Startup after quitting IB - How to move forward?
Hello everyone,
I quit IB a couple of weeks ago without having anything lined up. Over the past few weeks, I tried to regain my mental health and focus on the next chapter in my line. A couple of days ago I had an "ah-ha" moment, the lightbulb in my head struck and I came up with a nice mobile app idea. I am planning to pursue this opportunity. My question is what are the next steps? If there is any fellow monkey who has launched his/her own business (preferably a mobile app or subscription company), what were the first steps (legal etc.) and could you share some of the very useful resources you found very helpful/wish had known? I would appreciate any inputs.
After a 6 month burnout, I am really excited for this new opportunity regardless of its outcome.
I recommend you to use LunchClub to get to know entrepreneurs and VCs. I'll be glad to introduce you to some VCs in some time in the future. I'd also recommend connect with entrepreneurs in Linkedin, go to YC and other venture builders, and think a lot about your business model. The important thing when you are starting is the team, and that the company makes sense. Good luck!
Thanks for the suggestion. If you wouldn't mind, can I ask about your background? Would love to know a bit more about you and then possibly connect
Step one: Validate that there is a market to purchase the product you want to build.
I am fairly confident that there is a market. The problem is I do not have a technical background nor do am I close with anyone who has one, how would you suggest I overcome this problem?
You might be able to create a MVP with no code tools. I use bubble.io, webflow, memberstack, zapier and airtable. You can do a lot with those.
PM me if you want to talk about this in more detail.
This. Being "confident that there is a market" isn't enough, OP. You are doing yourself a disservice if you spend a ton of money and time building a product for a market that doesn't even want it for the price you need to charge to make your effort worth it.
It also isn't great if your next step after hatching an idea is to come on a forum and simply ask what to do next. I'm not saying forums aren't a bad place to ask for advice; in fact, they can be some of the best places if you know how to wade through all of the shit out there. However, your post is the equivalent of a student coming onto WSO for their first time and saying they want to work on Wall Street but no clue how to start despite this forum and others being full of timeless advice. It would be different if your post was you asking for the best way to build a product with no technical skills or the best marketing course to get your bearings greased. My quick advice is to skip the legal paperwork for now (unless you're launching something in a highly regulated industry like healthcare or finance) and start learning about how to build a MVP to validate your market and, more importantly, how to even reach that market for that validation.
Something to also consider before Johnny's first step is step zero, which is to keep your eye out for products and services that haven't been polished yet by other entrepreneurs. If you can find a fractured market where there are no truly dominant players and stir the pot as a new player doing something better, you can almost skip the validation stage altogether (on the product front, at least... you'll still need to validate that there's room for a new entrant such as yourself). Everyone likes the idea of launching something new to the market that others aren't doing but, in my opinion, it's easier and less risky if you can find an established sector to squeeze some juice out of for yourself first.
I also recently quit IB after a few years to try building my own small company. Here's to us both making something work.
Really appreciate your insights. You're right, my ask was not clear. I was more curious about the legal aspect and how to find a technical cofounder and sought guidance from fellow monkeys who might have took a similar path. To address your concern, there are already apps and services doing something similar to what I have in mind -- and some of them have already seen a lot of success -- however, I want to launch a more extensive version and combine some of these adjacent markets as well to become a one-stop-shop. As someone who has been thru this path, what direction do you think I should take?
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Y Combinator has a LOT of stuff on their website for wannabe founders. Some really great resources, like Start-up School. I'd dive into those (they're free — the more quality startups, the more money Y Combinator gets, so the stuff is high quality advice)
thanks for sharing these great resources!
Since you are a first time founder and don’t have the technical chops to build what you envision, I would highly recommend checking out accelerator programmes like Antler or Entrepreneur First.
Both programmes invest in you before you have any traction and help you find an idea/cofounder.
THANK YOU VERY MUCH. This is exactly why I created this post in the first place. Thanks for sharing these
No worries :) ... DM if you need more info or advice.
go to shark tank ask for 1M for 5% equity
What I did, and will continue in the future, is learn iOS coding myself. I bought books, found some tutorials online, and started coding.
Even if you don't need to BE the engineer, I believe it is extremely important to know how it works on a level that is not merely conceptual.
Another solution is, find an engineer friend who is willing to do this. I'm lucky in this aspect since almost all my best buddies work in tech companies as SWEs.
Unfortunately, I do not have many software engineer friends and I doubt many of them will leave their well-paying chillax FAANG jobs right out of undergrad to work on my app's backend... I was also considering learning iOS coding myself given I have free time now, but my question is: Can you quickly (?) learn enough to build a full-fledged app? Also did you quit too or are you still in IB, how the hell do you have time to learn coding haha.
Totally understandable. I don't think I have enough clout right now to pitch them a start-up idea, or not until I work for another 3-5 years so my programmer friends view me with enough credibility --- they have seen tons of people starting their own companies, and their views are different from mine/ours.
Can you quickly learn enough to build a full-fledged app (how do you define quick btw? I would say 3-4 months?): It's quite hard indeed. From my own experience, as someone who thinks he is slow at coding, 6-8/9 months is where I believe I can make a well-designed, not-too-complicated app --- I have stopped learning iOS right now due to force major (forgive my spelling mistake forgot how to), and yes a big part of that is still being in IB, hence not much spare time.
A lot of times you might be able to find pieces of code online, but it requires a lot of work tinkering with the borrowed code and make it your own.
I believe if you dedicate enough time, now that you are no longer in IB, you can make decent programs (with visuals, motions, and all that) pretty quickly. Trust me. It may not be at a stage where it is functioning extremely well, but you will have some kind of a prototype to pitch your friends or potential investors.
If you are thinking about develpoing a fully functioning app, the time commitment is real. So is the coding grind.
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