Slow-cooked Startup

A lightning talk with tips on turning your side project idea into a business - if it ever makes it there. The point being, you should be having fun, and you should always have a life.

Transcript

1. Slow Cooked
   Startup
   Turn your hobby project into a smashing success*
   

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2. * success
   The joy of creating something valuable
   The satisfaction of learning
   

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3. Build to learn
   Knowledge is your guaranteed reward
   Pick unstable, impractical technologies (if you
   want)
   

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4. Solve your own
   problems.
   No toy apps.
   

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5. Guard your
   time (& your
   life)
   Rule of thumb: No more than 4 hours a week.
   

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6. Find a partner
   Misery loves company
   Align your values
   

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7. Keep your job
   Startups fail. You need your Real Job.
   

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8. Keep
   expectations
   low
   Avoid choices that lead to more stress.
   = stress
   

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9. Find your users
   Reddit. Hacker News. Craigslist.
   The local coffee shop.
   

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10. What do the
    users think?
    Software analytics, customer interviews.
    Are you solving their problems?
    

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11. Do one thing,
    excellently
    Keep a laser focus on your little product.
    

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12. Do It All
    Yourself
    You'll be surprised at what you can learn.
    

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13. Be cheap
    Stay on the "free" side of freemium
    

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14. Dream small
    Tiny growth is great.
    

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15. Guiding
    principles
    Are we having fun?
    Do we still have a life?
    Are we proud of the work we've done?
    Do we have at least one passionate user?
    

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16. If you're not doing well...
    Kill your
    darlings
    You had a good run. Put the product to rest.
    

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17. If you're doing well..
    Ads
    Easy to implement.
    Bad user & brand experience.
    

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18. If you're doing well..
    Premium
    features
    Do lightweight experiments, a la Lean Startup.
    Feature flags, A/B testing.
    Don't charge too much
    

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19. The more altruistic way
    Donations
    Rely on the goodwill of your community.
    Patreon, Gittip
    

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20. Thanks
    With inspiration from:
    Re:work: Jason Fried and DHH
    The Lean Startup: Eric Ries
    

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