I’m a non-Ivy Leaguer woman founder from Asia. Here’s how I made it in Silicon Valley.

Someone congratulated me on my success a few days ago. It took me a minute to figure out what he was talking about. Last year, we were accepted by 500 startups, which has helped us secure US$2.4 million in seed funding.

That sounds great.

But it took us almost five years to develop and fine-tune my startup Sunshine to work from conception to demos for users and investors. Five long years of developing a solid service, securing funds through B2B sales to keep it rolling, and finally making it big in the global market.

If you’re running a tech-based startup, like I am, you’ll spend years developing your first, second, and third prototypes. You’ll need enough funding to keep development going, manage your staff, and keep the lights on. It’s a stressful journey as we bootstrap and hang on by the skin of our teeth.

Here are five things that kept us funded, growing, and connected during Sunshine’s early days. I think they’re useful for any early-stage startup.

1. Think about your big-picture mission.

What file-sharing felt like in 2009.

When I founded my startup in 2009, smartphone penetration in the US was scraping 26 percent. Back then, file-sharing across devices and platforms was extremely time-consuming and frustrating. For anything over 100MB, file-sharing required USB sticks, online messengers, buggy codecs, or a whole lot of waiting for your files to upload to the cloud.

I’d worked in hardware and software for over 10 years, so I absolutely knew that the need to share large files among multiple devices on multiple operating systems could only grow. It was technically possible, but platform owners like Apple and Samsung were stubborn and wouldn’t open up cross-platform channels.

Dedication to a single mission – and not necessarily a single approach – is why we were able to reach the level of success that we have.

It became my driving mission to create a free file-sharing option that worked across devices and operating systems. Despite increasing storage on mobile devices, faster download speeds, and many other changes in the market, I stuck with that mission.

With no end to the Android-iOS split in sight, my hunch turned out to be right. Dedication to a single mission – and not necessarily a single approach – is why we were able to reach the level of success that we have.

2. Focus resources on developing your MVP – and your team.

Five years ago, I didn’t think I could afford – or even find – highly experienced app developers to work with me. Instead, I worked with freelancers. Between managing them, managing the company, and handling partnerships with B2B clients, I felt completely overwhelmed.

A year later, I finally decided to go all in. I put all my resources into developing a minimum viable product (MVP); we called it ShareOn.

The resulting technology allowed us to start providing B2B services to large companies like Samsung and CJ. Everything we earned went straight back into the company to hire more experienced developers. It was time-consuming and tough, but absolutely necessary to build a stronger team.

3. Bravely seek out the right market for your product

4. Take advice, but the decision should be yours to make.

5. Network heavily – and get introduced to the right people.

Closing thoughts