Your Own Definition of Success

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Your own definition of success Choosing a profitable side project idea Rachel Andrew, MKGN #10 Thursday, 18 September 14

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I’m Rachel Andrew • Web developer: Perl → Classic ASP →Java → PHP • Writer of books, articles and angry blog posts • Likes cats, running, obscure CSS, Linux, cheese • Founder of edgeofmyseat.com in 2001 • Talk to me on Twitter @rachelandrew • Read my stuff at http://rachelandrew.co.uk Thursday, 18 September 14

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grabaperch.com Thursday, 18 September 14

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The Bootstrapped Startup Thursday, 18 September 14

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Bootstrapped businesses have to make money to support the ongoing development of the business. Thursday, 18 September 14

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Being Bootstrapped means ... • No investors • In it for the long-term • No exit plan • Making a thing and charging money for it • Decisions made between the business owners and the customers Thursday, 18 September 14

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This is just business. Thursday, 18 September 14

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discuss.bootstrapped.fm Thursday, 18 September 14

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bootstrappers.io Thursday, 18 September 14

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buybootstrapped.org Thursday, 18 September 14

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G.K. Chesterton “I owe my success to having listened respectfully to the very best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite.” Thursday, 18 September 14

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Funded Startups • Need a “big idea” • Focus on high growth • Need to get “traction” quickly • Have an eye on the exit - if the founders don’t, the investors will • Success is another funding round or a profitable exit in all but a very few cases. Thursday, 18 September 14

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What would success look like for your product? Thursday, 18 September 14

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Success? • Your side project funds itself - isn’t a drain on the rest of your life/business finances • Your side project makes enough to be able to have one day a week dedicated to it • Your side project drives customers to your main business Thursday, 18 September 14

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Niche business ideas - of no interest to funded business. Perfect for the bootstrapper. Thursday, 18 September 14

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A product for your own community. Thursday, 18 September 14

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Solve your problems or the problems of the groups that you are part of. Thursday, 18 September 14

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Amy Hoy “Are you a Ruby developer? Then serve Ruby developers. Are you a UX designer? Serve UX designers.” Thursday, 18 September 14

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We were web developers working for design agencies. We launched a product for web design agencies. Thursday, 18 September 14

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Looking to your own community means less time spent on market research and “validation”. Thursday, 18 September 14

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With a track record in a community you will already have trust. Thursday, 18 September 14

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A Product you can ship quickly Thursday, 18 September 14

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John Radoff “The goal of a startup is to find the sweet-spot where minimum product and viable product meet – get people to fall in love with you.” Thursday, 18 September 14

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To launch with a small product, you need to find a problem that can be solved with a small product. Thursday, 18 September 14

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Jason Fried, 37signals “The longer it takes to develop, the less likely it is to launch.” Thursday, 18 September 14

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Perch v.1 • A simple content editor • No way to add new pages • No API • Images could be uploaded - but not resized Thursday, 18 September 14

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Launch small. Solve a problem. Sell what the product does now. Thursday, 18 September 14

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A Product that solves a problem people will pay to have solved. Thursday, 18 September 14

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Who will pay for this? Why will they pay for this? Thursday, 18 September 14

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If you can save a business time they will see the value in paying for your product. Thursday, 18 September 14

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Bootstrapped With Kids, Episode 31 “We think their workflow sucks, but they like it…” Thursday, 18 September 14

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Our target market for Perch was designers and agencies. We aimed to save them time on smaller projects. Thursday, 18 September 14

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Feedback from paying customers trumps feedback from free users. Every time. Thursday, 18 September 14

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A Product that does not need a lot of users to become useful. Thursday, 18 September 14

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“Social” or “community” products need a large user base to succeed. Thursday, 18 September 14

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Choose a product that is as useful to customer #1 as customer #1000 Thursday, 18 September 14

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Perch ... • Scratched our own itch • Self-hosted and useful to each individual customer • Requires very little infrastructure • Would have been useful to our business even if no-one else had bought it Thursday, 18 September 14

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A Product with competition. Thursday, 18 September 14

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Perch competitors at launch • WordPress • ExpressionEngine • CushyCMS • PageLime • Joomla • Drupal Thursday, 18 September 14

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What problem is your competition NOT solving? Build the solution. Thursday, 18 September 14

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Revenue that would be small change to a 60 person business could be life- changing to a solo founder. Thursday, 18 September 14

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Joel Spolsky “Listen to your customers not your competitors.” Thursday, 18 September 14

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Regis McKenna "The more alike two products are, the more important their differences become." Thursday, 18 September 14

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Concentrating on the needs of your ideal customer gives you focus. Thursday, 18 September 14

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Focus on how your product can help your customers solve problems. Thursday, 18 September 14

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Go build things. Thursday, 18 September 14

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Thank you Rachel Andrew @rachelandrew http://rachelandrew.co.uk Photo credits: https://www.flickr.com/photos/drewm http://freekvanarkel.nl https://www.flickr.com/photos/futureshape/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/22746515@N02/ Thursday, 18 September 14