6 ways to prevent your tech start-up from failing before you launch

According to CB Insight, there are a variety of reasons why tech start-ups fail, from a lack of funding to burnout in the workforce. Following this survey, 42% of tech start-ups fail. Discover the pre-launch customer validation proof process in detail to maximise the launch success of your tech start-up while saving you time and money.

1 – Initial Problem Hypothesis

One of the major challenges your tech start-up confronts when disrupting a market is correctly identifying the accurate problem you aim to solve; if you can’t identify the accurate problem, your brand launch will experience low buy-in and low customer engagement.

In order to reduce the risk of failure, you need to spend sufficient time identifying and understanding your ideal customers, their needs, pain points and desires. 

As a tech start-up, this is the best moment to make mistakes since you will not have invested in developing your brand and marketing and/or sales. Don’t hesitate to test and make errors early in the customer development process to find the right solution.

In conclusion, validating the problem you solve, matching it with your target market and what you can offer, will help you create the ideal MVP (minimum viable product). 

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2- How To Avoid Confirmation Bias

Confirmation bias can be described as a circumstance whereby you tend to absorb information and make decisions based on your prior knowledge. This circumstance is one of the leading scenarios as to why your tech start-up may fail.

When developing your brand, it’s crucial to adhere to these guidelines in order to avoid confirmation bias.

1. Identify the questions and gaps in the market and avoid making assumptions.
2. Prioritise the key results from your questions.
3. Develop your hypothesis statement.
4. Test and measure your ideas in the market.
5. Analyse, rethink, and build from that.

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3 – Falsification Bias

This is seen as the exact opposite of confirmation bias and is a circumstance where you deliberately look for proof to refute a widely held opinion.

In order to avoid falsification bias, it is advised to always pose at least one query to clients that could jeopardise the success of your tech start-up venture.

Customers are questioned about the exact qualities or reasons they won’t consider working with your brand. This will enable you to recognise the flaws in your strategy and make the necessary adjustments.

This is a useful activity to discover the validity of your approach, not to confirm your preconceived notions, and to recognise your inadequacies.

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4 – The Golden Rules to Investigate Customers’ Pain Points

The first rule to investigate your customer’s needs is to never tell them about a new product idea but give a little bit of context to the person participating in the interview. Therefore, be as ambiguous as you can be, this is because you would get more sincere responses from your consumers if you were vague.

A way to do this is to;

• Ask which approach they are using.
• Elaborate on the problems you are willing to solve step by step, while doing that put them in context so that the customer can relate to them.
• Ask how much they pay for it.
• Ask them what happens if they fail to solve each problem.

This exercise is crucial to your tech start-up success because it gives you the opportunity to interact with your target audience more effectively when articulating your marketing and branding strategy. This enhances customer engagement and brand performance.

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5 – Validation To Positioning

Strong brand positioning consists of questions such as: whom do you serve? What do you do? And what do they value? Why/how are your solutions different from the competition?

These are the 4 core questions your brand should be able to answer in order to gain favour from potential customers.

Your brand is best positioned to flourish if you can identify your brand DNA and are aware of your vision, core values, purpose, personality, and products/benefits.

Brand positioning is your first opportunity to engage with potential new clients, and it effectively communicates your value proposition to entice inquiries about your services.

Remember the success of your tech start-up is 60% brand and 40% product.

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6 – The GOSPA Long-term Strategy Model

The GOSPA long-term model developed by Brian Tracy is an acronym that stands for Goals, Objectives, Strategies, Priorities and Action. This model is a significant framework used to successfully grow and scale your business in the long term.

Goals: Identifying the key outcomes you want your organisation and business to attain in the long run.

Objectives: These are viewed as the initial, more basic building blocks that lead to your business’s ultimate, long-term objectives. In other words these are your short term objectives.

Strategies: These can be thought of as the framework and format you intend to use to accomplish your short-term goals.

Priorities: This is viewed as developing a preference scale to determine the most effective activity that will make your strategy successful and bring you closer to your long-term objectives.

Action: The regular tasks that will help you accomplish your long-term business goals.

A successful tech start-up will be one that follows this model religiously and has its values and staff ingrained with your brand’s philosophy using the GOSPA-model.

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About us
3 Colours Rule is a branding and marketing agency specialising in growing tech companies and start-ups. Beyond our brand strategy, design and marketing services; we also have a podcast: Tech Brains Talk where our founder has conversations with experts and entrepreneurs in tech. We also have a branding and marketing academy to support marketers expand their skills and entrepreneurs too. We also run our non-profit organisation, TLA Black Women In Tech, one of the fastest-growing communities for black female professionals and entrepreneurs in tech.  

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