Australia’s start-up ecosystem is booming and only set to grow more over the coming years. In 2021, there was more than $10 billion invested in local firms, and a record number of start-ups were registered. It became clear that entrepreneurialism thrived in the wake of the pandemic. According to recent data, the majority of Australia’s start-ups are tech-focused, accounting for over 17,700 start-ups.
As a result of the pandemic, we’ve seen many changes in employee behaviours. The so-called ‘Great Resignation’ has led to more people building and creating their own start-ups or small businesses.
The prevalence of local entrepreneurship and significant money coming from VCs has opened the door to people with deep domain expertise and an appetite to start their own business. People are being more encouraged than ever before to take a leap of faith and create a startup that solves problems within industries that may have previously experienced minimal technological advancement.
So, what are some of the key challenges non-technical founders face when building a tech start-up and how can they overcome them?
Access to capital
In order to grow your small business or startup, you need sufficient funding. Luckily there are many options available – from bank loans, to venture capital, angel investors, and venture studios. Other than venture studios, most of these options solely give start-ups and small businesses access to capital and little else. The benefit of a venture studio, particularly for non-technical founders, is the ongoing support they provide.
From investing in the company to acting as the start-up’s technical co-founder and beyond, venture studios are renowned for getting in the weeds of a startup alongside the business’s founder to mitigate the risks and help them see success. Whether it’s helping a founder with their go-to-market strategy, building the start-up’s internal teams, or providing and sourcing capital, a venture studio is here to make the journey of starting a new business far simpler.
No technical skills? No problem
Believe it or not, there are still many industries that have seen little to no technical advancement. The chemicals industry, for example, has been slow to adopt digital transformation. This presents many opportunities for people with deep domain knowledge to disrupt the sector using technology.
ChemCloud, a digital platform that makes it easy to discover, buy, and sell chemicals, has revolutionised the chemicals industry by leveraging technology to save companies time, resources and money. However, co-founders Hector Williamson and Dave Wright lacked substantial technical experience when they came up with the idea.
Having a deep understanding of the industry and their target audience gave Hector and Dave invaluable insights into how the problems experienced across the industry could be solved by using technology. These insights would only be possible for people who have worked in a particular industry for a long time themselves and experienced the headaches firsthand.
Rather than having the technical skills and trying to find a solution to a problem that you have no expertise in, non-technical founders can identify a problem close to home and work with the right tech team to build a viable and desirable solution.
Utilising external developers
To help build their product, ChemCloud’s co-founders partnered with Dovetail to turn their tech idea into reality. In the age of tech talent shortages, partnering with a venture studio is a great way for start-ups with limited funds to work directly with world-class developers, product people, and designers, which they otherwise couldn’t afford to.
Venture studios help startups beyond building digital platforms. They provide start-ups with access to high-calibre tech talent. This top-notch dedicated team often fulfills the role of technical co-founder, and can offer additional support for future-proofing the business.
So, if you have deep domain knowledge and have identified a problem or opportunity that could be overcome or resolved with technology, don’t be deterred if you lack technical experience or knowledge. There are many great options available today for non-technical founders to build and grow successful start-ups or small businesses.
