As MOHARA’s founder, I’ve gone on a rollercoaster journey from teacher to agency owner to startup venture partner.  And it’s taught me a lot about how to realise the right things in business.

After partnering with more than 25 startups, it became clear that success is a process with solid fundamentals and precise planning. Certainly not always an easy task. Every journey taken to navigate this process will be different, but many things don’t change.

Startups need talented founders and a good idea.

Of course, it is always easier when that good idea is coupled with cash and outstanding execution. The last point is where MOHARA comes in. It can be such a struggle for a new business to find a product that fits its market or vice versa. This is often the reason startups are not able to turn their idea into reality. We help you to do exactly that.

When starting a business, many believe they will achieve their dreams as long as they are passionate enough. As with any other job, a business won’t be a success through passion and hard work alone. It requires skill as well – something most startup founders do not have yet and thus has difficulty executing their ideas. The startup world is not exactly set up to help entrepreneurs succeed. Usually, founders receive some financial support and are then left to their means. Few will succeed and many will fail.

How do you change that?

You change the startup model.

Currently, with startups struggling to monetise their ideas, the UK startup ecosystem is under threat.

Research has indicated that seed funding declined at the early seed stage between 2015 and 2018. As analysed by Mark Suster, the 15% decline can be attributed to the natural maturity reached in the seed market. What is strange, is the fact that a decline in investments has only been apparent in the seed stage. Investor funding has increased across this three-year gap in all other markets. This is a problem for businesses that need early investments to grow.

What do you need?

Startups are also in need of software developers to build their products. Building great products requires a high degree of skill that needs to be acquired over years of training and experience.

For a non-technical founder, the challenge of finding great developers is a real headache. Founders are thrust into a world of unknowns – a world that becomes even harder when you can’t read code. It can be difficult to validate the quality of work that is produced when you find yourself in these circumstances.

A new business will also need user experience/interface (UX/UI) designers, product experts and many other roles that can be extremely hard to fill when wanting to build a great product.

There are more than 10,000 software development startups in the UK.

The UK government has provided a thriving ecosystem and many talented individuals are ready to reach for an opportunity in the startup market. While this is all very exciting, it can be troublesome for investors.

As an example, a business angel with £50,000 to invest across five startups now face a much bigger choice. With the amount of uncertainty about which startups will be successful, these now limited funds face larger risks in their distribution.

So where does that leave you? If you are a startup founder who already has a good skill set and viable idea, the search for a suitable team and investors just got a whole lot harder. You need a viable way to deliver your vision in a world of reduced funding streams.