A few months ago, I had the pleasure of attending South by Southwest (SXSW) with my company, OSSCube – A Division of Happiest Minds. For those who don’t know, the week-long annual festival in Austin, Texas involves vendors and exhibitors from all corners of the globe. pided into film, music, and tech, you can catch musical performances from some of the industry’s biggest names, and most exciting new acts. You can also take in a film premier or panel with various industry gurus. Tens of thousands of people flock to Austin every year for this event and, to put it lightly, this is always a crazy week.
As a service provider, OSSCube – A Division of Happiest Minds, exhibited at the SXSW Interactive Tradeshow along with vendors from every business sector you can think of. From Post-it, to NASA, to hundreds of other tech-focused companies, any product you could need to grow a brand was there. I learned very quickly that startups are not only one of the biggest audiences at SXSW, but an audience with the greatest need for products that can adapt to frequent change and grow rapidly with them.
I wasn’t the only one who noticed.
South by Southwest has recently begun “taking their show on the road” and holding smaller niche events across the country; the most recent of these being SXSW V2V in Las Vegas, Nevada. V2V will focus on the startup community, and teaching them how to grow a business through all of the connections SXSW can offer. There will be keynotes, panels, learning sessions, and several days of information-stuffing for sure. The event will help startups in ways that their employees can’t possibly imagine.
OSSCube – A Division of Happiest Minds, won’t be exhibiting at SXSW V2V this year, but we know that service providers can be an important part of a startup’s growth; and while choosing a service provider is never easy, that’s why we’re sharing our top reasons for working with one.
1. One-Stop-Shop
Investors are like angels to new projects, and you can think of a service provider as sort of a central nervous system. When a business needs technical functionality- whether it’s an internal CRM, website and CMS, mobile app, or anything else you can think of- it comes through a service provider. This is great because every service provider has a hand-picked set of platforms that they are experts in working with. These products all work well together, and the team assigned to you will have experience custom-fitting clients with an exact product line for their needs.
Summary: You only have one phone number to call when you need something done.
2. Scaleability
Startups can be wild and unpredictable. The path to success in business is not routine, and solution providers are equipped to handle this. Equipped with multi-talented developers, teams can be expanded or scaled-down at a moment’s notice. When a big donation comes in, or funding runs a little bare, there is a solution; all without ever having to worry about physical bodies shuffling in and out of the office. Bonus: As your company grows, service providers can often offer in-house developers if you need them, and serve as a full IT department so you never have to worry about a complicated and tiresome hiring process.
Summary: The manpower to complete any task is available to you at all times, and can eventually be your whole IT department.
3. Help when you need it
This last one may be the most important aspect of choosing a service provider. There are so many options to choose from, but some can offer more—in terms of business— than just a team of developers. If you find a service provider that’s willing to treat you as a partner, keep them close. After working with clients in a myriad of industries, project managers are knowledgeable about business trends and often have friends in high places. If you find a service provider with a small business staff you’re likely to be able to build a strong relationship with them, and get some very useful advice for growing a startup successfully.
Summary: Find a service provider that can offer you more than developed services.
So there you have it; our top three reasons for startups to work with a service provider. For those who don’t get to attend V2V (and also for those who do) we hope this advice will help you on your journey to building a successful startup. The road may be long but these tips might make it a little less difficult.
Did you attend V2V? Do you have some great pointers about working with startups? Leave a comment below. We’d love to hear!
Balaji has spent over 18 years in the IT Services Industry. With an experience encompassing Services and Product Marketing, he has successfully managed globally distributed Marketing and Product teams. He’s an analytical marketer with strong understanding and experience across marketing strategy, demand generation, field marketing, technology partner marketing, account based marketing, digital marketing, event management, analysis and third party relationship, PR/Media, people management, etc.
