From MVP to IPO – Pro Tips on How to Successfully Scale a Startup
April 18, 2022
Turning your business idea into a successful product is not a child’s play and it comes with countless challenges, especially for startups. Finding an idea and validating it is not enough to make your business a success.
After that, businesses must keep updating and improving their product to gain a competitive advantage. Once your business is scaled successfully, you can choose to offer shares to the public.
The app development journey can be hard for most small businesses and without proper guidance; you can never scale your business. To overcome this, you can take expert help from the leading Mobile App Development Company that can help you channel your challenges in the right direction and expand your business’s impact.
In this blog, we will check out various startup development stages that can help you scale your business from MVP to IPO and reach success.
Startup App Development Stages to Attain Business Goals
If you have decided to start your entrepreneur journey and looking for a way to scale your business, you have come to the right place. Listed below are some of the main startup development phases you must go through to ensure the success of the product you are planning to build.
- Idea Brainstorming Session
The most important thing is to brainstorm with your team to come up with an idea that can make a difference and help in solving the real pain points of customers. With the rise in competition, finding a good idea that can help you gain a competitive edge can be hard and requires effort and time.
Start with figuring out your area of interest, problems to be solved, and changes you want to bring to your customers’ life.
- Research and Validate Idea
The second step of your development is to take time for market research to know your competitors and what they are doing. This helps you to validate your idea and figure out what are the things you can change to make sure that it yields desired business goals.
Once market research and competitor analysis is done, you can decide if your idea is worth the investment.
- Work with a reliable development team
The development partner you choose to work with can make or break your business, which is why it is crucial to hire the right team that can help in bringing out the best from your idea and increases the flexibility of your operations.
Before hiring experts from a trusted iOS and Android App Development Company, make sure that you are well aware of their whole development team – from UX/UI designers to market specialists, developers, testers, maintenance, etc.
- Build a Prototype
Another most important step is prototyping, which is a process to bring your product idea from a mental concept to the physical world. This helps to develop a concept for navigation, design concept, and list the important features of your solution.
This prototype can be tested to make updates on time and avoid critical issues at a later stage that could involve high costs. A good prototype not only helps in building a quality product but also helps in figuring out problems at the initial level.
- MVP Development
The next step after building a prototype is to focus on MVP development i.e Minimum Viable Product, the first version of a product built only with a basic set of features. This is very beneficial to find out whether your app has the potential to succeed or not.
This enables startup owners to engage with the users and share their feedback with your app for a better update in functionality or design. Some successful brands that used the MVP development approach are Uber, Airbnb, etc.
Another beneficial thing about MVP is that it allows you to present your idea to future investors and figure out the demand for your app and make them interested in your product without too many expenses.
The MVP you developed at the initial level may not seem to be a success but there is always huge flexibility to tweak anything until you get the desired response from your target audience. If you have any struggles in bringing your idea to life with MVP, connect with the trusted app development team.
What are you waiting for? Go build MVP to make your product a grand success in the market.
- Find the Right Investors
Budget is the most important aspect of starting any business and the startups with a low budget are the ones who suffer. Take time to look out for the right investors with diverse backgrounds and experiences who can support your entrepreneurial journey.
After finding the right investor in your app development journey, take time to explain to them how your app will benefit the end-users.
- Test, Launch & Market
Before the final launch of your app, you must make sure that it is tested rigorously and ensure that it is free from bugs. This is the last step of the development process and you must have a well-planned marketing strategy to help you promote your app and reach a larger customer base. For any challenges, you can hire a marketing team that can help you launch your app with a bang.
Also Read: Mistakes That Startups Must Avoid While Outsourcing Software Development
Things to Know Before You Decide to Take Your Business the IPO Route
Taking your business the IPO can be a valuable experience for startups if done properly but what you must know is that it takes 5-7 years of effort and time to help your business reach that stage.
Before making your business go public, ask yourself why you are doing it and how it can improve and boost your business. Here are some of the top factors that you must consider to decide whether your business should take the IPO route or not.
Predictable Financial Growth
Take time to analyze your company’s financial performance. If the growth rate is consistent and high, the investors are more likely to invest in your business and this means you can go public.
Work With an Experienced Team
Consider a team that has a good experience of being a part of a public company. Additionally, you should analyze the need of growing your finance and accounting staff to help you ease the process of going public.
Make your Report Audit-Ready Always
Your financial reports must be released on time and make sure that they are audit-ready. Having reports that are consistent or predictive shows that your company is in a good place to go public.
Blueprint of an Investment Growth Chart
Ensure that you have an operational strategy for growing business that could help shareholders get an idea of the investment returns from a public company.
Backup plan for delayed/no IPO
IPO can be an expensive affair and it is risky, which is why having a backup plan is a must for a delayed or no IPO.
Going for an IPO is never an easy option, which is why you must think wisely before deciding as it will impact the business to a large extent. Though IPO is an effective means to raise additional funds, it involves a lot of time, patience, and effort, and one may face many challenges when going public.
Closing Statement
Before starting up with your business, one must focus on building a strong MVP to start & figure out the potential of your product. It can be hard to tell when your business will grow and what your business will be worth in the future.
MVP is the initial step that acts as a great way to find investors who can help in making your product stand out in the market. Hopefully, by going through the blog, you must get an idea of the development stages that every startup must go through from MVP development to scaling for a big IPO.
Still, have queries? Feel free to connect with our expert app developers for any assistance and development needs and get the success you want for your startup business.