Work-fu

Presentation from Work-fu co-founder Pete Nelson (@petetak)

Transcript

1. Launching a startup workfu.com with Pete Nelson @petetak Monday, 12 March 12
2. My background • Web app developer (all the stack) • Started working in design agency 2000 • Worked in a web app startup 2002 • Freelance 2005 • Joined TAK! Design in 2008 • Disbanded in 2010 • Freelance remote worker + startup ideas Monday, 12 March 12
3. Having the idea • Always working on ideas - so few are viable • The idea is not worth much • As freelancer: get work from word of mouth • Twitter has become new word of mouth • The Hack Day Monday, 12 March 12
4. Building the prototype • Proof of concept done in a week • Everything around that has taken months • Learnt that the tech is only a small part of the whole Monday, 12 March 12
5. Why WorkFu? • Change the way people recruit online • Peer to peer • Your data is accessible - no need to fill in long forms • CV still relevant - or your networks • Get a response and feedback Monday, 12 March 12
6. Building the team • Neil Kinnish @neiltak - tech and ux • Pete Nelson @petetak - tech • Mike Kus @mikekus - design and ux • Adam Martin @adammmartin - marketing and pr Monday, 12 March 12
7. The beta signup • What is a beta signup • Is it worth anything? • Why do more than just a form? • Staking a claim • Retweets and their power - how before? Monday, 12 March 12
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10. Statistics • Google Realtime • Twitter search Monday, 12 March 12
11. Key events • Alpha testing with friends - 25 users • Beta signup launch - 3rd Jan 2012 • Mike tweets to design community • 185 signups Monday, 12 March 12
12. Key events • Signups continue • 9th Jan Ryan Carson tweets • 674 users Monday, 12 March 12
13. Key events • 10th Jan TheNextWeb features in their apps section and really starts to grow rapidly • Lots of european blogs pickup and international signups start • 18th Jan 2000 user signups (20% of visitors) • Growing quickly ever since Monday, 12 March 12
14. Technical issues • Twitter data analysis BIG data • Key people have a lot of followers • Keeping the webserver alive Monday, 12 March 12
15. Architecture • It had to be cheap • It had to be able to handle load • It had to be resilient to spikes • Had to be a queue Monday, 12 March 12
16. Architecture Web server AppHarbor $0 SQL Server DB Shared Instance $10 per month up to 10GB Amazon EC2 Windows 2008 micro instance $22 dollars per month Amazon EC2 Memcached and Redis $0 per month Monday, 12 March 12
17. Architecture now Web server AppHarbor $???? Amazon EC2 Windows 2008 large instance with SQL Server under Bizspark $300 per month Amazon EC2 Memcached and Redis $0 per month Monday, 12 March 12
18. Pre-beta update • Why not beta yet? • Keep the interest up whilst we perfect the beta • Adding profiles Monday, 12 March 12
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21. Beta launch • Getting good opportunities onto the system • Making sure it runs as fast as possible • Linking users to opportunities • Preview of design: Monday, 12 March 12
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23. Any questions • Please ask away - I will try to answer • Neil and myself and available for short jobs - html, js, css, php, .net, ios • Pete Nelson @petetak pete.nelson@mac.com Monday, 12 March 12