Your First Step Towards Starting Up

Entrepreneurs think of an idea almost everyday. Some even think of one every hour!In those ideas, lies something big, if done well.

There are many reasons that stop you from starting up and the biggest of them all is money. Sure, you can get Angel funding if your idea is really good but Investors do not just invest in an idea, they invest in a business. An idea does not guarantee money but a business does. So you cannot get funding unless you have some concrete potential business in your hand. The best thing about tech startups is that you don’t need a lot of things to deliver a prototype out there. Still, everything is not free in this world.

So what can you do, especially as a student?What’s great about open source technologies is that you can get quality software for free. Even if the requirementis of pretty specific software, you can always get that software at a low cost or even free if you are a student or an early stage startup. Many firms offer startup plans. Offering startup plans is a new way of marketing. It helps spread word about the company and if the startup succeeds then they get a regular customer. It’s a win -win situation.

What if that company does not offer such a plan? Then ask for it!

I have had the experience of a failed startup.While my startup, unfortunately, did not even see the light of the day, but it taught me a lot and I learnt the power of asking only then.. We were so persistent in asking for a startup license from a no-sql database firm that they created one for us!

Don’t ever underestimate the power of asking the right questions!!

Once your product is built and put out there what you will need is a host. There are many cloud hosting nowadays where you can start working for free and then get billed as you grow but those bills are still very high for early stage startups.

Then there is a Rackspace startup program. Rackspace is one of the leading specialists in the hosting and cloud computing industry (Github is an example of a big and successful site hosted on Rackspace cloud and dedicated servers).

You just need to create a write-up and submit it to Rackspace via any incubator listed on their site. If that idea strikes with the associated partners then you can get Rackspace managed cloud server hosting with their famous fanatical support for a very low price and if you are really lucky you can get that service free for 1 year. It’s a wonderful place to get started.

These are just a few tips in an attempt to convey that starting up is not as difficult as it might seem. The hard part (and definitely the more exciting one) is what follows!

- Manav Goel