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Red Guava: A Bootstrapped Melbourne Startup
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Joel Friedlaender
October 14, 2013
Technology
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Red Guava: A Bootstrapped Melbourne Startup
A talk for the Tech Entrepreneurship class at Monash University - Caulfield.
Joel Friedlaender
October 14, 2013
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Transcript
A Bootstrapped Melbourne Startup
Joel Friedlaender @jfriedlaender
[email protected]
Ask questions any time.
None
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Jun 2011 Nov 2011 Apr 2012 Sep 2012 Feb 2013
Jul 2013 Monthly Revenue
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How it started
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What did it mean to start a company?
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
Red Guava Plan Bespoke Development 60% Consulting 20% Cliniko 20%
Red Guava Cliniko 100%
Why Cliniko?
Scratching an itch. But not my own.
Building software and running a business if fun! The type
of software barely affects my day.
Planning is guessing.
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
Building Cliniko.
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I still found time to relax.
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The runway helped a lot.
Created a Pre-Launch Page After 2 months of developing Cliniko
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$100 on Ads 150 Registrations
Who wants to Beta?
Who did the Beta?
The beta was very useful. 2 Customers was enough.
Launched the software after 7 months of development. Revenue to
date: $0
Launched with many critical items not yet built.
Still haven’t built many “critical items”.
Automation is king.
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No discounts. No resellers. Everyone pays. Value your service.
Post Launch.
16 Free Trial Signups on Day 1. All due to
Pre-Launch page.
37 Free Trial Signups by end of June (first 3
days). Success!
These turned into 14 paying customers. $936 in first month
after launch.
After 6 months live. $15,000 p/month. Was still burning runway...
but slowly.
$2,000 p/month on advertising. Must be measurable.
Went on a holiday to Vietnam. Holidays had changed...
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Growing the business.
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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
Hired a developer. What to hire next?
Know your weaknesses. I hired a bookkeeper.
We needed more room!
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1 Year post launch. 305 customers. $27,000 p/month revenue. Team
of 5 2 Founders, Programmer, Bookkeeper & Support
Growth Factors • Facebook Ads • Google Adwords • Word
of Mouth • Great Support • Focus on Quality • Continual Improvement
Today.
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Loving our jobs!
No-one to answer to.
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“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.
Joel Friedlaender @jfriedlaender
[email protected]