What I’ve learned running a software startup for 2 years in Mexico
Getting people to know about us
Besides a personal recommendation, advertising online is a great way to get your brand out there for people to know you exist. That is what we did and it first started by luck.
In July 2016, we stumbled upon a contest organized by the British Embassy in Mexico. They were looking for young and in-tech companies to fly them to Liverpool to assist the International Business Festival. To be honest, we were somewhat skeptical about the veracity of the contest, but we decided to give a try as we had nothing to lose. Three weeks later, we received an email telling us that we were selected and that we had to fill out some forms to complete the process. We were so happy and surprised to be able to have that opportunity.
During our stay in Liverpool, we had the chance to meet and talk to people from all over the world and that thus increase our network of contacts.
We have also been noticed by being published in digital magazines and posts in social media. That is a great way to leverage on their current readers database.
Being honest
People come to us excited about their new app idea and ready to start building it. And that’s great. People brave enough to pursue new ideas are the ones that change the world. But when they don’t even know who their customer is, where to find them or the problem they are solving, that’s when I believe we are not ready to build a solution just yet. I would strongly suggest to do some research and gather as much information as possible from your target market to come up with a solution that would have more probabilities of success.
It would be easy for me to take the project, create the software and get paid for it, but if I don’t see any foundation for the app the be built upon, then what’s the point? The app will most likely fail.
People often ask me if I like their ideas and I always tell them this:
It does not matter if I like your idea or not, what matters is that your market feels your are solving a real problem for them.
Sharing knowledge
We believe that cutting time from the learning curve is just as valuable as the content to learn itself. That’s why every Friday at 11 am the entire team gets together and share what they learned during the week. Most of the times we talk about technology, but politics, finance, startups, geography are topics that have been in the discussion. Knowledge is knowledge.
Mentors
Getting advice from people that have created a company and have succeeded and failed before, is the best thing you can get as you are growing a company.
We are lucky to have people we look up to tell us we are wrong when we thought everything was fine.
Learning as a culture
Learning is at the core of the company’s culture. Every day we face new challenges that force us to innovate to come up with a solution and that innovation is a result of a constant research. That’s what I believe is the way to always improve as a company.
I feel like I have grown as an engineer and as a person in this past 2 years and I wouldn’t change that experience for anything.
What have you learned in your company’s early stage?
