How To Build Any Startup With Zero Budget

This is the technique that I used to validate & test my idea, which resulted in me earning $4000 in revenue selling a product that I didn't yet have..

Transcript

1. HOW TO BUILD ANY STARTUP WITH ZERO BUDGET Adii Pienaar. MicroConf Europe. 5 & 6 October 2013.
3. 500 000+ USERS 110 000+ PAYING CUSTOMERS 31 TEAM MEMBERS The numbers:
4. STARTING SOMETHING NEW, I BECAME MORE RISK AVERSE (Don’t quote me on that. I won’t ever admit to saying this.)
6. 1. Something that had as little risk as possible. 2. Something I could fund myself. 3. Something that I was incredibly passionate about. So I basically wanted...
8. I want to help entrepreneurs I want to help entrepreneurs
9. WITH ONLY A LANDING PAGE PublicBeta started like all other startups...
11. I ACQUIRED 2000+ E-MAIL ADDRESSES IN 8 WEEKS
12. 2313 UNIQUE VISITORS 808 E-MAIL SIGN-UPS 34.93% CONVERSION First month statistics:
13. 10 POSTS WRITTEN 8344 UNIQUE VISITORS 15 977 PAGEVIEWS Content marketing on adii.me:
14. 8344 UNIQUES (adii.me) 2313 UNIQUES (publicbeta.co) 808 E-MAILS 27.72% 34.93% 9.68%
17. I WANTED MORE But due to past mistakes...
19. WE ACQUIRED 4000+ E-MAIL ADDRESSES PRE-LAUNCH
20. LUNCHBOX IS PROOF THAT “BUILD IT & THEY WILL COME” IS BS
21. ONLY 19 CUSTOMERS EVER PAID US :(
22. R.I.P.
23. 4000 E-MAILS 19 CUSTOMERS 0.475% CONVERSION Simple math:
24. THERE’S NO EXPENSE IN GIVING AWAY YOUR E-MAIL ADDRESS
25. PAIN IS VALIDATION Pain Signal Quality Credit: Ryan Hoover / @rrhoover
26. MONEY IN THE BANK IS THE ULTIMATE VALIDATION (The second best is credit card details in a vault.)
27. “Realization: Putting a for-pay sign on something makes it fucking terrifying. So much easier to cop out and release a sub-par thing for free.” Justin Abrahms, Sprint.ly
28. PLAN A: RISK MITIGATION Initial capital, expenses or building the “wrong” thing. “BUILDING” THE PRODUCT
29. SELL SOMETHING YOU CAN GET, BUT DON’T YET HAVE You can’t sell unicorns. “BUILDING” THE PRODUCT
30. 40+ COMMITTED CONTRIBUTORS, COURSE TITLES & DESCRIPTIONS This is what we had to sell with our V1:
32. KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID How little could we build? TECHNICAL SPECS
33. • Homepage (explaining the main value proposition) • Library (essential product details) • Sign up + Sign Up Confirmation • Vanilla informational pages (About Us, Terms & Conditions, Privacy Policy, etc.) • Blog This was our whole V1:
34. 1. Getting visitors to click any one of the various sign up buttons; and 2. If they sign up, explain what had happened. Our V1 had two objectives:
36. CAPTURE CREDIT CARD DETAILS Because you’re gonna want to charge those cards eventually. Duh. TECHNICAL SPECS
37. THIS IS TRICKY Especially if you’re not a good liar. :( COMMUNICATION
38. PLAY THE GAME INITIALLY That means keeping quiet and keeping the deception going. COMMUNICATION
39. EXPLAIN EVERYTHING In detail and with brutal honesty. Also, say sorry. Multiple times. COMMUNICATION
40. 71 SIGN-UPS 4 ANGRY CUSTOMERS 5.63% “CHURN” Simple math:
41. DECIDE ON YOUR THRESHOLD For us this was having about 30 paying customers or +- $1000 pm in MRR. CUSTOMER INTERVIEWS
42. FIGURE OUT WHY THEY PAID YOU This resulted in a bit of a pivot for us. CUSTOMER INTERVIEWS
43. CUSTOMERS ARE INVESTED So their feedback is actually valuable. CUSTOMER INTERVIEWS
45. REVENUE ON DAY ONE Customers are your best investors. ONBOARDING
46. 47 MINUTES 68 CUSTOMERS $4000 REVENUE $2000 MRR Simple math:
47. WE CHANGED THE ROADMAP So pre-V1 customers had the change to opt-out. ONBOARDING
48. THE IMPORTANT STUFF i.e. The stuff you should remember.
49. TAKING CREDIT CARD DETAILS IS THE ULTIMATE VALIDATION #1
50. DOING CUSTOMER DEVELOPMENT WITH SOMEONE THAT HAD PAID YOU, 10X’s THE VALIDITY OF THE FEEDBACK #2
51. DECEPTION SUCKS. ALWAYS. #3
52. YOUR HEART SHOULD BE IN THE RIGHT PLACE #4
53. STARTUPS ARE ABOUT SPEED AND ACCESS #5
54. “A ship in a harbour is safe, but that’s not what a ship is built for.” Adii Pienaar @adii http://adii.me http://publicbeta.co