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What Difficulties Do Startups Face in Early Stages?
Behind tech startups often lie restless, entrepreneurial minds that are eager to innovate, both in R&D, marketing, and business models. However, building a new company takes a lot of effort, months of work, idea generation, planning and often a large investment of money. The main hurdles for tech startups is financing: generating enough capital to develop the product or service, renting a workspace, marketing and ensuring an eventual income stream.
Other common difficulties include:
1 | Finding people with the right experience and initiative to work with.
2 | Designing a suitable business and marketing strategy
3 | Optimising the use of time and workflows. There's only 24 hours in a day and there is a lot of work to do and many decisions to make.
4 | Differentiating yourself from competitors
5 | Adapting to changes in the tech market.
6 | The lack of mentoring. You may have a great idea, but a lack of experience or knowledge in some areas can ruin it. So it's important to have someone to learn from and to help you make the big decisions during the early stages.
Tech Startups in Ireland
Why Coworking?
We are in the digital age of “co-”. Co-ordinating, co-operating, co-living, and co-working. The shared economy is revolutionizing not only the world in which we enjoy traditional goods and services, but also the way we live and work. Newer professionals prefer coworking because of the spaces, the way they connect people, the flexibility of rental contracts and easy access to multifunctional work spaces (desk, meeting rooms, kitchen area, cafe, and event spaces). Furthermore, in the digital age of “Co-” people will simply need people, coworkers, who can participate in growing other companies, both in the short term and long term.
What benefits do coworking spaces bring to tech startups?
1 | Improved Work Environment
As startups become less of a hobby and more of a solid career, working in a confined living space is not an ideal office nor is it suitable to meet potential clients. Working from a coworking space will give access to an appropriate workspace in an office surrounded by other like minded tech professionals who may be in the same business position as you. You will have adequate space for your team, meeting rooms at your disposal, facilities and Wifi at no additional cost. In other words, entrepreneurs can begin their career residing in a suitable space that allows the separation of professional life from your personal life
There are a number of factors that are making traditional workspaces lose ground compared to the evolution of the ways in which they work. Firstly, many aspiring tech entrepreneurs cannot bear the expenses of an office because of insufficient resources to do it in expensive urban areas. Opening one outside of urban areas can be too disadvantageous in terms of lost time for travel, opportunities and resources offered by the suburbs. Secondly, new entrepreneurs need something agile and modular, which is both a workplace but also a place to release tension and gain a social element to work. A place where an ecosystem is created made up of people who are inclined to discover, innovate, and socialise.
2 | Reduced Costs
For most startups, the costs and commitment involved in opening their own office is too great a risk and responsibility for the start of a business. Choosing a coworking as a workplace for your startup will save you many fixed costs and reduce risk.
Your coworking fee not only includes the rent of the office or desk space, it also includes electricity, internet connection, cleaning and maintenance. As we cater to digital and tech startups Talent Garden has the latest technology, meeting rooms, cafeteria, projectors, air conditioning, event spaces, suited to your startup. Best of all, you won't have to worry about managing the services and infrastructures, so you can focus only on your work and your business.
3 | Community
Community has been the centre point of the first coworking spaces in the mid-nineties. The C-Base in Berlin, which is considered one of the first models of coworking spaces, was born as an organisation with the idea that its community (oriented to computing and technology) could work under one roof to generate synergies. The concept hasn't changed much since then.
For a tech startup, it is important to surround yourself with like-minded people in order to establish collaborations, share experiences and help each other grow. The Talent Garden community is made up of digital and technological professionals who work in different industries and sectors.
Yoga, workshops, open days, investor days, community breakfasts, networking and hundreds of other activities in the same place to promote your business and improve your life. Coworking allows us to go beyond the normality of a traditional office. From a business point of view this kind of extra activity helps to increase the quality of life of the employees of their startup and consequently their productivity.
4 | Synergies and Collaboration
We have mentioned how important it is to surround yourself with like-minded people in order to create a valuable network of contacts. Sharing a space on a daily basis with your fellow community will also facilitate the creation of synergies and personal connections. Your days become more interesting than being alone at home or working in a cafe!
In fact, it is very likely that some of your coworkers end up being key partners. The coworking environment facilitates the possibility of developing joint projects, subcontracting part of their projects or having them subcontract you. Talent Garden hosts a range of SMEs, startups, and freelancers that have the ability to use each other's expertise and experience for mutually beneficial projects. Collaboration in a coworking space is something that goes far beyond a shared workspace, but also becomes a space about sharing ideas within a positive environment to help you grow your business .
The Internet has removed many barriers to being able to work online with people from all over the world, but if you personally know the entire team that is going to work on the same project and you are also in the same space, everything probably works more smoothly.
5 | Flexibility
Another key benefit of coworking spaces is the great flexibility they provide to you. Talent Garden is open to members 24/7 depending on your membership plan, so you can work how and when it suits you. As this is the generation of the ‘digital nomad’ entrepreneurs travel a lot to generate new ideas, meet inspirational people, and scout new innovative talent. Some professionals move constantly and need spaces for a short time without difficulty. These people who live and work with the same mentality can bring an international vision to the various startups to scale up novice companies globally. To cater these nomads, Talent Garden has a network of coworking spaces in 22 European cities, and as a member you will have access to all spaces and a vast community of entrepreneurs.
Coworking spaces are also very flexible in their pricing structures and commitment as we offer 5 different membership plans that vary in accessibility, work spaces, and flexibility. Without any commitment as tight as a traditional office, in which you are going to sign a contract that, at the very least, will force you to stay there for a year, regardless of how your business operates there.
6 | Scalability
Coworking is also very flexible when it comes to scaling your business. They are workplaces that adapt to the changes and space needs of your startup.
If your business grows, you can easily expand the space or the number of tables you need, without having to move from the office, with all the inconvenience that this entails. In case the flows of your business are very variable or you require extra members in your staff for specific seasons, you will also have it very easy. You will only have to pay for the extra space you need by talking to your community manager.
Most startups don't know how their business will grow or expand. No one knows what the future holds for us. That is why the flexibility that coworking offers you at different levels is very important to be able to grow progressively.
7 | Test The Market
More than 50% of startups and small businesses end up failing in their first four years. We hope this is not your case! But it is a fact to keep in mind when you are in the initial stages of entrepreneurship. The versatility and savings that coworking spaces allow make it easier for a technology startup to test the market with less risk .
The coworking helps you make your look more professional, a company projecting a better image Having a workspace in which your customers receive. It can also make it easier for you, through the connections you create, to have investors, business partners and potential mentors , as you will be surrounded by an expert community. All this will also help you test your startup's objectives with more security.
For all these reasons, it's no wonder coworking is a growing trend for both tech startups and freelance digital professionals!
Article updated on: 09 August 2023
Written by
Talent Garden, Digital Skills Academy
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