How I launch startups

I’ve run over ten different projects in my life. Some of them never reached the first users, some failed in the market, and some became working products.

In this post I will share the principles I strictly follow when creating a new startup. Believe me, everything that is written here really works:

About launch

• I never show my project to anyone before a launch. Firstly, haters can criticize it. Secondly, there is a high probability that my idea will be stolen.
• I try to spend enough time to name a project: this is the most important stage, because "what will you call a ship...". The same situation with logos: the more time I spend on it at first, the stronger my startup is.
• When I start to doubt the team’s involvement, I just stand up and say out loud that I don’t need it either, and I’m not going to be the one to work for everyone. That motivates my teammates a lot.
• I try to reject all project proposals that someone else comes up with. So I manage not to break the original vision and keep a product individuality.
• I only launch a product on the market when I am sure that there is not a single bug in it, even if it delays the launch for months. The same applies to features: it makes no sense to launch before the implementation of a fully finished functionality: the project will not take off.
• I always make the team write only "clean" code, think about scaling and cover everything with tests from the beginning. We use the latest frameworks and libraries, strictly follow SOLID and write very detailed documentation.

About fundraising

• According to my observations, the best thing that can be shown to an investor is a registered domain, a logo drawn in a vector, and a cool presentation with lots of animations and graphics. As soon as an investor receives all of the above, he or she immediately gives money.
• I try to explain to an investor the essence of my idea only in a personal conversation, without any business plans, models, unit economics and other useless things. A couple of times it even happened that I was interrupted at half-time and given money in cash. This is an indicator of good storytelling and preparation.
• When fundraising, I always ask for money with a margin, because no one can predict exactly what the costs will be, and you can always use the budget with benefit, no matter for whom and for what. There is no extra money. More is better than less.
• I have a small trick: I do not to answer calls and letters from an investor the first time. Thus, he or she thinks that I’m too busy with the project and I don’t want to shoot the breeze. So an investor is more likely to give money.