Tob.in

buddyblip:

“If you had $20k to use towards your own technology business/startup, how would you manage it and spend it?” – That was a question I asked other nextNY members in May of 2008. At the time I had created a small fund for myself to allow me to bootstrap my startup and I wanted to find out from my peers about what they would do.

Some had humorous responses such as a huge launch party or aeron chairs, but what I really wanted to know was what should I put my money towards to most benefit my chances at success.  Some of the more serious answers included development of prototypes, customer & market research, and marketing.

Looking back I feel my questions was a bit naïve.  However over a year later I have a much clearer thought on what I’d do with that money.  I’d spend as little as possible. Specifically I’d minimize my costs to find the cheapest way to validate my product idea.

I would start spending the money only when I feel I have a product that I feel confident would garner interest from my customers. Once I knew more about my product, customers, and distribution channels I am certain I would be confident in where spending would be effectively applied (be it development, marketing, research, distribution, etc).