(Image from jakeandlindsay)

There are different ways to go about starting (“How”) your idea/venture, these methods get intertwined in different times, but this is a general division of them.

The how

Give me the money

Try getting money from traditional investors (VC/Angel/Family and Friends) as fast as possible to get the idea going.

Get me those users

Try getting it out there as fast as possible, and getting users as fast as possible, that will grow into sustainable revenue.

To the crowd and beyond

Try crowdsourcing your idea, receiving money from the crowds.

Partner down

Find a partner (usually technical) to do most of the work for you, for free (or for minimal wage) + precentage of the business.

Partner up

Find a company that is interested in your idea, and form a partnership with them, this can either be a financial partnership, or a technical one.

The Methods of Execution

And while you are starting, there are different perspectives on how you should do it (“Method of Execution”).

I want it all

Create a full blown spec, cut no corners and go straight to a finished product.

Down to basics

Try going the MVP (“Minimum Viable Product”) route, by doing only the essential core of the idea.

Usability is everything

Invest heavily on the UI/UX parts, and don’t put emphasis on the functionality.

Down to the very basics

Formulate the idea in a different way that is way more basic (e.g. “Car driving directions app for mobile”, translated to you hiring cheap people to do the actual navigation directions manually)

A lot of times, the method of execution you select dictates how you should go about starting it. Which means you should first focus on the “Method of Execution” before “How” you are going to do it.

For example, if you decided that you “Want it all”, it usually means you will need to give up on trying to “Get those users”, or if you decided to go “Down to the very basics” then you should probably “Get those users” as fast as possible.

It might sound counter-intuitive, but that will provide better results than trying to go the other way around (you might be fishing for money from VC’s, when all you need is to put a simple website in 1 day to get those users…).

Also, I don’t believe there is a single correct answer for what is the best method of execution is or how you should go about executing it, some ideas can’t lift above the ground if they are not “very complete” (e.g. the ‘iPhone’, a space rocket), while others might just need the bare metal to get going (e.g. Consulting on how to eat right), and like everything, there are exceptions (some crowdfunding projects raised more than VC’s and allowed going the "Want it all" path).

My suggestion is to usually to go bottom-top:

Can I just do the very basics?

Damn, I can’t, so maybe just if I focus on making it something very sexy, will it be enough?

Darn it, I’m going to need to throw in some functionality in, let’s go MVP

This rocket will just not fly (why the hell are you building a rocket?!) if we don’t make it perfect

I also created a small diagram on how I see the method of execution correlates with the “how” in my eyes (5 means strong correlation, 1 means small correlation):

Just a quick but very important tip: 90% of the ideas I encoutered could be executed very well in the first two steps (Very Basics/Nice UI), not even get to the MVP, which means they don't require any real funding, just you getting it out there.

To sum it up, you have your grand idea, you evaluated it and you just picked the execution mode and how you are going to do it.

Next up I will get my hands dirty, and run through the whole cycle - find idea, evaluate it, find the how and the execution method.