Launching & Scaling a Side Project

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Launching & Scaling Your Side Project From Zero to Six Figures

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Michele Hansen Product Development, The Motley Fool MBA Candidate, Virginia Tech @mjwhansen Mathias Hansen Software Engineer, VideoBlocks @mathiashansen

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Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen

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This presentation • Just as much product & business as technical • Examples from our successes... and failures • Tools & motivation! Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen

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Point of View SaaS + ! + our experiences Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen

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You are an entrepreneur Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen

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Yes, you Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen

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1. Build something you need 2. Build it simply 3. Use your advantages Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen

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1. Build Something You Need Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen

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Now put your hands up Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen

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Find something that frustrates you ! Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen

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"The hard part isn't the technology — the number one failure of the software industry is building the wrong product" — Amazon engineering manager Jesse Watson Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen

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Solve a problem for yourself • You have direct access to the customer - you! • You understand the competition • You understand key jobs user hires the product for • You're aware of different activities user is trying to accomplish Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen

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Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen

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Example: Geocodio We found ourselves in an unserved market Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen

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Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen

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The secret to keeping it going? Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen

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Before you let it consume all of your time... • Validate your understanding of the problem and interpretation of a solution. Talk to friends or people in the community • If you have a spouse: get their buy-in • Think about the bare-minimum legal & ﬁnancial stuff: LLC, tax ID, bank account, etc. Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen

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LAUNCHING: FINANCIAL Item Cost LLC $100.00 Tax ID free Operating agreement free Stripe set-up free Bank account free Total $100.00 Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen

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If you build something that solves a problem for you, worst case you’re no longer frustrated and you've made yourself more efﬁcient Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen

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Use it as a learning experience • Play with new technologies • Dive into things you haven't done before: • Devops • Marketing • Sales • Product • Customer service • User experience • ... Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen

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2. Build It Simply Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen

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What is your MVP? Minimum Viable Product Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen

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LAUNCHING: PRODUCT Take shortcuts • Use off-the-shelf libraries • Twitter Bootstrap theme • Don't spend hours on a logo • ...or on a name • Even though it's very tempting Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen

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spark.laravel.com * We were not paid to say this Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen

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People are mean Don't listen to them Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen

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Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen

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Geocodio API + Paywall = Done Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen

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LAUNCHING: PRODUCT + MARKETING January 2014 • A straightforward API with two endpoints • A dashboard to manage: • API Keys • Billing • Simple usage stats • Hacker News • Google Analytics Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen

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LAUNCHING: ARCHITECTURE Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen

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LAUNCHING: INFRASTRUCTURE • The bare necessities • Don't build for success Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen

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Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen

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SCALING: INFRASTRUCTURE Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen

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Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen

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Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen

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Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen

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Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen

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Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen

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Launching geocod.io Item Cost Domain name $49.00 SSL Certiﬁcate $15.00 Hosting $10.00 Total $74.00 Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen

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You can only charge as much as the market can absorb so build as economically as you can Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen

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Pricing is hard. Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen

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LAUNCHING: PRICING • Competition • What can customers pay? • How do they want to pay? • Your costs Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen

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Price is a signal to users and is just as important as features and low price is not always the best Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen

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SCALING: PRICING • Corporate customers are way more reliable • More customers, more jobs = more variations of pricing & billing Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen

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Example: Geocodio Unlimited $750/month Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen

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SCALING: The biz side • Taxes • Legal stuff (liability insurance, will, etc) • Start drawing money Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen

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Scaling features Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen

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"You should only consider features if they're willing to stand on the porch for three days waiting to be let in" — Getting Real, 37 Signals Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen

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SCALING: PRODUCT & MARKETING • Add features after they've stood on the porch • Customer support tool, UX, engagement email • SEO • Targeted ads • Listen to customers for their jobs Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen

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CRASH COURSE: Jobs to Be Done • A person hires a product to get a job done • Functional, emotional, social, cognitive, sensory • Know what to build & how to frame Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen

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"Customers are always beautifully, wonderfully dissatisﬁed, even when they report being happy and business is great. Even when they don’t yet know it, customers want something better, and your desire to delight customers will drive you to invent on their behalf. No customer ever asked Amazon to create the Prime membership program, but it sure turns out they wanted it." — Jeff Bezos Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen

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Features != ! Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen

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Distribution is important and a good product won’t just sell itself Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen

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Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen

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3. Use Your Advantages

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You have no overhead Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen

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@DesTraynor Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen

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When do you go full time? full disclosure: we haven't 1. Revenue/Salary 2. Competitive advantage of your product 3. How much do you love the problem Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen

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You're plugged into the community • Plenty of free ways to get the word out: StackOverﬂow, Quora, Twitter, Hacker News, etc • Your friends are your beta testers Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen

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Customer support Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen

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Anything can be an advantage • Subject matter expertise -- or lack thereof • Full-time job • Having kids Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen

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In summation • Build something you need • Build it simply • Use your advantages • What to think about before going full time • All of the practical stuff Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen

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Questions? @mjwhansen @mathiashansen