Home Tech Ecosystem You Got Funded, Now What?

You Got Funded, Now What?

by Neal Bloom

Photo by Per Lööv on Unsplash

You hustled to the point of getting traction. You turned your dream into something profitable. You secured seed capital or Series A financing. 

It’s time to diversify your time/spend and invest in other pieces of the business such as operations, marketing and technology. The steps you take after getting your investment are just as critical as the money you raised.

“You have some important decisions to make around how you’re going to use that money,” said Jared Ruth, Director of Marketing for Cloud, Channel, and Carrier at Cox Business. “Although it may seem like a lot when you get the check, it goes pretty fast.”

As a managed IT and network services provider, Ruth works with small, medium and enterprise-level businesses to help them adopt and optimize technology. With a balance of security, cost and efficiency on the line, our friends at Cox Business recommend three investment areas to help you scale:

Cybersecurity

Your billion-dollar idea can end up on the dark web’s auction block if a hacker gains access. A DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack can take your e-commerce site down and make it look like you went out of business. Startups and small businesses are prime targets for cyber threats, and attacks happen every 12 seconds, according to Tim Ellis, Cloud Solutions Market Leader at Cox Business. Fortunately, there are a myriad of managed cloud and security solutions that act as a robust IT team without having to hire in-house experts. An excellent place to start is investing in network, device and data protection, as well as company-provided hardware for employees.

Edge Computing

There are many ways to power an IoT ecosystem and it can be hard to navigate where to invest for your business. In an age of fast internet, increasing amount of data, remote and hybrid work, low latency solutions such as Edge computing are gaining ground. Instead of calculating everything at a central source, Edge networks process information closer to the user and lighten the load of the entire network. You can use Edge computing to trim operational costs by eliminating expensive processing. Edge also increases security with less opportunity for hackers to intercept data.

IT Architecture

In a startup environment, engineers often become your CTO by default. All their time can easily be tied up in help desk support and fixing laptops. This scope creep drastically slows down your ability to grow. It’s also easy to reach for software in desperation. It can undoubtedly augment, but there isn’t one software to solve day-to-day management as you scale. If you have a small or stretched IT team, the best thing to do is pay for experts to architect a customized solution to meet your digital needs. There is no time to trial software in this competitive landscape and hope it works.

Getting funded may feel like the finish line, but it’s just the beginning with the right people and partners. Engage with Cox Business to support you all the way, on time and on budget, so you can focus on what propels your startup forward. Listen to more of Jared Ruth and Tim Ellis here

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Stay up to date on the latest insights into Orange County's tech community! Highlighting local leaders, connecting the great community and being your "one-stop" for all things technology.