- 1) The Birth of Software
- 2) Custom Development for Businesses and Startups
- 3. Reasons Why Some Startups Avoid Custom Development
- 4) Best Software Development Strategies for Startups
- Set Your Priorities
- Simple User Interface
- Address the Bugs at the Initial Stages
- Quality Assurance should never stop
- Sign a Deal with a Development Agency
- Final Thoughts
1) The Birth of Software
It was 1948 when the first “software” was born. Tom Kilburn was the person who wrote this very first software program. It was then stored on Manchester Baby Computer at the University of Manchester.
Google called it the “birth of software.”
Since 1948, software development has come a very long way – it has evolved more than anticipated. Back then, all the processes were manual, but now we hardly see any manual processes in businesses.
Even small businesses today use software to make their processes easier, faster, and more accurate. But that’s not all why custom development evolved.
The main reason behind continuous improvement was the need to minimize human intervention in sensitive and tedious calculations. The improvement continued until we could finally rely on software rather than humans.
And today, we see almost every little electronic device is programmed to perform certain operations. We now call the software by different names, such as apps or programs. But essentially, any program stored on electronic memory to perform specific tasks is essentially software.
2) Custom Development for Businesses and Startups
Many businesses worldwide, regardless of their size or model, rely heavily on custom development today. Now, customized web development is not just one process. It takes multiple complex procedures to be coherent and logical to make just one software.
We will focus more on software development services for startups for now. But moving on, let’s find out the essential steps in which any development company breaks down its processes.
Whether it’s the development of a turnkey software program or custom software, development companies generally break down the process into four steps.
These steps are:
- Design
- Build
- Test
- Launch
More than the steps, you can consider them the four different stages of custom development. Each set has several mini processes and tasks that help reach the target results.
Now, coming straight to the point – what are the best development strategies for startups?
So, to list down only the most relevant strategies, we had to shortlist two critical factors:
- Business model and maturity of the business
- Software Category
3. Reasons Why Some Startups Avoid Custom Development
Several reasons become a deciding factor as to why businesses choose to go with turnkey or platform software. Some of these reasons are:
- Limited budget at the start of business
- A gap in the operations while the software is in the development
- The risk that the company will not be able to utilize the custom software to the fullest
But there is a way when there is a will.
We are sharing tips to get custom software and not break the bank as a startup. Because when it comes to a startup, selecting the right app and web development strategy is one of the success-defining decisions.



4) Best Software Development Strategies for Startups
When you are a startup, you have to face one or the other constraints – time or budget. But, no matter how long it takes for a professional software development company to develop your custom software – it’s always worth waiting.
Because it’s always better to start fully prepared than to go with hit-and-trial methods.
The same goes for the budget. But, again, it’s better to wait if you don’t have enough budget than to spend the little money on something you would later regret.
Also, as we promised, we will share some tips that can save you from going all-in and not being able to survive as a startup. So, here they are.
1. Set Your Priorities
When it comes to setting priorities, you may want to consider the goals of your business. You cannot keep all the plans on the high-priority list. There must be some elements that can be dealt with later when you have more control and stability in the business.
The important thing here is to identify your business’s goals and then prioritize them rationally. Then, once you are done with the goals and their priorities, it’s time to cater to the most important ones.
For example, your startup aims to provide financial services to small businesses. In such a startup, your priority for custom software should be to incorporate basic finance-related programs.
The elements you think are required to start things are the ones to focus on at this stage because the best part about custom software programs is that they can constantly be enhanced or customized when there is a need.
2. Simple User Interface
If you are planning your custom software to look like the one that Facebook or Apple uses, you may fail to do so. Because, again, as a startup, your priorities should be all set. The first thing you need to identify about the user interface for your software is not the design but the actual usability.
It should not be too complex and should not use technology people are unaware of. The two users must always be on your mind – your employees, who will become the firsthand user of the software, and your customers – who will ultimately utilize your services through that software.
The interface must include all the things required to keep these two users worry-free. But, at the same time, your design considerations for the software and how it must look can always be addressed later.
3. Address the Bugs at the Initial Stages
This is one of the tips that you will hear from many professional software development companies. Unfortunately, no software on earth is built free of bugs. It doesn’t matter who develops the software; once it is launched, there will be bugs. However, these bugs can be minimized if you consult a firm specializing in developing custom software.
The question here is why one should be worried about these bugs at the initial stage.
That’s because if you don’t get the bugs identified and fixed, you may suffer an even more significant loss than now. When your business is already up and running and the bugs are identified, things can get quite complicated later.
Also, if thorough testing is not done of the custom software and any customers find out a big, you may be making a wrong impression there.
4. Quality Assurance should never stop
Similar to addressing the bugs, you should never stop the quality assurance process for your custom software. One reason for that is the continuously changing dynamics of technology. For example, it is possible that your software was developed on an architecture that goes outdated soon. In such scenarios, updating the architecture to stay up to the mark is highly recommended.
Continuous quality assurance of the software also allows you to explore the full potential of the developed software.
5. Sign a Deal with a Development Agency
This doesn’t mean that you have to pay a software firm every month. On the contrary, there are many different ways to avail you of instant help from a professional software development company.
Don’t consider the development of custom software a one-time deal. Because it is always better to let the same developers manage and maintain the software developed from scratch.
It may seem like a good idea to say your goodbyes to the company that built the software for you to save some costs. But it always is better to have them ready for you. And that can be done when you sign a deal with them for your software’s management and upkeep.

Final Thoughts
Software development is not an easy process. And as we mentioned, it is a collection of several complex processes.
So, when you want to develop custom software, never make any decisions in a hurry.
The first thing to do is identify your goals and then set their priorities. Then there is quality assurance, maintenance, and upkeeping of the software. These considerations are essential when you are a startup looking for custom software for your business.