Startup Tips Day 25: Stephan Uhrenbacher from Qype

Day #25 in the CenterNetworks Startup Tips Month come from Stephan Uhrenbacher from Qype.

Stephan's Tips

Tip #1 - Ship the product

Too many people worry about business cards, legal work, corporate structure to early. There will be ample time for that. My advice: Build a prototype and get it out there (obviously this rule helps you more if you build a website than if you plan to launch a new car). If your prototype makes people smile, then the rest will follow.

Tip #2 - Listen to your customers and improve quickly

Make sure you get your customer feedback quickly into your development cycle. Qype had about 3000 suggestions for product enhancements during the first six months and we implemented more than 500 of those.

Tip #3 - Make sure your company does make money

Yes, we always envy companies who never made a profit and are being sold for billions. The much safer bet is to build a company that truly generates value. And value means cash. Start working on the cash side of your business very early on.

Tip #4 - People are the core of your company

It is tempting to hire freelancers who can quickly help you to start up. However, long term growth will only happen if you keep talented people on board. And it is very hard to convert freelancers into loyal members of a team. Freelancers want to be free.

Tip #5 - Then think about funding

If you have a decent prototype to show and have a backbone of a team, know where the money will come from, then funding discussions will be much easier.

Stephan Uhrenbacher is the Managing Director of QYPE. Qype is the largest local review website in Europe, and has started in Germany and is currently launching in the UK.