3 Smart, Strategic Ways To Weather This Volatile Economy

Here’s something you might not know about me: Entrepreneurship runs in my family. 

My dad has run a manufacturing business for decades, and growing up, I saw firsthand what happens when external forces impact your business. I’ve been lucky enough to sit at the kitchen table with him while he explained business scenarios. He walked me through how he framed challenges and the plans he had to address them.  

Truly, my dad is my hero. I’m so blessed to have had him as a mentor, thought partner, and best friend to teach me how to navigate the world, personally and professionally.  

Trade wars, tariffs, supply chain shocks—they’re not just headlines; they’re real-world gut punches and businesses have dealt with them for decades. The Chicken Tariff War of the 1960s; the 1987 Trade War with Japan; Canada-U.S. Lumber Wars; the 1993 Banana Wars; the 2002 Steel Tariff – we’ve been here before.

I remember a few years back when tariffs on Chinese imports hit. The raw materials he and many other businesses across the country relied on nearly doubled in cost, and overnight were faced with tough calls on staffing, pricing, and product lines.

So when I talk with founders navigating today’s economic climate—where volatility feels like the default setting—I get it. It was dinner table conversation at our house growing up!

But there are ways to navigate it, and some of them are surprisingly evergreen.

3 Evergreen Ways To Navigate A Volatile Economy When You Work In Tech

1. Stay Scrappy, Even After You Fundraise

Getting a few million dollars in your startup’s bank account can feel like a green light to build big, fast. But in volatile economies, discipline is your best asset. Overhiring or locking in expensive full-time roles can sink you when market conditions change. Click To Tweet

Instead, keep your team lean and only hire for roles critical to your core operations. Use fractional or contract talent for everything else—marketing, finance, legal, even engineering. At Neutech, we’ve seen startups stay nimble and efficient by leveraging fractional CTOs, bookkeepers, and developers. One founder we worked with shaved 30% off their burn rate by replacing a full-time dev hire with a Neutech engineer on a scoped monthly engagement.

Actionable Step: Review your org chart and overhead. Ask yourself: If revenue dropped 30% next month, who and what would you absolutely need to keep the lights on? Build from there. Click To Tweet If you’d like to dive into this concept in a deeper way, I’d suggest the book Profit First by Mike Michalowicz is a fantastic read.

2. Raise More Than You Think You Need

Fundraising is harder when capital is tight. VCs are more cautious, LPs are more selective, and the days of “just enough runway” are gone. Your best defense? Raise more money than you think you need, and be ready to justify it!

That doesn’t mean spend more—it means plan for delayed sales milestones, longer hiring cycles, and unexpected development hiccups. If you raise conservatively and fall short on revenue, you’ll find yourself back in the pitch deck grind during an even more challenging market. Worse, your valuation may take a hit if your metrics don’t meet expectations.

We recently advised a founder who was considering a modest $1.5M raise. After mapping out realistic sales timelines and potential economic drag, they raised $2.5M instead. That buffer gave them a full extra year of runway and let them build without panic-fundraising halfway through.

Actionable Step: When you model your raise, add 6–12 months of buffer runway. Then model how you’d operate with 20% less revenue than forecasted. Could you still hit key milestones?

3. Don’t Just Build Fast—Build Right

It’s tempting to start building as soon as the wire hits your account. But without clear product-market fit, strong scoping, and thoughtful validation, you risk wasting precious time and money. (This is why we always say we help our clients build Minimum Viable Sellable Products – we’re in there with you doing the validation!)

Volatile economies punish wasted effort. You don’t want to burn $1M building the wrong thing because you skipped discovery and assumed instead of interviewed. Pause. Validate. Then build.

At Neutech, we help founders work through discovery sprints that include stakeholder interviews, early prototypes, and alignment workshops. You’d be surprised how many startups pivot direction before they write a line of code—and how much money that saves them.

Actionable Step: Before you start building, ask: 

• Have I spoken to at least 10 potential users about this exact problem? 

• Have I mapped the user journey? 

• Does my tech stack support future scalability?

The Big Picture: Tech Thrives When It’s Grounded

Yes, the economy is volatile. But this isn’t the first time tech has weathered turbulence. After the dot-com bust, the strongest companies were the ones that stayed lean, validated their markets, and doubled down on delivering real customer value. The 2008 recession gave rise to Airbnb, WhatsApp, and Uber—all companies that solved urgent, real-world problems with smart, nimble teams.

This moment is no different. Founders who stay grounded, make deliberate choices, and build with discipline will come out ahead.

If you need help tightening up your build strategy, reducing overhead, or planning your next raise, we do this every day with founders just like you. Let’s talk.

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