Early-stage software startups: Main challenges and possible answers

Abstract

Software startups have a low probability of success. In their early-stage days, they face several challenges from different types that make it even harder to progress to the following stages. Some papers in the scientific literature focused on understanding these challenges. Meanwhile, others proposed solutions to these problems. In this chapter, we present a literature review of the challenges and patterns displayed in the scientific literature. Challenges are divided into four categories: related to product, market, finance, and team. The patterns presented in this chapter are (1) Get help from the methodologies, (2) Acquire customers, (3) Hack money incomes and outcomes, (4) Use available and simple tools, (5) Go up to the cloud, (6) Find your mentors, (7) Long-term purpose instead of money, and (8) Networking. We also show how the presented patterns could be used to tackle the identified challenges.