Independence - Ruby FTW 2014

Slide 1

Slide 1 text

“INDEPENDENCE” Making a living selling your own software. What I’ve learned from 6 years of building a pro fi table web application.

Slide 2

Slide 2 text

No content

Slide 3

Slide 3 text

Hours Worked Income NOT IDEAL Income tied to hours worked.

Slide 4

Slide 4 text

Hours Worked Income IDEAL Income independent of hours worked.

Slide 5

Slide 5 text

No content

Slide 6

Slide 6 text

No content

Slide 7

Slide 7 text

No content

Slide 8

Slide 8 text

2000 2014 2007 FULL TIME FREELANCE

Slide 9

Slide 9 text

c c c Hope: c c c MONEY “I’m going to be fi lthy rich.”

Slide 10

Slide 10 text

Fear: MONEY “I’m going to be fi lthy rich.” “I’m guaranteed to bankrupt my family.”

Slide 11

Slide 11 text

Reality: YES Balance optimism and caution. Build up a cushion. Don’t quit your job on a whim. Prepare ahead of time. Don’t rush it.

Slide 12

Slide 12 text

c c c Hope: c c c GROWTH “I’ll just post to (insert popular web site here), and it will go viral.”

Slide 13

Slide 13 text

Reality: NOPE Slow and steady linear growth is the standard. It sounds boring, but it’s sustainable and reliable. (It’s also much more likely than viral growth.)

Slide 14

Slide 14 text

Example: CONSTANT CONTACT How to Negotiate the Long Slow SaaS Ramp of Death http://businessofsoftware.org/2013/02/gail-goodman-constant-contact-how-to-negotiate-the-long-slow-saas-ramp-of-death/

Slide 15

Slide 15 text

Fear: LEGAL “My company will sue/ fi re me if I work on side projects.”

Slide 16

Slide 16 text

Reality: NOPE Unless you’re fi ling directly competitive patents, you’re probably OK. If you work for a particularly vindictive boss or company, this may be worth thinking about. Otherwise, your current company probably doesn’t care what you do at all.

Slide 17

Slide 17 text

c c c Hope: c c c FUN! “I’m going to write software all day!”

Slide 18

Slide 18 text

Reality: KIND OF Fraud. Spam fi lters. Spam accounts. Hackers. Chargebacks. Server upgrades. Security updates. Support. Marketing. Taxes. Legal. Testing.

Slide 19

Slide 19 text

c c c Hope: c c c NO MARKETING NECESSARY “Great products don’t need marketing.”

Slide 20

Slide 20 text

- Marketing is a tax you pay for being unremarkable.” Robert Stephens, Founder of Geek Squad “

Slide 21

Slide 21 text

Reality: REMARKABLE IS TOUGH It’s virtually impossible to be “remarkable” when you launch. It’s a poisonous expectation to place on you and your team.

Slide 22

Slide 22 text

Reality: MARKETING CAN HELP The idea that your idea and execution have to be amazing enough that you don’t need marketing is poisonous. Marketing, when applied wisely, can make a di ff erence.

Slide 23

Slide 23 text

Example: EVERYWHERE Apple. Samsung. Windows. Amazon. Google. The de fi nition of “remarkable” is both subjective and constantly evolving, but these companies are remarkable and spend a lot on advertising.

Slide 24

Slide 24 text

c c c Hope: c c c NO BOSS “I won’t have to take orders from anyone.”

Slide 25

Slide 25 text

Reality: MORE BOSSES Instead of reporting to 1 or 2 bosses, you report to hundreds or thousands of customers with frequently divergent needs and priorities.

Slide 26

Slide 26 text

c c c Hope: c c c NO CONSTRAINTS “I can invest time on fun things instead of rushing half-baked ideas assigned to me by pointy-haired bosses and clients.”

Slide 27

Slide 27 text

Reality: MORE CONSTRAINTS Bills. Employees. Revenue. Accessibility. Security. Front-end. Back-end. Server. Marketing. Once you view everything holistically, you recognize the importance of tradeo ff s.

Slide 28

Slide 28 text

Fear: TEAM “I need co-founders.”

Slide 29

Slide 29 text

c c c Hope: c c c TEAM “I can do this all by myself.”

Slide 30

Slide 30 text

Reality: YES Pros and cons to both co-founders and going solo. There isn’t a right or wrong. Only what’s best for you in the here and now. Don’t be overcon fi dent about going solo, but don’t let the lack of a co-founder stand in the way.

Slide 31

Slide 31 text

Fear: COMPETITION “There’s 100 alternatives. I can’t compete.”

Slide 32

Slide 32 text

Reality: FRAGMENTATION & VALIDATION Be smart and di ff erentiate.

Slide 33

Slide 33 text

A) Email Integration B) Attachments C) Search D) API E) Milestones F) OpenID G) Text Formatting None of them

Slide 34

Slide 34 text

Example: BUG TRACKING 45 options listed on Wikipedia. Many of which are open source and/or free. Probably just as many that aren’t listed. Do your own thing, and don’t worry about “competition.”

Slide 35

Slide 35 text

Example: ACCOUNTING Quickbooks vs. Less Accounting. Quickbooks is a borderline industry standard. Yet Less Accounting is still a pro fi table and healthy company.

Slide 36

Slide 36 text

- We’re the cockroach of the accounting software industry.” Allan Branch, Co-founder of LessAccounting “

Slide 37

Slide 37 text

Fear: BIGGER TEAMS “Our small team can’t possibly compete against a team of 20.”

Slide 38

Slide 38 text

Reality: AGILITY Have you ever watched a team of 20+ try to get something done? You’re faster than they are.

Slide 39

Slide 39 text

Example: EVERY SUCCESSFUL TEAM EVER Google. Facebook. Apple. Twitter. They didn’t start with 20 people. Everything was a side project at one point.

Slide 40

Slide 40 text

Fear: HEALTH “I can’t a ff ord health insurance.” “What if something happens to me?”

Slide 41

Slide 41 text

Reality: MIXED There are very legitimate health reasons not to start a business. Hypothetical reasons, however, are not among them.

Slide 42

Slide 42 text

Example: MY FOOT Lost about 6 of the last 12 months to being in bed, on pain killers, or in the hospital. Being self- employed actually made the situation tolerable. Recurring revenue ensured no negative a ff ect on our income.

Slide 43

Slide 43 text

c c c Hope: c c c FREEDOM “No meetings or interruptions, and I’ll work from the beach all of the time!”

Slide 44

Slide 44 text

Reality: FLEXIBILITY Work when you want. How you want. Where you want. (Most of the time.)

Slide 45

Slide 45 text

Example: MY FOOT I got to work from a hospital bed.

Slide 46

Slide 46 text

Non-example: CONNECTIVITY Hosted software needs to be available 24x7. (More or less.) If you like to get o ff the grid, ignore what I said about co-founders. You’ll want one.

Slide 47

Slide 47 text

Fear: KNOWLEDGE “I don’t have enough experience yet.”

Slide 48

Slide 48 text

No content

Slide 49

Slide 49 text

Reality: YOU NEVER WILL The only way to learn is by doing. Running an app is nothing like running one for a corporation. You have to become a generalist, and most corporate jobs just don’t enable that.

Slide 50

Slide 50 text

Thanks!