From no code to a profitable business

It took us four years to grow from an ambitious idea to a profitable business, with a small team and not a lot of resources. I'll tell you how making "just enough" and "good enough", with a fine mix of various best practices, a lot motivation and some Ruby, we've managed to build a fast-growing product and a happy company.

The video is available on YouTube : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8hH_5LKrQY

A french version is available : https://speakerdeck.com/jlecour/dune-feuille-blanche-a-une-affaire-rentable

Transcript

1. From no line of code
   to a profitable business
   The one where we don’t have to be perfect to succeed
   RuLu 2013, June 20-21
   

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2. Look ma’, I speak at a conference
   

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3. WWAPD?
   

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4. great models, but hard to reach
   when you begin
   

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5. 4 years
   small team big goals
   

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6. from a prototype
   to many applications
   

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7. we haven’t been perfect
   but we won anyway
   

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8. with great people
   you can do great things
   

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9. Jérémy Lecour
   hotelhotel.com
   

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10. this team is too small
    to do anything significant
    

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11. No world-class expert
    No money to hire some
    Do all the things by yourself
    

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12. 4 roles
    main
    in the developer’s job
    

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13. architect
    

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14. builder
    

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15. rocket surgeon
    

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16. firefighter
    

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17. you can wear any of those hats
    but switching all the time if exhausting
    

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18. WORKING IS HARD
    LET’S GO SHOPPING!
    DEAL WITH IT
    

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19. imperfect everywhere
    is better than
    very bad anywhere
    iOS 7 style
    Comic Sans MS
    

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20. frequent changes in technologies
    use what you need now, change it later (if needed)
    

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21. with a good background you can make
    quick and educated choices
    

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22. we’ve changed the data store
    and it’s not that bad
    3x
    

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23. hotels are sold
    by many merchants
    at different prices
    

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24. 2,100 hotels, 17 merchants
    30 external requests
    20K prices saved by 15 threads
    30-90 seconds to complete
    a search for PARIS :
    

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25. at first MySQL was easy
    and did the job
    

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26. then it was no longer a good fit
    too much work on lots of data
    

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27. MongoDB documents
    {
    "search_results": [
    {
    "hotel": {
    "name": "Sofitel Marseille",
    "rating": 4,
    },
    "merchants": {
    "accor": 145.20,
    "expedia": 150.00,
    "ratestogo": "full"
    }
    },{
    "hotel": {
    "name": "Radisson Blu",
    "rating": 4,
    },
    "merchants": {
    "hotelclub": 150.00,
    "expedia": 154.00,
    "booking": "full"
    }
    }
    ]
    }
    

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28. under bigger load
    MongoDB freaked out too
    

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29. -5ms ➘ +250ms
    database locked 99%
    

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30. some optimization helped
    for a while
    

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31. if you #fail spectacularly
    hopefully you can rollback
    

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32. ElasticSearch
    very fast indexing database
    awesome REST API
    

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33. experience & knowledge
    are gained along the way
    

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34. learning and sharing
    all the f•••ing time
    

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35. #TGIF
    LET’S GO LEARNING
    

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36. conferences
    local user groups
    code-retreats, coding-dojos
    open-source contributions
    explore, meet, share
    

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37. have people who care
    for the team, the product and the craft
    

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38. passionate
    value the result
    more than being at your desk
    

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39. self-driven
    You manage things,
    You lead people.
    Grace Murray Hopper
    aka. Grandma COBOL
    

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40. self-driven
    micro-management
    is a waste of time
    

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41. open-minded
    different background and expectations
    bring new perspectives and better solutions
    

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42. an {A,a}gile attitude
    … well, kinda, sorta
    

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43. cherry picking FTW!
    Scrum, XP, Kanban, Lean, …
    

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44. No formal stand-up meetings
    we all know each other’s status
    BUT
    

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45. WE DON’T ALWAYS DO
    PAIR-PROGRAMMING
    BUT WHEN WE DO, IT’S FOR
    knowledge sharing
    critical code
    and fun
    

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46. a small team can move rapidly
    

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47. Git-flow
    simplified
    we’ve adopted
    

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48. change doesn’t need global approval
    we try, then keep or ditch new tools and practices all the time
    

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49. Don’t break the team’s dynamics
    Refine processes incrementally
    

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50. empirical:
    based on, concerned with, or verifiable
    by observation or experience
    rather than theory or pure logic.
    empiricism:
    the theory that all knowledge
    is based on experience
    derived from the senses.
    

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51. we are not a model
    we could have done better
    

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52. have great goals
    improve gradually
    

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53. 4 years
    intense highly rewarding
    thanks to awesome people
    

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54. Dave Thomas
    RailsConf 2010
    You don't have to be perfect, you
    just have to survive.
    And along the way, remember that
    the reason you're doing it, is to
    make it fun.
    

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55. Thank
    You
    with a special to Fabien Catteau
    

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56. jeremy.lecour@gmail.com
    @jlecour
    jeremy.wordpress.com
    github.com/jlecour
    

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