We're not "doing a startup"

My talk from re:build 2014 about building profitable bootstrapped business and side projects.

Transcript

1. We’re not “doing a startup” How to cut through the hype and build your side project into a profitable business. Rachel Andrew, re:build 2014 Friday, 18 April 14
2. grabaperch.com Friday, 18 April 14
3. 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.” Friday, 18 April 14
4. This is a marathon, not a 5K. Friday, 18 April 14
5. Friday, 18 April 14
6. It’s not about the money (until it is) Friday, 18 April 14
7. Getting started Choosing the perfect product to bootstrap as a side-project. https://www.flickr.com/photos/joeshlabotnik/7276841268 Friday, 18 April 14
8. Walt Disney “The way to get started is to quit talking and start doing.” Friday, 18 April 14
9. • for an audience you are already part of • that can get to a shippable version 1 quickly • that solves a problem people will pay to have solved • that does not need a lot of traction to be useful • that has existing competition A product ... Friday, 18 April 14
10. A product for an audience you are already part of. Friday, 18 April 14
11. Solve problems for your own community. Friday, 18 April 14
12. Look for problems close to home Friday, 18 April 14
13. The worst that could have happened with Perch? No-one would want it but we’d have a useful tool for our business. Friday, 18 April 14
14. With a track record in a community you will already have trust. Friday, 18 April 14
15. A product that can get to a shippable version 1 quickly. Friday, 18 April 14
16. 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.” Friday, 18 April 14
17. To launch with a small product, you need to find a problem that can be solved with a small product. Friday, 18 April 14
18. Perch v.1 • A simple content editor • No way to add new pages • No API • Images could be uploaded - but not resized Friday, 18 April 14
19. The Problem Client requests that an already developed static site be made editable via a CMS. Friday, 18 April 14
20. The Solution A simple CMS that turned static pages into editable pages by way of dropping in a couple of PHP tags. Friday, 18 April 14
21. A product that solves a problem that people are happy to pay to have solved. Friday, 18 April 14
22. Money is the only validation Friday, 18 April 14
23. A product that does not need a lot of traction to be useful. Friday, 18 April 14
24. “Social” or “community” products need a large user base to succeed. Friday, 18 April 14
25. Where do your initial users come from? What will they cost? Friday, 18 April 14
26. A product that has existing competition. Friday, 18 April 14
27. Perch competitors at launch • WordPress • ExpressionEngine • CushyCMS • PageLime • Joomla • Drupal Friday, 18 April 14
28. What problem is your competition NOT solving? Build it. Friday, 18 April 14
29. New concepts will require you to educate potential customers as to why they even need your product. Friday, 18 April 14
30. Finding the time How to make time for side-projects. https://www.flickr.com/photos/mybigtrip/6111406 Friday, 18 April 14
31. Malcolm S. Forbes “One worthwhile task carried to a successful conclusion is worth half-a- hundred half-finished tasks.” Friday, 18 April 14
32. Sir John Lubbock “In truth, people can generally make time for what they choose to do; it is not really the time but the will that is lacking.” Friday, 18 April 14
33. Get set up to be able to pick up and work on your side-project quickly - whenever the time is available. Friday, 18 April 14
34. Your product must be a first-class citizen alongside your other work. Friday, 18 April 14
35. Set aside time and plan in advance what you will do with it Friday, 18 April 14
36. Diana Scharf Hunt “Goals are dreams with deadlines” Friday, 18 April 14
37. There is power in setting a goal, writing it down, putting a date on it Friday, 18 April 14
38. How to get started • Choose your goal • Define what it is you are going to create • Put a date on it. Friday, 18 April 14
39. Brian Casel http://casjam.com/the-cascading-to-do-list-or-how-to-get-big-things-done/ “In a nutshell, the idea is to start with the end-goal in mind, then divide it into smaller and smaller increments. Plan all of the actions in detail beforehand, then get to work.” Friday, 18 April 14
40. Be realistic about how much you can achieve. Feeling as if you are falling behind can demotivate you. Friday, 18 April 14
41. If there is not enough time ... • Either revise your end date • Or, remove elements of the project - pushing them into a post-launch phase. Friday, 18 April 14
42. Be ruthless in cutting features that can be added post-launch Friday, 18 April 14
43. The “missing” features at launch will seem far more important to you than to your customers. Friday, 18 April 14
44. Describe the product as it is now. Sell the solution. Friday, 18 April 14
45. • Start Small • Get feedback from paying customers • Improve and add to your product based on their needs balanced by your vision. Friday, 18 April 14
46. Minimum Viable Infrastructures Friday, 18 April 14
47. Own Your Own Data Friday, 18 April 14
48. Launch and beyond Managing a growing side- project alongside an existing job or business. https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasamarshall Friday, 18 April 14
49. Winston Churchill “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” Friday, 18 April 14
50. • We launched Perch at the end of May 2009 • At launch we were still 100% booked out on client projects • Income from Perch was initially reinvested into Perch • January 2013 we made the decision to stop taking on new client work Our timeline Friday, 18 April 14
51. A successful side-project should be given more time as it represents a higher % of your income. Friday, 18 April 14
52. Not making a profit? • Are you pricing too cheaply? • Are you reliant on expensive services? • Are you attracting customers who need a lot of support? Friday, 18 April 14
53. The slower growth curve of bootstrapped products gives you time to fix problems before they become BIG problems. Friday, 18 April 14
54. Managing growth • Never promise a specific timeframe • Collect use cases not feature requests • Delight customers by solving problems • Protect the core use case • Make frequent, small releases • Don’t be led astray by a noisy minority Friday, 18 April 14
55. Never promise a specific timeframe to customers Friday, 18 April 14
56. When your product is a side-project you have even more things that could cause you to push back a feature. Friday, 18 April 14
57. We don’t publish a roadmap • It allows us to be flexible and react to customer needs and changing trends in web design. • It means that customers are not relying on the launch of feature X in order to complete a project. • It means that we can hold back a feature until we are absolutely sure it won’t cause anyone a problem. Friday, 18 April 14
58. Use Cases not Feature Requests Friday, 18 April 14
59. Find general solutions that will benefit many customers rather than adding very specific features Friday, 18 April 14
60. Understanding the problem means we can help the customer now and optimize the solution later. Friday, 18 April 14
61. Delight customers by solving their problems and letting them know when you have done so Friday, 18 April 14
62. Protect the Core Use Case Friday, 18 April 14
63. Your product will benefit by being owned by someone who will say no. Friday, 18 April 14
64. Make Frequent Small Releases Friday, 18 April 14
65. Small releases • Fewer changes = fewer things to go wrong • Easier to isolate the issue if a problem does occur • Get features to customers more quickly • For our customers, less of a dramatic change that they need to communicate to their clients Friday, 18 April 14
66. Don’t be led by a noisy minority Friday, 18 April 14
67. Seek out the opinion of those customers you never hear from. The happy majority are often silent. Friday, 18 April 14
68. Marketing How to tell people about your product, when you have no money to burn. https://www.flickr.com/photos/brent_nashville/5284764031/ Friday, 18 April 14
69. Seth Godin “Marketing is no longer about the stuff that you make, but about the stories you tell.” Friday, 18 April 14
70. You have made something that genuinely solves a problem. Go tell people about it! Friday, 18 April 14
71. Pre-launch of Perch • A month before we put up a landing page and email signup form • About 500 people signed up • We emailed the list on launch and those people represented enough sales on launch day to pay back all pre-launch costs. Friday, 18 April 14
72. Your reach will give you your initial customers. Then what? Friday, 18 April 14
73. Content Marketing Friday, 18 April 14
74. Write blog posts and articles on the things your potential customer is interested in, not about your product. Friday, 18 April 14
75. Sponsorship Friday, 18 April 14
76. Perch sponsoring the Unfinished Business podcast Friday, 18 April 14
77. Paid Advertising Friday, 18 April 14
78. If you cannot track it do not pay for it Friday, 18 April 14
79. Target the “long tail” keywords Friday, 18 April 14
80. Research smaller sites visited by your ideal customer, advertise on those less expensive sites. Friday, 18 April 14
81. People love Perch - http://grabaperch.com/people-love-perch Friday, 18 April 14
82. Create your own definition of success Friday, 18 April 14
83. The work is always worth it. Friday, 18 April 14
84. Thank you Rachel Andrew me@rachelandrew.co.uk @rachelandrew http://rachelandrew.co.uk Friday, 18 April 14