The esa way - Creating a Profitable Product from a Hobby Project

This is the slide deck which I presented at Tokyo Rubyist Meetup @trbmeetup
https://trbmeetup.doorkeeper.jp/events/80024

esa ( https://esa.io ) is a SaaS product in which you can share documents with your teammates in a wiki-like format, and is made with Rails.
We started esa as a hobby coding project four years ago. Now it has over 2,700 organizations and is profitable.
I'll introduce our way of turning a product from a hobby into a business, and how to increase collaboration between engineers.

Transcript

1. The esa way
   Creating a Profitable Product from a Hobby Project
   @ken_c_lo
   TAEKO AKATSUKA
   Tokyo Rubyist Meetup / Oct. 3, 2018
   

   View Slide

2. !2
   • TAEKO AKATSUKA
   • @ken_c_lo
   • @taea
   • Graphic/UI/UX Designer
   • Co-founder of esa LLC
   Who am I ?
   

   View Slide

3. !3
   RubyKaigi 2015 @Tsukiji
   

   View Slide

4. !4
   • esa LLC is a very small company.
   • 1 designer (me) and 2 engineers.
   • There are only 3 people.
   • Founded at November 2014
   • (Next month is our 4th anniversary )
   • Our main service is esa.io
   About My Company
   

   View Slide

5. About esa.io
   Have you ever heard about “esa” ?
   

   View Slide

6. What is esa ?
   • “esa” is a SaaS product in which you can share
   documents with your teammates.
   • in a wiki-like format.
   • Various kinds of documents can be shared.
   • e.g. Manuals, Specifications, Idea notes, Reports, Diaries…
   • It can be written in Markdown.
   • It’s made with Rails.
   

   View Slide

7. • including great and famous tech companies in Japan.
   More than 2,700 teams use esa!
   

   View Slide

8. • A distinctive feature of esa is WIP (Work in
   Progress),
   • which shows other users documents that are
   still being worked on.
   • You can share imperfect documents with your
   teammate easily.
   • It fosters better collaboration by improving
   transparency of information in your team.
   Sharing Documents with WIP
   

   View Slide

9. Sharing Documents with WIP
   2 submit buttons❓
   

   View Slide

10. Sharing Documents with WIP
    Save as WIP
    When you submit a WIP document,
    you can use this WIP button
    Ship It!
    When you submit a nearly completed
    document, you can use “Ship It!”
    button
    

    View Slide

11. Sharing Documents with WIP
    • Title is grayed out
    • It can be seen from other team members
    • Push notifications are disabled at this
    time. (e.g. slack)
    • You can share the document without
    proactively letting others know.
    • Title is turned black
    • Now push notifications are enabled!
    • So your teammates will pay attention
    your update and read your document.
    WIP Ship It!
    

    View Slide

12. • I'd like to talk about our way of turning a product
    from a hobby into a business,
    • and how to increase collaboration between
    engineers and designers.
    • I would be happy if I could encourage Ruby
    engineers who loves making products as a hobby
    through this presentation.
    Today’s Agenda
    

    View Slide

13. The History of esa
    The story from starting as a hobby to becoming a business.
    

    View Slide

14. • At a Hackathon in “P4D”, which is a Ruby
    community, in May 2014.
    • @fukayatsu (Engineer) and I started building
    esa.io
    • esa team was only 2 people then.
    • Although this Hackathon was only 2 days, we
    built esa’s first usable version.
    esa was born 4.5 years ago
    

    View Slide

15. • P4D = Programming for Designers
    • P4D is a community in which engineers and
    designers teach each other their own skills.
    • Ruby engineers teach designers how to use Git or
    Rails.
    • Designers also teach engineers how to design.
    • P4D sometimes held hackathons in which a pair of
    an engineer and a designer make a product in a day
    or two.
    About P4D
    

    View Slide

16. • After the hackathon, We had continued to
    develop and deploy esa everyday.
    Developing esa Everyday +,
    • esa was improved day by day… It was so fun!
    

    View Slide

17. • We continued to USE esa every day.
    • With several of our friends, we were sharing
    diaries in which we wrote what we experienced
    or thought every day to each other.
    • Improving esa, it made my friends who were
    using esa happy, and it motivated us to improve
    it more
    Using esa every day ✏
    

    View Slide

18. • Some companies asked us to let them use esa.
    • So, we released esa to dozens of companies as
    closed beta version.
    • We were not a corporation at that moment, and
    only provided esa as a hobby.
    • We started to consider founding a company for
    esa.
    Limited Release of closed βversion
    4 months after from we started
    

    View Slide

19. • Finally, esa LLC was founded in Nov. 2014
    Founded esa LLC
    6 months after from we started
    

    View Slide

20. • Finally, We launched esa to the public and
    started billing.
    Launched and Started Billing
    8 months after from we started
    

    View Slide

21. • esa became profitable enough to live for us off it,
    for just 2 people.
    • And now, our users and sales increase steadily
    Being Profitable
    2 years after from we started
    Subscription →
    

    View Slide

22. • 3rd member @ppworks (Engineer) joined us!
    • Now, we are 3-person team
    3rd Member joined us +
    3 years after from we started
    

    View Slide

23. • Over 2,700 organizations are using esa.
    • esa came to be known among the people who
    are working in tech jobs in Japan.
    • Subscribed users and organizations increase
    steadily every month.
    • And we continue to develop esa so happily
    Now, 

    Everything is going well
    4.5 years after from we started
    

    View Slide

24. The esa Way
    The most important things for us
    

    View Slide

25. • We started from just a hobby,
    • from a tiny product,
    • from a small team (only 2 people)
    • and from small range of target users (for only
    my friends).
    • We didn't found a company in the beginning.
    • We didn't aim for profit by itself from the
    beginning.
    Start Small
    

    View Slide

26. • I was a freelance designer before founding esa,
    • so I continued my previous jobs while developing
    esa.
    • @fukayatsu (engineer) was a full-time employee of
    another company until we released esa to the public.
    • He continued esa development as a side project for a while.
    • In the beginning, we were developing esa in our
    spare time or on the weekend and we kept other
    sources of income.
    Keep other sources of income
    

    View Slide

27. • Our team members are only people who write
    code.
    • We use external services for annoying tasks for
    us: e.g. accounting or paperwork.
    • We depend on
    • SaaS (for accounting, management, selling),
    • Adviser accountants,
    • Attorneys …
    Use External Services
    

    View Slide

28. • We deploy, monitor, and process invoices every
    month with ChatOps.
    • Even our payroll transfers use a chat command
    • Let the machines do as much as possible, because
    we want to slack off
    • (It’s thanks to engineers. I did nothing about it )
    Automate Routine Work
    

    View Slide

29. • We respect each other’s ideas, thoughts,
    sensibilities, and feelings.
    • Designer can also write code and communicate
    with code.
    • We improve UX agilely by using a real product.
    Collaboration between
    Engineers and Designers +,
    

    View Slide

30. Making a concept
    • Concept word: “Glowing Documents”
    

    View Slide

31. Making a concept
    • We create a concept which defines the reason for
    existence of the product.
    • esa is created thoroughly based on the concept
    which is reflected in UI and UX.
    • esa users can enjoy its pleasant and comfortable
    worldview which comes from the concept, not
    only just using it.
    • I think it's the most important thing in the power
    of design.
    

    View Slide

32. The Beloved Mascot a ⒡㱿⒡
    
    
    esa bird
    

    View Slide

33. The Beloved Mascot a ⒡㱿⒡
    
    
    • We've created and are selling a lot of kinds of swag.
    • We think "Kawaii" is very important
    

    View Slide

34. Developing with Users
    • We have a feedback form for the users on bottom
    right of every page.
    

    View Slide

35. Developing with Users
    • We usually reply to user feedback in just five mins.
    • When receiving user feedback, sometimes we fix or improve
    within one hour if the issue can be resolved quickly.
    • Such a quick response often makes users happy.
    • Sometimes our users tweet or blog about our services and
    mention about that quick response.
    • It leads to a good reputation for our services.
    • We think users’ opinions are very important because we are
    a very small three-person team.
    

    View Slide

36. No Online Ads
    • We've never placed advertisements online because we
    don't like them.
    • So far, esa was spread only by word of mouth, blogging,
    or tweeting by our users.
    • We sometimes sponsor tech-conferences which we love.
    • Or, we sometimes give a presentation in conferences or
    meetups just like this presentation,
    • so then it's also a good chance to let everyone know
    about esa.
    

    View Slide

37. Free for Students or OSS
    • We also provide an Academic Free Plan for
    students
    • and Tech Community Free Support Plan for OSS
    or non-profit tech communities.
    • It is also the token of appreciations for OSS and
    tech communities.
    • If you run a OSS or non-profit tech community,
    please ask me to use the free support plan.
    

    View Slide

38. Don't change the world
    immediately
    • First of all, we'd like to make people who are close
    to us or make ourselves happy.
    • Probably, we are not a ordinary start-up.
    • So, we don't aim for too rapid growth.
    • We do things at our own pace.
    

    View Slide

39. Just for Fun
    • esa was originally started from a hobby product.
    • esa was produced from our thought that coding for
    problem-solving or creation is so fun.
    • Even now we've became profitable, we think fun is
    the most important.
    • We believe that the motivation is the source of all
    creativity.
    • We refuse to do unenjoyable things just for the sake
    of profit.
    

    View Slide

40. Thanks to Ruby
    • Rubyists are so nice,
    • they welcomed me into their nice community
    although I’m a designer.
    • Ruby and Rubyists taught us the fun of writing
    code and creation.
    • Ruby is the origin of everything for us.
    

    View Slide

41. Thanks to Ruby
    I was so glad to tell Matz at
    RubyKaigi
    “Thank you!

    We were able to change our
    life completely thanks to
    Ruby!”
    

    View Slide

42. Thank you for listening
    I would be so glad if this presentation of our story could encourage you.
    And thank you also @pwim! 

    I’d really appreciate your help with my presentation slide.
    

    View Slide