A question on Startup's stages and lifecycle
I have decided to quit my full time job for a BigCorp, move to India (citizen) and start working on an idea full time, along with a co-founder who will be located in USA. My co-founder is at this time is contributing part-time. He will be keeping his job (safety net for investment). This is our first time endeavor into a startup. Our idea is still very rough and would evolve as we build the product (as expected). Right now we just have quick proof of concepts and simple functional prototypes.
I had a few questions, that I am hoping some of you could shed some light on:
- We are not planning to register our company yet, as we don't have a MVP. The plan is in the next 6-8months we can churn out a beta and then try to register the company (in USA). We do have our domain parked though. Is it normal for a startup to just go with a domain as its identity or do you folks register a company when you start off? We don't plan to put much on the website anyway until the beta.
- At this point our venture is completely self funded. In fact the cost to build is mostly the cost in terms of our time. Does this make our venture as a pre-seed startup? I am a bit confused about the startup stages jargons. Is there a definitive guide to it?
- Is it a good idea to keep track of expenses (assuming labor is also an expense?). Will it help in evaluations?
- What is the lifecycle most of you have seen with a startup? As I understand -> 1) Conceptualize 2) Create a minimum viable product/service 3) Self-promote, word of mouth via networdk about the product. Gather some userbase (paid preferrably). 4) For expanding, look for funding either from Angel investors or seed investors. YC is another option if we can make the cut. 5) ... (Any step or order that I am missing?)
- Other than putting in more than 18*7 hours of work into building the product, most of which will be time spent writing code, is there something else to know and keep in mind? Some process that I am overlooking?
- We are users of what we are building and find a need for a product like this. Our current market research is based on how to plug the void that is there today. We are also actively looking at current players in the market, identifying their strenghts and weaknesses. We plan to ask our friends to help test stuff as we build and get their feedback constantly. Are there other ways of doing market research? Is it even worth it?
cheers!