Building Kidfund - Rights and Wrongs

A 20 min presentation to the Founder's Institute taking a look back at Kidfund's road to MVP and the high-level items we got right and wrong

Transcript

1. BUILDING KIDFUND RIGHTS AND WRONGS FOUNDERS INSTITUTE - SEPT 2018
2. WHO AM I? Tim Broder Kidfund CTO @timothybroder
3. AGENDA > What is Kidfund? > Kidfund Stack > Rights ! and Wrongs
4. WHAT IS KIDFUND? WE ARE A SOCIAL SAVINGS APP
5. KIDFUND STACK > Native Swift iOS app > Laravel PHP API & Admin > Dwolla ACH Transfers > React Web & Android (in progress)
6. RIGHTS AND WRONGS
7. TEST YOUR IDEA > Low lift - 90 second pitch > Medium lift - low fidelity mockups > Many people you don't know, ideally some experts !
8. VET YOUR VENDORS > Hire within your network > References you trust are required > Review past work > Do a small trial project if you can !
9. FIND A DESIGNER & A BUILDER (OR DIY) > Wireframe your MVP (or the "full" product) > Pick your technology > Think through edge cases and confusions > Take a step back and think holistically !
10. BUILD YOUR MVP > Only features that are absolutely required > Can you fake parts of it? > Lauch sooner, iterate faster !
11. SECURITY, AUTOMATION & ANALYTICS > Be secure early > Automate as much as you can, but only what you need > Don't leave analytics till the end !
12. TALK TO USERS > Hand to hand combat or use a service? > Can you automate part of the outreach? > Do you have a framework to organize and pull insights from feedback? !"
13. ITERATE > Don't rush through your feature list > Breaks or confusion will need fixing > Plug leaks in your funnel > Prioritize new features users are screaming for or that you KNOW will move a big needle !
14. QUESTIONS? @timothybroder tim@kidfund.us
16. KIDFUND'S STACK > Analytics: Mixpanel & Google Analytics > Crash reporting: Sentry & Fabric > Email: Mailchimp & Mandrill > Encryption: Hashicorp Vault > Feedback & Support: Zendesk & Instabug > Hosting: Armor