Software Startup - Getting Started

Start your funding strategy, market research, big decisions, full documentation & more, getting your startup going.

What you'll learn

Make the big decisions needed to get going with your startup

Understand the research you need to do in detail into your market, competitors and customers

Produce the full set of documents needed by developers, investors and customers

Learn how to get started setting up your business entity

Requirements

No prior skills or experience needed

You just need an idea that you want to turn into an app and a software startup

No additional money is needed to complete the course

Description

Learn how to get started turning your idea into a software product and startup business!Save thousands of dollars by taking the important steps and doing them properly to lay the foundations for your successful startup.What you will learn:The research and analysis you need to do into your potential market and competitors.The big decisions you need to make such as your partnership and funding strategies.Getting your business up and running.How to create the documents you need in order to communicate your idea to others such as investors and customers.How to create the documents you need in order to get your software designed, built, tested and launched.This course covers the first two modules of the S5 Methodology.In the 'Sound Preparation' module, you will cover:Current employment - What you can, cannot, should and must do if you are currently employedMarket research - How to research the market you are planning to enter so you are better placed to start your market fitCompetitive analysis - How to find out about your potential competitors to help make business and product decisionsSWOT analysis - Succinct instructions and a worksheet for identifying and using your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threatsPartners - Should you go it alone or work with one or more partners? This topic discusses this important decision in depthInvestment - Do you need investment (or other form of funding)? This topic helps you decide and shows you how to get started with thisElevator pitch - An elevator pitch is so important to get right yet so many don't. This topic shows you the formula for creating a great pitchBusiness basics - There's a lot to do setting up your business. This topic takes you through the main steps, showing you what, why and howGetting legal advice - You will most likely need legal advice for various things. This topic explains this and how to prepare for getting that advicePlan of action - Creating a plan of action is so important yet rarely done. Use the template to create yours so you can stay on top of everything you need to doIn the 'Structured Documentation' module, you will cover:Brain dump - Have fun creating a brain dump of all your thoughts, ideas and questions. Then use this to start structuring your business and software documentationDocument register - You will create many documents which maximise your chances of success - as well as keeping costs down. Keep track of these with a document registerQuestion register - There will be a lot of unanswered questions and unmade decisions initially. That's OK - especially if you track them properly with a question registerSolution overview - Although easy to write, this is a very important document, used for many purposes to communicate your idea with investors, customers, partners, developers and moreUsers & organisations - Your software will almost certainly have users and may have the concept of organisations. Lay firm foundations by defining these properlyConcepts document - Not often written, this document gives you a glossary and explains all the concepts of your product, saving on miscommunications and inefficiencies that will arise without itUser stories - A really easy way of defining what your software needs to do. This topic shows you how to do this properly so your software contains everything you needMilestones - There will be more than one version of your software as it evolves. Keep track of these and communicate properly with all stakeholdersPlatforms - Web-only? Mobile-only? Both? It is critical to decide where you will start and the details of this. This important topic shows you howNotifications - Write a very short description about the lesson here so that your visitors know what they are going to learn in this lessonFunctional & non-functional requirements - This is the culmination of all the work done up to now to create your comprehensive functional requirements document using the extensive templates providedThe course contains 18 template documents and worksheets that will accelerate your progress and make sure you end up with complete, high-quality documentation.

Overview

Section 1: Getting Started

Lecture 1 Welcome

Lecture 2 Introduction

Section 2: Sound Preparation

Lecture 3 Sound preparation overview

Lecture 4 Current employment

Lecture 5 Market research

Lecture 6 Competitive analysis

Lecture 7 SWOT analysis

Lecture 8 Partners

Lecture 9 Investment

Lecture 10 Elevator pitch

Lecture 11 Business basics

Lecture 12 Getting legal advice

Lecture 13 Plan of action

Section 3: Interlude

Lecture 14 Interlude

Section 4: Structured Documentation

Lecture 15 Structured Documentation Overview

Lecture 16 Brain Dump

Lecture 17 Document Register

Lecture 18 Question Register

Lecture 19 Solution Overview

Lecture 20 Users & Organisations

Lecture 21 Concepts Document

Lecture 22 User Stories

Lecture 23 Milestones

Lecture 24 Platforms

Lecture 25 Notifications

Lecture 26 Requirements - Introduction

Lecture 27 Functional Requirements

Lecture 28 Non-Functional Requirements

Section 5: Next Steps

Lecture 29 Next Steps

Prospective software startup founders,Early-stage software startup founders