Whether you are a startup or an established company, you need to create new products, bring them to the market and growth them to a sustainable business.
I tried to sketch the four key phases and what do you need regarding knowledge and smart money. We can apply this scheme both to startups and corporations.
1. You start with a solution to a problem. To minimize risk, you can use many techniques from design thinking (like Google Sprints). This step is funded by founders or by marketing departments.
2. Some solutions can become products. That means that people are willing to pay for them. To minimize risk, you can use techniques from lean startup toolbox. Most of the time, you are not ready for external funders yet.
3. Do you think you have a good product? Then you should try to growth it. Startups have come out with a series of creative technique that goes under the name of growth hacking. In the case of startups, funding comes from business angels and accelerators.
4. Hopefully, at this stage, you have a viable business. It is time to start modeling it and to work on a (minimum) business plan. Funding comes from more business angels and early stage funds.The biggest difference between startups and companies is that most companies don’t have competencies in service design, lean startup and growth marketing. So they miss almost any opportunity to create new products and to bring them to the market.