Hi! My name is Eugene, and I am a systems analyst at Purrweb — a startup MVP design and development agency. I often see how office guys bury their fresh startup ideas without releasing them. This happens because they think that startuppers are a special category of people focused on inventing apps and services. But that’s not the case.
Many people with entrepreneurial talents have work and steady paychecks. They often think that if they want to release their own ideas, they have to quit their jobs and forget about stability. The easiest way is to dismiss the idea and stay at the company.
Actually, anyone can become a startupper. And they don’t have to quit — it’s enough to show initiative and get the development of an in-house product approved by your executives. Your product may likely become popular and bring millions to your company.
In this article, I will give you an in-depth guide on how to get your development budget approved and prove to your bosses that your idea is worth it. And, for dessert, I’ll leave a few tips for startuppers that will be useful at the very beginning. You can use them to see whether the app will find a market.
State your idea
First, before developing an in-house startup, I would meet with my executives to outline the project I wanted to make and discuss how it could theoretically influence the company’s indicators. That’s right — no numbers, no research, and no proof — I would just state my future plans and send the message that the project may boost the business thanks to better economic indicators or an additional profit source. This talk has an even more important task: to check how your bosses take such things.
Of course, no one will give you money just for your beautiful words. But it’s the first stage, which will make your manager think: “Oh, this employee thinks about the company’s future and cares about their job. I should have a closer look at them.”
❗ Before this talk with the boss, you can turn to a startup development agency to estimate the sum, which is necessary for an optimal MVP. This way, it will be easier to make a deal — your bosses will know that you want, say $100,000, and you will know exactly what features you’ll offer after the release.
Research your market and industry trends
After you state your idea, you can start research. It will prove that your future startup is interesting and beneficial for your company, and your managers, again, will see that you’re excited about the idea. This increases your chances of winning over your bosses.
Let’s talk about two types of market research: qualitative and quantitative. The difference is that qualitative research provides ideas and specific opinions, whereas quantitative research gives structured and statistically processed information. The results always complement each other. If you don’t have opportunities to research on your own, you can turn to an agency.
Methods have different goals and tasks, but the essence is the same — to find the audience’s needs, your solution may cover
👉 Let’s discuss how to use market research to convince your bosses that your project will be successful.
Say, you want to make a chatbot to communicate with clients. You need to prove to your bosses that your idea is viable and, on the market, there are people with needs that can be theoretically covered by your technical solution. To achieve this, we use both qualitative and quantitative research.
Conduct interviews with 25 auto sales managers and discover that the majority of them struggle with second-sale conversion among existing customers. One in two managers faces this trouble.
Once we learn a problem exists, we can confirm this quantitatively. For that, you have to conduct bigger research with the same target audience and calculate the representative sample group.
❗ If, at this stage, you realize that no one needs your startup, you’ll save your development money, and this is the biggest part of the budget. You can tell your employer about the situation — this will show them that you not only think about the product but also save money.
Numbers, facts, interviews, and talks — all this stuff must impress your employer if they are rational 😉
👉 Result. Once you confirm that the need is widely spread among the target audience, you can go to your boss and ask for investments. If you manage to get approval from them — congrats, you can stop here and develop an MVP for your technical solution!
It’s important to make it simple, so it won’t require much development time. If you get no investments — read further to find new ways to get your budget approved.
Correlate your idea with business goals
No employer will give you money if your startup doesn’t answer a clear question: why does your company need it? The idea is to give the right answers with no lies or fantasies.
🔹 The first and most important step in creating a startup is to understand the business structure and learn its goals and tasks. Ideally, you should join the people who attend strategy sessions and discuss your company’s perspectives. If you can’t do this, you can still talk to all the interested people and understand the business goals. It will help you correlate your idea with these goals and improve it if necessary.
🔹 The second step is to understand exactly how your product must influence these or those indicators. For example, you know how the sales funnel is organized in your company and see a bottleneck: low conversion into the first purchase. If you know this, you can suggest a solution that would fix this situation.
For example, your company pays employees who organize entrance tests for interns. In total, there are 10 such employees with a $58 hourly rate, and they spend about 10 hours a week checking the interns’ tests.
Every month, the company spends $58 × 10 employees × 10 hours × 4 weeks = $23,200.
However, you can implement an automated testing system to save $23,200 and keep teaching interns.
👉 Result. If you properly correlate business goals with your idea, you’re more likely to get your development funds. Congrats! If not, you need to keep working.
Your managers can decline your idea for different reasons. For example, the product you offer doesn’t comply with the reality of the company, and you have to prove its investment prospects. In this case, you can turn to an agency for your product’s design prototype and use it to sell your product to the target audience. These can be the people with whom you conducted custdevs. With new information, it’s easier to prove to your bosses that your idea will be successful.
Make a design prototype of your product
The next stage is to make a prototype — a small piece of the real product. You need it to show the audience a ready-made startup image and try to sell them this product.
Imagine that your product is CRM Lead Generation software. You make a clickable prototype and go to a respondent who has taken part in your custdev. Say: “We have earlier discussed a hypothetical product, and now you can try a demo version.” After that, watch how a person interacts with the prototype. Note what they like and don’t like — it’s better to write down every word to analyze them later. Watch their emotions to understand whether the respondent actually needs this project or not.
Once the prospective customer studies your prototype, ask them directly if they are ready to buy it. If they are, make an agreement that the respondent will buy a subscription when the product is all set.
✅ The more “sales” like that you make, the more likely your product becomes successful. Find at least 15–20 respondents who said “yes.” This way, you will understand how ready people actually are to pay and get real feedback.
👉 Result. With your design prototype and new custdevs, you can go to your managers and prove that the budget will be well-spent because people are ready to pay — you have already made an agreement. Therefore, you can prove it’s worth moving to the next stage.
Calculate the unit economy of your product
Well, you have “sales” and real people, who are ready to buy the product. Now, you, sure, can show your employers how much money it will bring in the future according to your estimations.
You can estimate approximate numbers — for example, calculate unit economy — and you don’t have to be an analyst for that. Besides, you can convince your employers that the project is profitable. You don’t really sell your product, but, for now, this is the best way to prove your idea will be successful. Actually, you have already sold the product without actually developing it.
One more thing — don’t forget to explain to your bosses that you want to make an MVP. Minimal Viable Product — a test version with a minimum set of features, which is valuable for a customer. In this case, development will be much cheaper, and you can finish the product later.
For example, you want to make an AI app that helps people write their first messages on Tinder. But you can make a bot that will do all the same. We just reduce the project to save you money.
I always advise clients to start with an MVP and complete the main product later. If the idea proves to be unsuccessful, it’s not that bad, because not that much money was invested into development. Besides, when testing your MVP, you can see the target audience’s need for an absolutely different product and quickly change focus areas.
👉 Result. You get your development money from bosses — hurray! But, just in case, I will show you what else you can do if your boss still refuses to invest in your product.
What can you do if you haven’t got money yet?
Imagine that you properly followed the steps from our guide, but your employer still didn’t give you money. Yes, it’s a tough situation, but you don’t have to give up — you can find money elsewhere.
Try to attract individual investors, such as colleagues, friends, and even relatives who believe in your project and are ready to pour money into it. Or find an accelerator that will help get the product budget from scratch.
There are many options:
-
- Startup platforms: Startups.com or Gust.com.
- Business angel networks: Funded.com, Angel Capital Association, and Angel Investment Network.
- Crowdfunding: Kickstarter.
- Networking: on LinkedIn.
The main thing is not to abandon your idea for ages. Look for investors, talk about your future project, change it, and test it again. You miss it once — you get it another time 🙂
* * *
If you’re confident in your idea, it’s time to go to your employer and ask for a budget. After that, you can make an MVP and, later, develop it into a full-fledged product.
At Purrweb, we have already made over 300 MVPs in various industries — from journeys to fintech. You can find more content about startups and MVPs in our blog.
