When we interact with customers who are in the startup phase, they may be at several stages. They may be in prototype mode, they may be working to obtain a certification (from the FAA, for example) or they may be in the transition to mass-producing the product. Does it matter what phase a company is in for us to assist them?
The short answer is: it depends. We can certainly offer valuable insight(s) no matter what phase a company is in, but what phase they are in may determine short vs long-term goals.
For example, if a company is at the prototype phase, we would most likely concentrate on assisting them with getting more out of their current design staff, and next looking at the phase(s) that would get them from prototypes to pilots to actual manufacturing. If a company is in the certification phase, we would tend to look at how they document their current processes and genealogy to ensure a smoother path with the regulators. And so on.
In our next part of this series, we will look at some of the specific challenges that startups can (and are) facing at different phases of their development.
If any of you reading this have examples of things that you have seen in the past with startups in different phases, please feel free to comment.
