How to build a startup in a recession and downturn from a Techstars COO
In order to build a tech startup in a recession is difficult. If it was not difficult enough before the recession it will certainly be difficult now. Building a startup is difficult to process and you need to be ready for the hard things, by sacrificing your life and even your family for your business or company. No one knows how long the recession will last.
Start out building an MVP
Get customers before you have a product!
- Get a website up. you can use Webflow
- Choose something people will need in a recession. Simple ideas will work best right now!
- Put an email on your website up pretending you have the product - even if your are taking emails, saying, "sign up to show your interest"
- Take pictures of the product you are trying to sell - make a basic website. You can use webflow
- Create content around the thing you are trying to build (if its a new type of perfume, look at google trends, and see whats trending around perfume) and write content around that
- Bring traffic to the website. Get payments and take orders. Get a shipping date in the future with the release date of your product.
- Continue to generate interesting topics that help people around the topic. Dont sell the product directly.
- If you start blowing up mabye you can start to raise capital on the back of your orders. Choose your investor carefully and dont mess up your cap table.
Think carefully about what is going to grow in a recession and downturn and focus on that. If anyone going to buy luxury good in a recession? Probably not, so focus on something else.