bootstrapping your startup & building it lean: stop wasting time
Post on 18-Oct-2014
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bootstrapping your startup & building it lean:
stop wasting timeas endured by Joel Gascoigne
How I ended up here
• Developer for 10 years
• Graduate of Computing Systems
• Running 2 startups, some success
• Bootstrapped, no outside investment
• Actively involved with other startups
• Organiser of StartupMill events
myonepage.com/joel
Coming up
• Startups: methodologies & techniques
• Applying what we’ve learned
• Roundup and how to start
Startups
• Some key people
• Learnings
• Specific techniques
People who defined my thinking
• Eric Ries
• Steve Blank
• Sean Ellis
• Dave McClure
• Look these guys up!
Eric RiesThe Lean Startup
• Use of platforms enabled by open source and free software
• Application of agile development methodologies
• Customer-centric rapid iteration
Minimum Viable Product
• Version of a new product which allows you to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort
• Avoid building products nobody wants
• Probably much more minimum than you think
Eric RiesThe Lean Startup
• The “pivot”
• Looking back at the beginnings of successful companies shows they often started as a different idea
• Many examples: PayPal, Flickr, ...
Eric RiesThe Lean Startup
Eric RiesThe Lean Startup
Eric RiesThe Lean Startup
Eric RiesThe Lean Startup
Eric RiesThe Lean Startup
Eric RiesThe Lean Startup
• http://leanpub.com/startuplessonslearned/
• http://startuplessonslearned.com
Steve BlankCustomer Development
Steve BlankCustomer Development
• http://bit.ly/FourSteps
• http://custdev.com
Sean EllisProduct/Market Fit
• Comparing results across over 100 startups, those that struggle have not reached “Product/Market Fit”
• Sean’s metric: ask existing users how they would feel if they could no longer use the product. 40% very disappointed = P/M Fit
• Engage existing and target users to learn how to make your product a “must have”
Sean EllisProduct/Market Fit
Sean EllisProduct/Market Fit
• For more, check outhttp://startup-marketing.com
Dave McClurePirate Metrics
• Acquisition
• Activation
• Retention
• Referral
• Revenue
Dave McClurePirate Metrics
Dave McClurePirate Metrics
• More from Dave McClure:
• http://500hats.typepad.com/
Learning
• Embrace change, avoid assumptions
• “Pivot” & iterate through feedback loop (Eric Ries)
• “Get out of the building” (Steve Blank)
• Strive for Product/Market Fit first (Sean Ellis)
• Use metrics, not opinions (Dave McClure)
Techniques
Techniques
• Testing
• Cloud computing
• Split tests
• Continuous deployment
Testing
• Unit testing
• Acceptance testing
• Automated test suite
Cloud computing
• Cloud storage (Amazon S3, Rackspace CloudFiles)
• Cloud computing (Amazon EC2, Rackspace CloudServers)
• Other services (email, selenium testing)
Split tests
• Test a change against an existing feature
• For example, a new landing page versus the old one
• Show 50% of people the old one and 50% of people the new one, and test the metrics to decide which is better
Continuous deployment
• The time taken for code to be committed to the repository to it being live on the production server is less than 20 minutes
• Code is passed through tests in order to determine whether it should go live
How I see lean, and ways to bootstrap
• Stop wasting time
• Activities aren’t always wrong, just often timed wrong
• Just do it, there are too many reasons not to start
Lean & bootstrapping:my experiences
• 2 things which worked for me
• 2 things I will now always question
• 3 examples of keeping things lean
Worked for me:Open source
• Use a framework, careful with a CMS
• Use a familiar language
• Save learning a new one for a side project which isn’t a business
• Use other people’s code
Worked for me:3rd party services
• It makes no sense to do non-core activities
• Email - sendgrid, mailchimp, ...
• Deployment - beanstalk, github, ...
• Metrics - mixpanel, KISSmetrics, ...
• Feedback - uservoice, GetSatisfaction, ...
• Hosting - AWS, Rackspace, Heroku, ...
I will always question:delaying a launch
• I didn’t think I was ready to launch OnePage or Buffer when I did
• OnePage - 4 months
• Buffer - 7 weeks
• “be notified when we’re ready” works well
• Users are very forgiving
• Question every feature
I’ll always question:“closed beta”
• “closed beta” for far too long with OnePage
• No closed beta for Buffer
• Use it only when it makes sense
• You have people desperate to see what you built next
• You have a very clever social hook
Keeping things lean:Launching incrementally
• Start small, measure throughout
• Example: Buffer
• Started with “coming soon” page
• Added full landing page, no other pages
• Then added pricing page, still no app
• Finally added the app
Keeping things lean:No fancy signup process
• Buffer has no signup process yet
• Launching it without was scary
• Pleasantly surprised with outcome
• Better to launch, measure conversions and then build a better signup process
Keeping things lean:Integrating PayPal
• PayPal has a feature to allow you to automatically switch a user’s account level in your app when they make a payment
• Maybe considered necessary, I launched without implementing it
• Better to spend the time getting the first customer
Act tomorrow:Starting from scratch
• Keep your MVP minimal
• Don’t get carried away with code
• Measure before you build more
• Focus on qualitative feedback
Act tomorrow:Already launched?
• Add in actionable metrics (Dave McClure)
• Lots of traffic? Start split testing
• Check out Optimizely.com
Thanks!Get in touch: myonepage.com/joel
Avoid assumptions
Question everything
Test everything