Successful Startups

“Success is not a coincidence…”

Agenda• Finding the Next Big Thing

• Building the A-Team

• Kinnevo

• Metrics

• Traction vs Friction

• Apps I <3

Be a visionary…

Rules of a Creators Life

• Do more Than what you’re told to do

• Try New Things

• Teach Others About What you Know

• Make Work Into Play

• Take Breaks

• Work When Others Are Resting

• Always Be Creating

• Make your Own Inspiration

• Love What You Do, Or Leave• Create things to make people more useful, not more useless

“Passion to solve a problem, not passion

for an idea”..

Idea

Solution

Idea

Solution

Idea

Idea

Idea

Be your own customer…

Building the A-team(Avenger

s)

Expert

Successful Team• Collection of skills

• The guiding rule here is to keep it small.

• The more people you have, the more time spent managing them.

• Smart group of three to five people, that get along well.

• Your team must be passionately committed to the cause of creating your project.

• Passion doesn't mean fanaticism

• Work Smart not Hard

Who leads?• What is leading anyway?

• Leading is anything that keeps the mod moving forward in a semi-coordinated way towards a shared goal.

• Nobody leads or creative anarchy model

• Here, the people with the most drive and creativity (those who crank out the most work) lead by default, simply because they are doing stuff. They are making the project go forward by virtue of their own drive. If they slack off or take a break, others take up the challenge.

• A leader leads

• One person (or a subset of the team) calls the shots and leads the mod development.

• Everybody leads model

• War StoriesIMO, ELM works least. Sapphire Scar for Doom 3 had this model: the team started off well, and a lot of work was done, but every time some one did not like something a new poll would pop up on the forums and create a massive 5 page talk. Only use this model if you live near each other, as ELM can kill a team, and a project. —Adam McKern

• In this model, everyone on the team has an equal voice. It can be successful if everyone both contributes but also most importantly respects the opinions of their team mates. As soon as you begin to resent or dislike the work or opinion of a team mate, you will inevitably begin to see yourself as being superior to them.

Productivity

Pressure Driven Motivation vs Passion

Driven Motivation• Pressure Driven Motivation:

• Deadlines

• Passion Driven Motivation:

• Milestones

Método Kinnevo

• Explorar

• Descubrir

• Experimentar

• Ejecutar

Método Kinnevo?

Método Científico!

• Observar

• Generar Hipótesis

• Experimentar

• Concluir

• Observar

• Generar Hipótesis

• Experimentar

• Concluir

• Observar

• Generar Hipótesis

• Experimentar

• Concluir

• Observar

• Generar Hipótesis

• Experimentar

• Concluir

• Observar

• Generar Hipótesis

• Experimentar

• Concluir

• Observar

• Generar Hipótesis

• Experimentar

• Concluir

• Observar

• Generar Hipótesis

• Experimentar

• Concluir

• Observar

• Generar Hipótesis

• Experimentar

• Concluir

• Observar

• Generar Hipótesis

• Experimentar

• Concluir

• Observar

• Generar Hipótesis

• Experimentar

• Concluir

Metrics

• “You Can't Manage What You Don't Measure” - Deming

• "There is no substitute for knowledge." - Deming

• “In God we trust; all others must bring data.” - Trevor Hastie, Robert Tibshirani, and Jerome Friedman

Vanity Metrics

• Facebook likes

• Page visits

• Twitter Followers

Useful Metrics

• Based on Time

• Based on how the service was delivered

• Directly Related to the buying (Call To Action)

Traction vs Friction

More Outputs

Less Inputs

Apps I <3

Steam

Valve and its culture• No bosses

• Self-Funded

• Cabal Proccess

• Team Leaders (NOT Bosses nor Managers)

• Focused on the User

"In general, we think there is a fundamental misconception about piracy. Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem. For example, if a pirate offers a product anywhere in the

world, 24 x 7, purchasable from the convenience of your personal computer, and the legal provider says the product is region-locked, will come to your country 3

months after the U.S. release, and can only be purchased at a brick and mortar store, then the pirate's service is more valuable. Most DRM solutions diminish

the value of the product by either directly restricting a customers use or by creating

uncertainty.” - Gabe Newell

Optimizing for Happiness

http://vimeo.com/39016099

@Mojombo

References And some material

• Valve:

• https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Category:Modding

• https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Making_a_Mod

• https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Successful_Mod_Team_Tips

• Valve Employee Manual:

• http://media.steampowered.com/apps/valve/Valve_NewEmployeeHandbook.pdf

• Cabal:

• http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3408/the_cabal_valves_design_process_.php

• http://www.gdmag.com/archive/nov05.htm

• Optimizing for Happiness

• http://tom.preston-werner.com/2010/10/18/optimize-for-happiness.html

• Special Thanks:

• Darius Dunlap (Metrics) http://www.slideshare.net/dariusdunlap

• Jorge Závala (Kinnevo) http://kinnevo.com/

• Antonio Tajonar (Innovimiento) http://www.innovimiento.org/

THANKS!