Top 8 Mistakes Non-Technical Founder's make on their MVP / Startup Tech project
Start your technical project in the right direction by avoiding these common mistakes that non-technical founders make!
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1. Not having a Github
Summary: Create a Github and send your developer a repository to work in.
2 / 3. Creating an Admin Panel and/or CRUD / Graphql endpoints from scratch
Summary: Lots of wasted time re-inventing the wheel with CRUD / Graphql. At a minimum find a plug and play admin-panel so you don't need to re-invent the wheel on this one. You can always implement custom routes outside of the framework if there's really something custom you need.
4. Over-scaling server deployments
Summary: AWS EC2 (and servers in general) are probably not necessary when you can use an app engine that handle automatic deployments and server setup for you. Highly recommended.
5. Forgetting about SEO / meta tags / social sharing images
Summary: Make sure you add meta tags so your pages look good on search and social media posts!
Additional note: Registering with Google Search Engine will give you statistics as how your website may be trending in Google Search, so it's worth signing up for (it's free): https://search.google.com/search-console/about
More recently, Bing search may also be worth registering for the same reason: https://www.bing.com/webmasters/about
6. Using only GA4 for analytics
Summary: There's more modern analytics options that will give you more information than GA4 currently does.
7. Custom building everything
Summary: Analyze the core features you need in your application to figure out what pre-existing options may already exist.
Blogging? Ghost.org
Ecommerce? Shopify.com
Simple website / portfolio? Squarespace.com
8. Not learning how to make simple copy changes
Summary: Save developer time by making copy changes yourself.
Bonus: Wordpress
Summary: Monolithic, somewhat outdated, and more modern options are available.
Putting it all together:
Starting a technical project as a non-developer may be challenging, but being aware of these tips and tricks can help you start your project in the right direction.
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