how to bootstrap your idea when you are a developer
DESCRIPTION
Presentation by @ndeverge and @bluxte about the launch of their products (http://teammood.com and http://actoboard.com). Presented at the Toulouse JUG.TRANSCRIPT
HOW TO BOOTSTRAP YOUR IDEA
when you are a developer
Toulouse JUG - 16/05/2013
WHO ARE WE
Nicolas Deverge@ndeverge
Working @ ekito as Software Developer & Agile Facilitator
Micro-entrepreneur at night
Sylvain Wallez@bluxte
Freelance Software Developer & Architect
Compulsive startuper
THE PROBLEMAs a developer, I have a kickass idea and I don't know how to
start*
* apart from coding the whole project with the coolest frameworks
VALIDATE THE IDEA
"If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses."
Henry Ford
LEANSTARTUP TO THE RESCUE
"We must learn what customers really want, not what they say they want or what we think they should want"
@ericries
LET'S TEST THE IDEABuild a first Minimum Viable Product to collect feedback
THE LANDING PAGE
THE ARCHITECTURE
ARE YOU KIDDING ?
ARE YOU KIDDING ?T!"#M$$%A Playframework 2 app
containing static HTML pages and storing emails in a Google Form.
A&'$b$"r%Not even Play! Just static HTML
+ Google Form
ARE YOU KIDDING ?T!"#M$$%A Playframework 2 app
containing static HTML pages and storing emails in a Google Form.
A&'$b$"r%Not even Play! Just static HTML
+ Google Form
Could have been Rails / Django or whatever geeky technology*
* Nope, JPA + EJB + JSF are not the best technologies for building a landing page
SERIOUSLY, GOOGLE FORM ?Yeah, you did read right !
No database (NoNoSQL)
SERIOUSLY, GOOGLE FORM ?Yeah, you did read right !
No database (NoNoSQL)
New trendy concept !!
HOSTING★ Free cloud based hosting
★ Heroku
★ Cloudbees
★ OpenShift
★ And many more
★ For static websites
★ Amazon S3
★ Github
★ Cheap hosting
★ OVH (kimsufi)
HEROKU EXAMPLEFirst deploy in 15mn top !
1. Create an account on heroku.com : 5mn
2. Download and install the Heroku Toolbelt tool : 5mn
3. Then :
Done !
$> cd /path_to_your_project
$> heroku create
$> git push heroku master
THE LANDING PAGE - COSTS
A theme on http://wrapbootstrap.com 6$
A domain name 10$
Hosting on Heroku free
Some passionate time to build it priceless !!
THE LANDING PAGE - COSTSYou're up and ready for 16$
Equivalent to
THE LANDING PAGE - COSTSYou're up and ready for 16$
Equivalent to
Tough choice...
TOOLS YOU MAY NEED FOR UITwitter BootstrapFoundation
ThemesBootswatch (free)Wrapbootstrap (not free)ThemeForest (not free)
TOOLS YOU MAY NEED FOR UIColor schemekuler - 1pxdeep
Some iconsFont-AwesomeIcoMoon
Nice fontsGoogle WebFonts
TOOLS YOU MAY NEED FOR UI
ANNOUNCE
In 24 hours★ About 400 unique visitors★ About 70 registrations
MEASUREGoogle AnalyticsKissMetricsMixPanel
THE BEST TOOL EVERDon't forget to put a notebook on your nightstand !
Warning: may prevent sleeping...
THE BEST TOOL EVERDon't forget to put a notebook on your nightstand !
Warning: may prevent sleeping...
Or in the shower
THE BEST COMMUNICATION TOOL
Email !
Users generally do not consider your messages as spam
Tools to build awesome emails, manage lists (un/subscribe), analytics about a campaign
FAST ROUND-TRIP TECHNOLOGIES
Playframework• Simple full stack framework
Angular JS + JAX-RS• REST server• One-page HTML+JS front-end
BOOKS
YES YOU CAN!Got idea and a bit of free time? Start now!You will:• learn new things• enjoy doing your stuff• meet new people
The riskiest thing: success!