Scale a Startup and Save Costs with a Technical Delivery Partner

Scale a Startup and Save Costs with a Technical Delivery Partner

RSK: The Dependable Technical Delivery Partner for Startups

“Growth is all about adding percentages here and there around the business… growth is normally a factor of turnover… scaling is different. It is a process driven approach to growth. No longer is the business concerned with growth for growth’s sake, but only with growth which can be managed.” — Mihir Thaker

Conventionally, it is thought that the bigger the business, the better it is. However, now, it is not only purely about growth for growth’s sake. Business growth reasons may be for revenue growth, geographic expansion, or better returns to the stakeholders. Startups should focus more on scaling up that yields sustainable growth rather than one time growth.

ChowNow, a food delivery company started in 2011 in the USA and presently having 36% market share, recently surpassed 8,000 restaurant clients. ChowNow scaled their customer acquisition process by serving partners’ takeout and delivery customers directly through their partners’ own websites and white-labeled, native mobile apps. ChowNow is planning to process $400 million in orders from 3.8 million customers over the next year. Had those orders gone through a marketplace like Grubhub, restaurants would lose nearly $100 million in commission charges.^[1]

“Our goal is to provide restaurants with the tools to compete in an increasingly technical world. We help them get online quickly and easily so they can maintain direct relationships with their diners. Restaurateurs focus on the quality of their food and service, we arm them with the tools needed to compete,”

—ChowNow co-founder and CEO Chris Webb.

Scaling up a business demands different leadership; it is more about having a particular mindset. This is where a Technical Delivery Partner plays a crucial role in scaling up. Startups have to utilise scarce resources like time, money, manpower resources, etc. A Technical Delivery Partner addresses all these issues very efficiently and allows the firm to focus on where the need to focus: providing value to the customers.

What challenges do startups face?

The following are the challenges faced by startups across the world:

1. Investment or cash flow

Investment is the number one priority for any business. Businesses make money either from sales or from investors. So, after a point, investors’ money will exhaust and the business has to survive purely on sales. Healthy cash flow or capital are required for product development, office space, adding manpower, marketing, etc. Further, infrastructure costs for physical premise, network scalability, server space, and software and hardware must also be given due prominence since they are critical for a business’ growth and success.

2. Poor marketing/ sales

Many startups fail because they forget, or are not entirely dedicated to, marketing and sales. To bring notice of the company to its potential customers requires marketing and it has to be done from level zero.

3. Lack of planning

Lack of planning plays a key role in startups going bust. A company must plan for contingencies mainly, and it should allow for business surprises. Time management, or having the right priorities in a startup can make or break the business.

“Adventure is just bad planning”

― Amundsen

4. Finding the right people

Forming the right team or finding the right people is critical for a startup. Recruitment is a very time consuming and tedious process. In fact, recruitment is also a skill, and the Founders invariably lack this skill. So,most of the recruitments are by trial and error.

“The secret to successful hiring is this: look for the people

who want to change the world.”

― Marc Benioff, Salesforce CEO

Startups lack experience in most aspects of decision making in a business. Very few startups are fortunate to have founders who have experience in understanding statutory compliances, managing the team, and handling sales and marketing.

Another challenge is what to do or how to react when the products and services have got some traction going. The customers may demand improvements or updates in the existing product, or the demand for products may increase rapidly because of easy acceptance. So, scaling up impacts all aspects of an organisation: the Founders, the HR, administration, payroll, technical services support, etc.

Startups need to guard themselves against poor management because what helped them achieve success in the initial stages may not help them during scaling up. This mainly boils down to building a team, or forming a new team that is Agile and aggressive.

Having a trustworthy and dependable Technical Delivery Partner helps in mitigating most of the above problems.

“You need three things to create a successful startup: to start with good people, to make something customers actually want, and to spend as little money as possible.”

― Paul Graham

What does a Technical Delivery Partner do?

A Technical Delivery Partner handles infrastructure costs, recruitment and experience on the startup’s behalf, and majorly focuses on controlling the costs. They have delivery centres, and they also offer 24×7 service if it is required.

More importantly, a Technical Delivery Partner has deep skills and experience in forming infrastructure-related work, and has the proven tools, methods and processes for carrying out work consistently. Further, startups can reduce the risk through remote support, and also reduce data centre operating costs.

How can RSK help?

RSK undertakes key aspects of business development such as IT procurement, software license management, communication expense management, process outsourcing management, and more.

RSK serves four main areas which can help scale a startup:

1. Low Investment
2. Zero Infrastructure
3. Technical Expertise
4. Agile Project Development

The technical experts at RSK speed up the process of providing top-quality products to your customers. The team of talented IT employees work for your company on a contract and provide you with the support you need to get your minimum viable product (MVP) out at a much lower price.

“It is not about ideas. It is about making ideas happen.”

— Scott Belsky

Make your ideas happen… only with RSK! Contact us today!

^[1] “ChowNow Market Share and Competitor Report … – Datanyze.” https://www.datanyze.com/market-share/food-ordering-and-delivery/chownow-market-share. Accessed 28 Jul. 2019.