What to do while waiting on my incorporation? | Hacker News Reader

What to do while waiting on my incorporation?

1 pointmajesticbeans10 comments

My lawyers are taking a bit long to file all the stuff...they're having issues with my company name and a couple other things. They're some of the best in the country, so I'm not worried. It's just that it's been over a 2 weeks of total inactivity on my end and I need stuff to work on.

Here's what I have at the moment: 1) A functioning MVP 2) A mailing list of <200 people that I've never even used. 3) Some companies I've been in touch with that expressed interest in my software. FYI, my software can be used by both freelancers and companies in the design field.

I'm being told that I need to figure out what my customers are willing to pay (and if they are). From talking to many of them, the answer has been positive but I guess until I have yet to see people buying, there's no proof.I'm waiting on getting my bank accounts set up and all the company paperwork so I can start using Stripe and finally getting around to following the advice I got about Twitter/FB ads, and together, trying to understand my market even better.

Is there anything else I can do in the meantime? I need something to do...it's killing me. Admittedly, I've never done this before and pretty much everything I've done so far wasn't figured out properly the first time around. Scold me.

Either start putting together blog posts, so you can continue to pump out good content even after you get too busy to write it (technical, domain based, but "proper" article, not just puff pieces) , or adding features.

Although you should arguably wait on adding features until you get feedback.

I'm still at the 'building MVP' stage, but I have an Evernote file called "Awesome things to do to product when done" with links to ideas, products, blogs etc I see as I'm going along but don't have time to do now, or it's not appropriate to do now.

For instance, it was announced yesterday that Stripe is coming to the UK, so that blog post has gone into my list so that when I come to add payment, I don't have to think too hard about options. (Actually, thinking about it, you could certainly be coding the Stripe stuff now, even though you don't have the bank account in place... you know you're going to need it)

Blog posts. Hm. Should I write about my market research? Interesting people I've met (Without naming names) who've taught me something about the field I'm working in? Features for the website and how/why they do what they do?

SEO? Marketing? Meetings? Customer interviews? Coding beyond a "functioning MVP" into something robust and thoroughly tested?

By marketing, do we mean advertising?

Marketing is a broad thing - advertising is a small and limited part, especially for a cash-strapped startup. But getting people aware and interested matters. What have you done today to make more people aware of your product, or improve how you explain it to them in order to increase interest and conversion rates?

If you have some spare time, it might be good to do some reading on the business/marketing side of things. Have you read The Lean Startup? Or How to Win Friends and Influence People?

I really need an advisor. Although I "have" one, it takes him many, many days to reply to my questions. So much for being put in touch with him by one of leaders in tech. startups....

Drop an email to the address in my profile. I can probably write up a laundry list of things for you to work on tonight.

I don't see an email?

dave@baqbeat.com

email sent.

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