It absolutely is. It may seem like a crazy idea, but all you need are a few things that you need to do in case you don’t want to be that one of these startups which will disappear within a year (as over 95 % of products and startup usually does).

That’s why you should focus more on these couple of essential things that will drastically increase the chances of your company surviving a little bit longer in the market (more than one-year :-)).

As very important at the beginning is – you don’t need to have expensive software and tools. try to use those, which are free or you just don’t have to spend a fortune for them.

What do you need to launch a start-up?

1. Creatives (logo and branding)
2. Website
3. Core Product
4. Payment System
5. Organized Workspace
6. Launch Publicity
7. Marketing
8. Feedback

Let’s cover all these aspects in detail.

Creatives

First, you should create a logo and branding for your start-up. You can use the help of several tools.

• • DALL·E 2 – if you have an access to DALL-E 2, try inserting phrases into your idea and get inspired by them. But if you don’t have DALL-E 2, don’t despair. There are more ways to do so.
  • Canva – Canva is a great tool for building your start-up image. It contains dozens of free templates and elements. You can design creatives easily, even without any prior experience. It is great for any company which will build their business on social media presence, but you can create there pretty everything to be honest.
  • Figma – Figma is the best app for designing logos, mock-ups, and prototypes. It’s easy to share with team members and you can collaborate with them on your projects online. Create your logo here, as well as the mock-ups and prototypes you’ll need.
  • Smartmockups – Smartmockups lets you create product screenshots for free with just a few clicks. Just choose your favorite mock-up, upload your design and it’s done!

Website

Every business needs a nice, eye-catching website. Luckily, there are plenty of ways to create a neat-looking website with ease.

• Carrd – Carrd is the fastest way to create a website. Simply choose a template and enjoy a pretty-looking website with insanely low prices.
• Webflow – Webflow is great for creating more complex websites. The best thing is that you don’t need ANY knowledge of coding. Webflow is fantastic if you want to create a unique, interactive website.

Core product

Creating tech products has never been easier. There are many ways to do so with no prior knowledge of coding.

• Bubble – bubble.io lets you build a fully functional web app without any coding. What’s even better – the tool is completely free to use! You only pay for it once your audience starts to grow.
• FlowMapp – Flowmapp has amazingly intuitive tools to collect, organize and collaborate in UX, Strategy, Design & Development. You can easily create a sitemap, build flowcharts, research users, plan customer journeys, manage content, and much more!
• Uxpin – Uxpin lets you create prototypes for testing your product out. The good thing is it doesn’t cost much, either.
• Miro – another great tool for creating workflows, and visualizing processes.

Payment system

It goes without saying that if you want your product to be successful, you need to monetize it properly.

• Stripe – Stripe lets you create a very fast payment site for your customers that integrates natively into lots of tools.
• Paddle – Even though Paddle costs more than Stripe, it comes with some things that will help you out. With Paddle, you can avoid handling complex stuff like VAT.

Organized workspace

If you want your project to have smooth sailing, you need to create an organized workspace.

• Notion – take notes, manage all research, create tasks for the team and assign them. It can be as simple or complex as you want.
• Zapier – link your site to Google Sheets, Gmail, Notion, and so on. It can also send an email or create a task in Notion when a user performs a certain action. Once you start using Zapier, you probably won’t need a developer.
• Slack – communicate with your team in an organized manner. Slack can also be integrated with almost all the other tools you may be using. Lots of Slack bots will help you automate different tasks.
• Asana – Asana lets you collaborate on all of your projects with your teammates in an organized and clear manner.
• Clockify – in case you need to just track the time you spent on projects (mostly used by freelancers). It is great when you start as a one-man show and need to for example bill hours to the client and know exactly when you worked and how much time you dedicated to the task. If you have the tools mentioned above, they usually have some similar function for time tracking.
• Google Drive – you can use it for saving or creating documents, and guidelines. The good thing is it can also be easily integrated with other tools mentioned above. The sooner you become familiar with the “Google” stack the better. In the later phase, you will probably migrate it to its paid version Google Workspace, which has many other advantages (but also you have to pay for every user monthly fee, which can cost you a lot if the company grows very dramatically). In that case, I recommend looking for another solution that does not charge you money for every single user. But this always depends on your business needs, for some people will be the best alternative for everything for a lower price like Zoho, some companies simply need functionalities that offers Google Workspace.

Launch publicity

It doesn’t really matter how good your product is if the public doesn’t know about it. Let’s change that.

• Product Hunt – publish your product on Product Hunt. These products submitted by users get listed in a linear format by day. They also send out a daily email that lists all the top tech products of the previous day.
• Submit – submit.co offers you a list of technology-related media sites that can be ranked by Twitter followers and Alexa rankings. This tool won’t do all the work for you, but it will make it easier to compile an initial list for outreach.
• Cision – if you have some money to spare, then be sure to check out Cision! Cision maintains a database of approximately 1.4 million journalists, editors, and influencers. It’s the best way if you want people to talk about your product.
• Write articles regularly or have a blog section – yes, this part needs some effort, but you will see soon that you don’t need to spend all money you earn or save just for performance marketing (and to be honest you will probably not have a huge budget at the beginning). Also – most of the founders who just got the investment spend investors’ money on marketing and they don’t spend them wisely (because of lack of knowledge but also because they did not have to earn it and that’s the difference – when you check companies not based on funding, they are far more effective, because they had to be like that from the day one). This is what can save you quite a lot of money when you learn how to do content marketing. And yes, it takes time and yes, you will not see results soon and yes it takes a lot of months (especially if you have a new domain, no backlinks portfolio and nobody knows you yet). But after some time this will be your competitive advantage, because – you now know how to create the content, you will have a team and process to create a huge amount of it and you will know exactly what the ROI of this marketing activity is from a long-term perspective. So start to learn this part from the start, it will help you a lot in the later stages when you simply can’t buy every single user or targeted traffic or it will be during the time less and less effective and you need to look for another marketing channel.
• Build your own network – on Linkedin, and Facebook, simply build your company profile or personal brand, which will be used then for promoting your company stuff. Find people which have something in common with you. Try to help them, if somebody is looking for the right candidate or company, give him a tip. Be a valuable part of the community. Simply help people in any possible way, because that’s how you build your name, reputation, and willingness others to help you back one day.

Marketing

You and your product have to be visible and should have top-of-mind awareness. Let’s talk about how.

• Perfect your SEO – SEO is probably one of the most important marketing strategies right now. Do you want to learn more about SEO? Then check this out. It is quite a lot connected with the blog part, so basically to say, you can and you should prepare content for every part of your website. If you have an online shop, you will have content in every category (done manually or through some text/content template. There are many options for how to do the content, but basic idea is – when the content helps others, people will share it because it has valuable information. So always try to ask – is the content I create really solving any problem? Do people really search for it? And is worth to be shared? You can exchange articles, you can publish your articles on other websites in case you can prepare valuable content. There are many various ways how you can get attention, how you can get links and become to be known in the space you need.
• Really Good Emails – This is one of the best showcases of email design and resources. They have over 10 000 great email templates for you to learn from! You can also ask your top users to make video testimonials for your website.

Feedback and testing

You should always aim to improve your product. User feedback is your ally.

• Tally – Tally is a simple tool for creating forms. It allows you to create visually appealing and engaging questionnaires that ensure high competition rates.
• Hotjar – Hotjar lets you see how visitors are actually using your site. You can look at heatmaps, funnels, forms, and much more. And the best part is – there’s a free version, too!
• Google Optimize – a great tool for A/B and multivariate testing.

There are many other tools and sites you probably know which can be useful, so don’t be shy and share some tools and websites you found valuable and I can add them to the article as well (after considering if it really has some unique value).

I personally use a lot also our own project – Justfreetools.com – for text transformation (capital letters to normal font style and I am sure you will find there many more useful tools which will save your time).

Questions you should ask before you run any new startup company

To be also successful with your startup, it is great to do some small exercises at the beginning (better sooner than later). It is basically asking questions to avoid any further surprise (which can potentially lead to bankruptcy).

• Do we have a business model? Do we know how we will monetize this project? Because if we don’t know how we will earn money and you have “bend the business or business model” you can easily run out of money because you don’t have a clear idea of how to become a profitable company or you don’t earn revenue at all. Forget about these few companies who were bought for billions just because they grew a lot as the other side which is not too much emphasized in media is how many startups end up because have no regular revenue stream. You can’t simply rely only on investors’ money and one day these investors would like to see the profit. They want their money back. You simply can’t forget the fact this is still business. They don’t invest their money just for fun, they expect their investment will pay off. Another thing is when you know there is some consistency in revenue, you can plan (growth, costs, other investment rounds, product portfolio change/update/structure, hiring, etc.).
• Do we have different revenue streams? If you only have just one major revenue stream, you probably one day get in trouble. It is riskier and this first signal for investors that their invested money is in danger. The more possible revenue streams you have, the better. Also, the option is to have control over this revenue stream (like having revenue from Facebook ads, where Facebook can terminate or stop your ads from a minute without the reason = which is a risk factor). Try to diversify the income and lower potential risks. It is not healthy for any company to rely on only one source of income, because the market situation can easily change and your business ends. You have to lay off, growth will be drastically reduced and companies will be preserved for years or decades, and with it the investor’s money.
• Does our project solve any real problem? How many people are there who have the same problem? Projects which have this kind of fundamental factor tend to be longer on the market. Because the basic fact you offer people solution is the very good assumption the will be (some) market. OK, you may be one day found out people don’t want to pay for that solution or they don’t want to pay such a price that will cover the company cost or give your company the option to grow, but in case there is no factor like this, you are probably doing wrong business and you will find it probably very soon (when you, for example, visit the first couple of investors).
• How big is the market? In the beginning or in case you run a small or midsize startup or business project you will probably not have enough money to run complex market research. But you can still do some basic research on your own – there are many aspects you can check – how much is the same problem part of any discussions on the internet, do some basic or more complex keyword analysis which will show you a lot, financial results and financial statements of competitors. But you should also take into account that not everything is so great in these “official financial documents), because many companies are running great “on the paper” and in reality they have problems with cashflow and lets, to be honest – sometimes they have problem with everything at everywhere – they just don’t should it out to the public (because they could close the business right here right now). Some financial results “on paper for investors” can withstand everything and many companies need to adjust and adjust a lot of their financial results in order to have any chance of succeeding in front of investors or in the next investment round. But at least at the beginning, you should do this “fact check” and do some research, because this is something your investors would like to know. That your business has the potential to grow and how big it can be. And also they want to see not fake data or “I think it is like this” data. Also, the data give you a little bit more understanding of whether the business is scalable or if your startup can one day become a global company.
• How difficult is it to run the same business as you do for your competitors? Well, if there are no obstacles, you will probably have a lot of competition. So you have to have either a huge competitive advantage (technically, money/funding, whatever else) to overcome everybody in the market or be so much ahead of others when they start doing the same, that they can’t catch you up (ideally you want to have both – huge advantage and you started many years before, you have experience, market or product knowledge which other competitors yet have to obtain – and it takes time and money for sure (because they will have to do most of the errors you did in the past in case they don’t have money to hire the best people which this relevant experience).
• Do you like the idea of your business? The first thing I say to anybody – if you like the idea and you just talk about it and did not start, you probably do not like it so much or it is probably not such a great idea at all. Because otherwise, you would start working on it straight ahead. Another main decision factor should be – why you want to run this kind of business. Because you want to be a millionaire? Well, that’s probably not a good idea, because one day even if you become rich, you will have no motivation. Money does not bring you joy in what you are doing in the business. It is one of few things which you will like, but it should not be the only and major reason why you set up your startup. For example, if you in the previous part of this list verified that your product/project/startup solves the real problem of people and you do it well, you will see hundreds of satisfied customers spreading the positive reference that your company is amazing. And this will be probably the reason that will push you forward, which will remind you every day why you do this. Why do you work so hard every single day? Because you serve people, you help them, you deliver a great product or service and they appreciate it.

I am sure you will adjust this list according to your needs (expand it and add more other factors), but my goal was to show you how you should possibly think before you actually invest money or ask other people for money for your project. Because similar questions will be probably asked at the very first meeting. Also, feel free to share any other ideas which should be added to this list.

Recommendations I could give to anyone solo entrepreneur or CEO

1. Stop reading 100 books about how to do something or books about famous people – simply start working on your dream and the rest will be sorted on the way.
2. If you’re making $0, it’s not useful to study Elon and Bezos. Simply try to find your own way which is relevant. Ask people on your level what they are a little bit ahead of you so you can learn proper experience which matches your current situation. Yes, dream big, but first, you need to learn how to make a decent living and pay rent before you become millionaire.
3. Don’t be arrogant, but have a mindset that you can do anything.
4. If people around you just demotivate you or make to stop working, cut them out of your life.
5. The best entrepreneurs know how to learn new things and teach themselves.
6. You discover 100x more by trying on your own than by checking out what other people did (what they did right or wrong). Your own personal experiences are priceless.
7. If you don’t know how to sell (you, your products, or services), you’re going to struggle. You simply have to be a salesperson – maybe not the best in the world, but you have to understand that’s the part of the job.
8. Thick skin is a need in case you want to be in the center of attention. It does not mean to be dickhead (most successful people are dickheads, because they think that thanks to the fact that they have succeeded in business, they are superhuman, that’s actually very tricky). You simply can’t get upset because they think you’re a fool or something is written or said about you somewhere that isn’t true. Sometimes you have to stick to your opinion or values (and sometimes it will hurt you or your company), but is again part of the job. But stay grounded. Always stay grounded, because the way up can be fast, wey down even faster and these downfalls will show you what people around you really are.
9. You go up 10x much faster by supporting people, not tearing them down. Motivate people. Be hard on them, when it is needed, but be fair.
10. No matter how good your product is, somebody will dislike it. And that’s OK and how it should be. The same happens with your personality, there always be haters, people who know exactly what you should do, how you should live your life and… listen, but always do your own choice. Always do what you think is right for you now.
11. Never regret anything. Every mistake is a lesson. Good or bad, this moves you forward. But again will remind you, that it does not matter whether you are a millionaire or not, stay humble. Because you will regret one thing – when you lose valuable friends and you see you changed to someone you don’t want to be.
12. Rate whatever you offer at a rate you’d be comfy paying. Also think about if you would buy this product, ask your customers, and simply listen. Always try to listen, because that’s the thing most of the owners forget during the time. Because they think they are perfect and they don’t do mistakes (everybody does).
13. Your network can either speed you up or slow you down.
14. Pessimists are typically ideal, and optimists are often wealthy.
15. Stop asking everybody, and start figuring shit out by yourself.
16. If you don’t respect people’s time, they won’t respect you.
17. Always over-communicate, because it is better than no or bad communication.
18. Assume you can learn something from everybody.
19. Presume everybody you talk with is also loaded with shit.
20. Your service heroes are routine individuals who acted immediately.
21. Don’t stick to heroes :-). You can be better and sometimes you find out these “heroes” are people you don’t want to become. Simply try to be yourself, because only then you will be happy.
22. If you can make $1, you can make $1,000. If you can make $1,000 you can most likely make $100k.
23. Don’t try to just get more and more money. Yes, if you can $100k, you can do $1000k or even more. But not everybody has to have a huge company. Not every company has to grow every year by 1 000 %, try to grow naturally because this will help you to have a functional company with processes and have also some personal life. Not everybody wants to have a huge global company and be on the front page of every business magazine or website. And not everybody who did not build that know how much responsibility is connected with that. You want to have some work-life balance maybe. Maybe have friends or family or kids. So set your own tempo and don’t be afraid you are not there where “you should be”. Everything is happening for a reason. And sometimes the path is more important for your life than the final destination.
24. Don’t ask random individuals questions. Ask your clients. Build a relationship with them.
25. You do need meditation and sunshine. Sometimes you need to relax. Sometimes you need to listen to your own body and…  and just don’t do anything.
26. Do not try to find a coach, simply if you are an interesting personality, you will meet many interesting people randomly and if you or your mentor is not a dickhead, you both will have something in common. So you will have long discussions about business, life simply about everything you both want to share with each other. And that’s what will teach a lot, to listen to stories of the others and that’s how you will also build your network naturally. And some of these people will become your friends or help you open doors just because they like your character. Don’t try to build just business relationships because they don’t last for a longer time. You don’t want to have fake people around you, you need real people.
27. Promote yourself online every day and everywhere it is possible. Don’t give a fuck about what people think about it. Learn from your mistakes, try to make improvements in your presentation, and again – try to be yourself, try to find your own way. Don’t try to copy other approaches, because they will probably not work for you.
28. Write daily for a minimum of 30 minutes. Because if you write daily whatever post or text, you will do the promotion (we mentioned above), but it also pushes you to read. When you read a lot, you know to learn new things, your brain has to work. It is like going to the gym every single day.
29. Ignore haters. They are the least interesting people. And if you have haters, it means you probably are not the average grey mouse of the population. Because regular people usually don’t have haters (or stalkers :-D).
30. Help others and let them reciprocate. If they never ever do, carry on.
31. Talk a lot with your friends and people around you. Try to find new people, and try to listen to their stories. Simply sometimes step out of your comfort zone and meet new people.
32. Consume less alcohol or drugs, but also don’t forget to go out and enjoy your time. Don’t isolate yourself completely. You do business, but you also have friends. The real friends
33. Start with one profits stream, and diversify shortly after. We talked about it earlier.
34. Anyone selling instantaneous outcomes is a liar. There are no shortcuts. Yes, it can happen sometimes few people earn money with no effort. But that’s not how it usually is. So don’t expect fast results, be patient. And also when somebody is trying to tell you he will deliver to you instant results, be suspicious because 99,9 % of these people are pure bullshiters. And people who do believe in these bullshiters are stupid. So in case you see this kind of behavior within your clients, leave them. Because soon or later they will want instant results also from you. Business is not a sprint, it is a marathon. Clients who do not understand that are not worthy to be in your portfolio. Because they will just drain your energy and they will be never satisfied.
35. Systems beat motivation and discipline each time.
36. Don’t try to concentrate on tools and tech. Simply utilize what you know and what you like.
37. Try new things, and do experiments in your business, but never ever with 2 or more new variables. Because otherwise, you cannot make conclusions about what worked for you.
38. Use data and market information to create better content.
39. Stop trying to be cool. Cool will come when you simply become cool without knowing it
40. You’re a lot less smart than you think you are. Be clear.
41. Be on time for business meetings for crucial things. You’re not a teenager. But on the other hand, don’t try to fall into that everybody can claim your time – nor clients, not employees, sometimes you have to have time for yourself and relax when you feel you need it. Your body is a great machine, but sometimes it needs some oil.
42. Nobody is coming to save you, you have to be the one who will fight, find new solutions, motivate others, and never be down.
43. Arguing online will just cost you energy. don’t do that, because you will always lose – time, energy, respect for others, reputation, etc.
44. Nobody cares about you. They care what you can do for them.
45. Don’t argue with your clients. You will never win this fight.
46. Everybody has the very same 24 hours. It’s how you use it.

Take every piece of this guidance in this thread that does not mean it will be 100% true for you, it will definitely not. But it will maybe help you understand, that business is not about

I’m just some random man on the internet sharing what I’ve discovered. There are hundreds of people like me and much better than me. But soon you will understand that many things are very similar for a lot of people, sometimes mistakes of us happen not to just you, but a huge amount of us. So why not avoid them in the first place right, when you can?

I am pretty sure you will find out many and many more pieces of advice or maybe they will come to your mind, please share them in the comments. I will try to constantly add other advices as soon as something comes to my mind again.