen with successful products like Canva and Figma.

Understand your intentions

Planning and preparation are both crucial to the success of any tech startup company. The differences between those that succeed and fail can be minute, and will very often come down to small differences in strategy.

Amongst the top 20 reasons for startup failure, we see:

• No market need
• Lack of business model
• Weak marketing
• Mistiming product launch
• Poor location targeting
• Failure to adapt

All of these can be identified fairly early on. With a good balance between product development, strategy, and marketing, a business can easily succeed long-term even without hitting the heights of some of the more well-known tech giants or unicorn companies

A founder must have a good understanding of the market and the potential user base to be able to craft a product that is able to storm the market. Before you look at monetising your idea, check that the idea has a substantial need and can provide enough longevity to succeed.

We created a product strategy framework to help you speed up this process and focus on the most important parts of your product.

Just get started

Sometimes businesses fail despite a founder’s best efforts, but postponing the process won’t necessarily impact the outcome. Failures create lessons that help us to develop bigger and better tech products.

There’s no such thing as perfect timing, and in tech, there’s not too much time to hang around. The world and the tech we rely on are both changing so frequently that putting something off for even a few months can mean it’s redundant by the time it hits the market. If the idea is viable and you’ve planned out a strategy, it’s time to get started.

The development team you work with will be able to advise on what is technically possible, so going ahead can only benefit the project in terms of the technology available to help realise your vision. 

On top of this, being the first to market can be incredibly important in the tech world. There are often multiple products in development that target the same market so being the first to launch can impact the user numbers you see in those early days.

Creating a successful product

It’s easy to get caught up in the glitz and the glamour of entrepreneurship and forget about the thing that’s the most important to every single one of your users – the product.

It seems an obvious focus but prioritising quality and understanding which features are essential can make a huge difference when it comes to your launch.

At least one-third of your effort should go into making sure that the product is as good as it can be. Of course, if you are working with a development agency, you can outsource some of that effort and focus on other areas yourself, such as your monetisation strategy or marketing plans.

Securing investment

For many founders learning the ins and outs of how to start a tech company, the first step is securing investment to make the product development phase possible.

The investment could come in a variety of forms. You may need to self-fund, borrow, or loan to be able to secure the funds you need for the process. You might even hit the jackpot and get an angel investor on board who believes so strongly in the concept that they are willing to remove that financial pressure.

However you fund the product, it’s important to be open and honest with the development agency you choose. This will help them to understand the scope and size of the project and work to your budget where possible.

Prioritising Funding

Perhaps the most important part of this process is learning to prioritise your budget. Your budget (and market research) will dictate which features are available on launch and which sit on the roadmap for future development and updates. 

Just like putting 50% of your budget into ads before the product is ready might not be wise, spending an entire budget on non-essential features can go wrong quite quickly… particularly if you haven’t done the planning to perfect your launch strategy.

Networking and spreading the word

Getting the word out about your business is an incredibly important step, and this marketing can take a few forms for SaaS or tech companies.

Finding like-minded businesses

If your product relies on integrations or cross-platform functions, it can be key to speak to like-minded businesses early on. You may be able to learn some dos and don’ts from them and they may be able to provide you with some invaluable market insight from their own experiences.

Marketing your product

Marketing the product is a huge task. Without getting out and shouting about it, your brilliant product could sit collecting dust while it waits for a potential user.

There are a number of ways you can approach marketing for your new tech company. 

• Social Media – Utilise YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Reddit and Pinterest. Choose a couple to focus on unless you have a large team.
• Blogs – Share lots of value with your audience either on your own website or as guest posts on other popular sites.
• Video – Utilise long and short-form content, and engage with influencers and others in the space. Use live video to help people to ask questions in real time.
• Newsletters – Provide updates for users including patches, news and new features.
• Articles – Reach your target audience through already established and trusted publications and websites.

There are of course many other ways of acquiring a user base, some free and some paid and with thorough planning and care, you can avoid wasting your budget on strategies that do not suit your market or demographic.

Here’s our free guide to marketing for your launch.

Getting Started

If you’re past the planning stage and ready to get to work on the development and launch phases of setting up your tech company (so you can start making money), our team are on hand to help.

We are a development agency based in Sydney, Australia that works with ambitious founders worldwide to help them achieve their vision.

Whether you’re developing a marketplace app, web app or mobile app, we have the experience and passion to help you realise your dream and set up your own tech company. There’s no time like the present.