STARTING A TECH COMPANYDrupal Consulting, Development, and Training

evolvingweb.ca | @evolvingweb

ABOUT US

ABOUT US

• Started doing web development 2005/06

• First projects: mcgillexchange.com, vconf.ca

• Founded Evolving Web in 2007

• Started using Drupal in 2008

• Recent projects: McGill, Travelocity, GoC

WHAT WE DO

DRUPAL EXPERTS Develop and Maintained Drupal Modules,

Implement Large-Scale Drupal Projects

MATURE DEV PROCESSTesting, Configuration Management, Cloud Deployment,

Performance, Failover, Monitoring, Version Control

PROJECT MANAGEMENTAgile Methodology, Iterative Development, Knowledge Transfer,

Customized Project Management Workflow

TRAINING PROGRAMWe do Drupal training, you should come!

evolvingweb.ca/training

RECENT PROJECTS

TRAVELOCITY CMSMultilingual, Integration with Proprietary E-Commerce,

Cloud Deployment, Custom SEO Strategy

MCGILL ADMISSIONS PORTALComplex Multi-step Form UI, Admin Workflow

MCGILL COURSE CALENDARAdvanced Search UI, Multisite Architecture, Knowledge Transfer

A&E TELEVISION NETWORKCustom UI for Content Producers, Social Media Integration,

Quiz UI for Engagement Platform, Customized Analytics

DRUPAL SUNOnline Feed Reader, One-page JS App, Advanced Search, Responsive Design

WHY START A TECH COMPANY?

• You get to work for yourself

• You get to learn new stuff all the time

• It’s good for your career

GETTING YOUR BUSINESS STARTED

STEP 1: CONSULTING VS. PRODUCT

Product

• You get to define the product

• You make the mistakes

Consulting

• Get experience

• Learn from your clients’ mistakes

STEP 2: YOUR IDEA

• Probably not as valuable/original as you think

• Don’t keep your ideas secret

• Refine and iterate your idea

• Don’t ignore people with the same idea

STEP 3: FIND A CO-FOUNDER

You’re probably not good at everything, so find a co-founder with complimentary skills:

• Startup Drinks

• Notman House Events

• Starupifier

• Hacking Health

STEP 4: MAKE IT OFFICIAL

Sole proprietorship

• Really easy to set up

• One tax return

Incorporation

• Only slightly harder to set up

• You have to do a separate tax return

• Easier to get certain loans, contracts with big companies

STEP 5: MONEY, MONEY, MONEY

Before you start making money:

• Get a good accountant

• Register for a GST/QST account

• Keep all your receipts

STEP 6: FINANCING

• Bootstrap by doing consulting

• Grants for young entrepreneurs (Desjardins)

• Lots of tax credits in Quebec (R&D)

• Yes Montreal

• Keep your expenses low (you’re a student!)

STEP 7: HIRING YOUR FIRST EMPLOYEE

• Work with freelancers

• Know what you need them to do

• Get time estimates

• Document everything

TECHNOLOGY CONSULTING

BUILD YOUR PORTFOLIO

It’s important to create a strong portfolio:

• Do good work for free

• Turn away clients who you don’t want in your portfolio

• Do personal projects that show what you can do

SELECTING CLIENTS

Don’t take on just any project. Be picky!

• Does the project fit with your technology niche?

• Does the client share your values?

• Is the project interesting to you?

• Will the project be successful?

• Don’t try and build a facebook-linkedin clone

• If something sounds unreasonable, don’t be afraid to say no

• http://theoatmeal.com/comics/websites_stop

MANAGING EXPECTATIONS

ESTIMATION & PROJECT SCOPING

• Try not to estimate too much at once (break up work into smaller pieces)

• Estimation requires experience, you will underestimate everything at first

• Lots of extraneous factors

BOOKS ABOUT ESTIMATION

• The Mythical Man Month

• Making Things Happen

• Pragmatic Programmer

• Code Complete

NEGOTIATION & PRICING

• Use a contract, but keep it simple

• Don’t charge too little just to get a project

• Don’t negotiate with people who are way more aggressive than you

TECHNOLOGY

BENEFITS OF OPEN SOURCE

• Be part of an open source community

• Collaborate with others, write better code

• You get to use code that other people write

OPEN SOURCE CULTURE

• Share your ideas

• Share your code

• Share your business plan

• Prompt others to share with you

SHARE YOUR CODE!

FOLLOW BEST PRACTICES

• Documentation

• Version Control

• Use an Issue Tracker

USE THE RIGHT TECHNOLOGY

• Use the right tool for the job

• Use technologies that you know

• Don’t use really obscure technologies

DON’T NEGLECT....

MARKETING

• Social Media

• Your LinkedIn Account

• Get Business Cards

• Go to Conferences & Present

• Start Now!

DESIGN

• It’s important!

• People don’t know what your code looks like, they see the design

WRITING

• Emails, marketing material, blog posts, grant proposals, project proposals

• Good writing makes you sound professional & experienced

TECH COMMUNITY

NETWORKING ADVICE

• Everyone is a potential partner, client, customer, or recruit

• You will probably work with people who you meet at McGill

• Learn how to talk about your business idea and how to ask good questions

NETWORKING EVENTS

• New Tech Demo• Startup Drinks• Starupifier• CleanTech• Girl Geek Events• Hacking Health

• JS Meetup• Python Meetup• PHP Quebec• Drupal Meetup• Open Data

TECH VENUES

• Notman House (notman.org)

• Station C (station-c.com)

• The SAT (sat.qc.ca)

• RPM Montreal (rpm.startupcentre.ca)

RESOURCES

• http://montrealtechwatch.com

• http://nextmontreal.com

• http://mtlnewtech.tumblr.com (calendar)

WORDS OF WISDOM

• Avoid burn-out, stay healthy

• Don’t waste time, be critical of what you spend time on

• Parallelize your efforts. Don’t put all your energy into one project.

Drupal Consulting, Development, and Trainingevolvingweb.ca | @evolvingweb