Red Guava: A Bootstrapped Melbourne Startup

A talk for the Tech Entrepreneurship class at Monash University - Caulfield.

Transcript

1. A Bootstrapped Melbourne Startup
2. Joel Friedlaender @jfriedlaender joel@redguava.com.au
3. Ask questions any time.
7. Jun 2011 Nov 2011 Apr 2012 Sep 2012 Feb 2013 Jul 2013 Monthly Revenue
9. How it started
15. What did it mean to start a company?
16. Thing Cost Create Company $1000 + $500 yearly Bank Account $20 Monthly Trademark $2,000 PO Box $25 + $100 yearly Logo $350 Business Cards $700 Domain Name $14 yearly Website $100 + lots of work Terms & Privacy Policies $3,500 Total $10,000 approx
17. Red Guava Plan Bespoke Development 60% Consulting 20% Cliniko 20%
18. Red Guava Cliniko 100%
19. Why Cliniko?
20. Scratching an itch. But not my own.
21. Building software and running a business if fun! The type of software barely affects my day.
22. Planning is guessing.
23. Our Guesses • We have a runway of 1 year • We need 100 customers to survive • Our customers will be people without so ware yet • The so ware needs just 2 key functions
24. Building Cliniko.
26. I still found time to relax.
28. The runway helped a lot.
29. Created a Pre-Launch Page After 2 months of developing Cliniko
31. $100 on Ads 150 Registrations
32. Who wants to Beta?
33. Who did the Beta?
34. The beta was very useful. 2 Customers was enough.
35. Launched the software after 7 months of development. Revenue to date: $0
36. Launched with many critical items not yet built.
37. Still haven’t built many “critical items”.
38. Automation is king.
41. No discounts. No resellers. Everyone pays. Value your service.
42. Post Launch.
43. 16 Free Trial Signups on Day 1. All due to Pre-Launch page.
44. 37 Free Trial Signups by end of June (first 3 days). Success!
45. These turned into 14 paying customers. $936 in first month after launch.
46. After 6 months live. $15,000 p/month. Was still burning runway... but slowly.
47. $2,000 p/month on advertising. Must be measurable.
48. Went on a holiday to Vietnam. Holidays had changed...
52. Growing the business.
55. Hiring • Hire Anywhere • Great job perks • Get the best, it’s worth it • Test them on what they do • Advertise in the right places • Pay them what they want • Trust your instincts
56. Hired a developer. What to hire next?
57. Know your weaknesses. I hired a bookkeeper.
58. We needed more room!
67. 1 Year post launch. 305 customers. $27,000 p/month revenue. Team of 5 2 Founders, Programmer, Bookkeeper & Support
68. Growth Factors • Facebook Ads • Google Adwords • Word of Mouth • Great Support • Focus on Quality • Continual Improvement
69. Today.
71. Loving our jobs!
72. No-one to answer to.
74. “I am working on my best idea right now. Like if I were to sell that, I would have to work on my second best idea. Why would I want to do that? David Heinemeier Hansson.
75. Joel Friedlaender @jfriedlaender joel@redguava.com.au