How To Start A Tech Company In India With No Money | Tech Startup

Here’s a question we heard a lot of people ask!

How do you start a tech company in India with no money?

Before we head into the process, you should see some stats that might be an eye opener for you while starting a tech company.

According to a survey by Cb Insights, Only 10% of startups succeed, that means 90% of the total startups fail every year. Most of them fail in their first year itself.

Why?

As per the reports, the #1 reason for startup failure is "No Market Need" followed by "Running Out of Cash". 

CBINSIGHTS Report

This chart above shows what are the major pitfalls you can experience while starting your company.

In a country like India, the majority of people just don't start.

That's why you may not get good mentorship and guidance in your journey. Not like any other major western country, You will not be guided and appreciated for what you are doing.

Follow these three points to avoid huge mistakes:

• Observe and Research the market: Observation has a lot to do with your success. It's better to understand your product so that it will provide value to the customer, rather than blindly believing that your idea has potential to succeed. You cannot judge if your idea has potential or not, but your customers will. So Research it before it's too late. (Personal Tip: Ask a few people if they would have purchased a product, if it works this way or solves their problem, if they say yes! Go ahead!)
• Learn Money Management: This is really important for you, if you want to start a tech company in India with no money. Because, it will solve your biggest problem, that is it will make you come up with new and creative ideas that no one has ever thought of.
• Learn From Other People’s Mistakes: You cannot afford to learn from your own mistakes. Learning from our own mistakes is a good practice, but it will cost you so much that you may need to shut down your company in some cases.

5 Steps To Start A Tech Startup In India With No Money

1. Find a Great Idea

An idea is like a seed, It has the potential to grow and give you sweet fruits. But only if the quality of seed is good. Many of you may already have an idea, but for those who haven't. 

Follow this steps to find a great idea:

• Find a problem: When you search for a problem that customers are facing, whether the problems are with already available products or things that they need but there aren't any products to solve their problem. It creates a great opportunity in countries like India, because you don't have to work hard to find problems. There are already a lot. Find a problem that you think is best to solve. You can even have more than one idea.
• Ask yourself if you can solve that problem with no money: If you have capital to fund your company, then skip this point. You should surely check if it takes money to build a product for solving people's problems. If you fail to evaluate this and later when you start and go a few steps, you will surely regret it.
• Find a solution: You now have to ‘think’. Work smartly and find that one beautiful solution that will solve people's problems or provide value to them.
• Design a blueprint: Take a notebook and pen or pencil and start writing and drawing everything you know about the problem and find a solution. That solution should be step by step and if you take those notes and explain it to your friends, they should understand your idea. I am not saying that they should appreciate you and your idea but they should understand what your idea is because that will ensure you that this is going to be an understandable product you will be creating. It should not be so hard to understand or use your product that customers will face a lot of difficulties and do you know what that means, you are going to face problems. They are your buyers, make it for them, not for you.

2. Evaluate your Idea

After creating a blueprint of how your idea works, make sure you show it to a few people from your niche and take their feedback.

Remember I gave a tip above to Ask a few people if they would have purchased a product, if it works this way or solves their problem, if they say yes! Go ahead!

That’s called evaluating an idea to find if it will survive or not.

Let me give you another way to validate if your idea is going to work or not.

Look for competitors, it's most likely possible that what you want to create is already there, maybe with some kind of flaws, that's why those people might not be using that product. Yes you need to fix those flaws and make your own product. 

But the point is that if some company is already working on such an idea, they must have seen potential in this product. Research your competitors thoroughly. Look if people are actually buying that product and if yes then survey them if there is any problem or if anything is needed in the product. This will make your product idea as best as possible.

3. How to start a tech company without money?

Option #1

Here is a proven trick that I have seen many small businesses used to survive and this is what nobody will tell you. Let's take an example and you have to carefully understand that example. The answer lies in that example and you can use it to start your tech company in India or anywhere in the world without money.

Have you ever heard about Bigcommerce, some of you might. It's an ecommerce company that is valued at $1.5B today. But how did they start and how did this company become so big?

Mitchell Harper is the co-founder of Bigcommerce and according to him a tech company can be started without any money. But How? Contact those customers who you found while finding problems, are they happy with your idea as described in step no. 2. You have to ask them, if they want to buy the product even before its being created. 

Explain them how your product will work and how its going to solve their problem. Offer them a Lifetime free subscription if they are ready to give you money before the product is made. Be transparent with them, Tell them everything. When are you going to start? When will you be designing? When will you be launching? When you will do whatever. 

Tell them this may take this much time and even it can be delayed. At the most level of transparency. Give them priority. Make them understand it cannot be ready tomorrow morning. Keep patience. 

Why not friends and family?

Because in India, it could be difficult if your progress is slow then you might be asked and dusturbed a lot and your focus from making a product may shift to a fear of not being able to make a good product. The people I talked about are your potential customers and they can wait and suggest you improvements in the product.

If you find few people like them then you can start it. 

Option #2

But why take money from people?

You may ask! 

Let me tell you something. If you know coding and have industry knowledge you are not advised to take money from people before making the product.

Because the main thing money would have required is for development i.e. hiring a developer. So it makes this easy if you know coding.

Option #3

Do you have some skills that can be helpful for someone? Exchange the work. Let me explain what I am saying. You need a developer right! But the developer would charge you for his work. And this is not a thing we want. There are a lot of developers who work for a lot less and you can contact them by finding them on freelance websites. You are required to exchange some work with them. Believe me there are a lot of people who will agree to work for your project if you work for them.

Option #4 

If you have a budget. You are ready to go. This might be the most easy step, and why not you can literally save a lot of time.

Option #5 

If people’s feedback is genuinely good. You should find an angel investor because he will also get that there is a potential in your idea. Only do this if you really need funding. Because I don't recommend it. This may consume all of your time more than any other option. Finding an investor is actually difficult.

Let's move onto the next step.

4. Create a landing page for your tech startup

The landing page provides a loud appeal to your customers. For the initial days, I suggest you avoid the idea of creating a beautiful landing page. Instead, go for a simple one that is going to cost as little as possible. These landing pages are mostly used to build a user base.

• Create blogs if possible: For those who don't know what blogs are, they are nothing but what you are reading right now. Content that will bring users to your website. By implementing SEO( search engine optimization) you can rank on google and other search engines for keywords related to your company. There is a lot of potential in SEO, that it can bring thousands and lakhs of audience that has a buyer intent. And through which, you could get a lot of initial customers for your product.
• Remember that SEO takes a lot of time and it's difficult if you are just starting. So it's better to research about it before you start doing it.

5. Is Team Necessary for a Tech Startup.

If you are finding ways to start a tech startup without money. I would suggest you not to build a team. Instead ask a friend and he/she could help. In India it is the only favorable thing you could get, we Indians as friends help a lot. This ‘Jugad’ will work for you. And if not, the third step’s option #3 will be good for you. Yes! Do something for them and get your work done for you.

You will require someone for development and one for marketing it. You can hire people or you can hire freelancers or even take help from friends. Whichever you like you can go for it.

Now what?

How to register a company/startup in India - IndiaToday.in

You have developed an idea that can solve their problem or satisfies their needs. You have tested your product idea with your future customers and with competitors that our idea has potential. You even found a way to do it without money. After creating a landing page you also learned how to acquire customers with blog and SEO. You now have decided if you want to build a team or hire freelancers or get help from friends.

Now you have to be consistent and your focus should be at the right place. Make an aim that will lead you towards your goal. I was watching “Kota factory 2” last week and one dialog from that movie hit me hard, “Sapna Nahi Aim Banao” by Jeetu Bhaiya in that series. He said Dreams are just for dreaming, Aims are to achieve. If you call it aim, things will seem doable.