"If you build it, he will come" - Field of Dreams

In the film it rang true. However, in the world of tech startups, in my experience, this is a load of bollocks!

Unless you're either very lucky or you (your investors) have very deep pockets it's one hell of a hard slog.

You can build the best product with what you think has a great feature set and user experience and fool yourself into thinking the enquiries will come flooding in. Alas! This ain't gonna happen, all you’ll hear is the sound of silence.

For it to be a success, reality has to take a hold. Get the message out there, network, market and sell (that doesn’t mean shove your product down someone’s throat, it means ask the right questions that unearth their problem to which you may be able to offer a solution). Get out of your comfort zone (I have done writing this) and use platforms like LinkedIn for sound advice and ideas, speak with people you respect in business who have been there and done it, do whatever you need to do, but don’t do nothing.

We created Mitingu because we saw an opportunity to offer businesses a piece of software that made building great looking event sites and comms on brand without any technical knowledge required. It’s taken us over 4 years (some great, some bad) to get proper traction and we’ve only just begun. If I’d known then what I know now would I do it again? Who knows? Maybe not, but one thing I won’t do is give up.