UMD Startup Bootcamp - Zvi Band

Going from an idea to a successful business is a long and arduous road, but where do you begin? In this session, we'll give you a crawl-walk-run guide on beginning your new venture. We're going to relay our experience in launching new ventures, walking through the earliest stages of branding, customer development, and product development.

Transcript

1. KICKSTARTING  YOUR   PRODUCT The very first steps from idea to prototype Zvi Band, UMD ’06 zvi@contactually.com @skeevis
2. YOUR LEAN PROTOTYPE Execution  is  EVERYTHING
3. A LITTLE BIT ABOUT ME
5. Awesome Idea Business Plan Dozens of Features Full Specification Hire Developers Build Tweak Launch
7. Why rapid prototyping? • idea validation • product vision • initial customer development
8. Your landing page • get customer info • create your idea hub • test, test, test • Eyeballs: $50 Adwords, Facebook Ads
9. contactually Home Try Features Blog Pricing Company Are you missing out opportunities because you forget to follow up? Organize your contacts. Build stronger connections. "We believe strongly in the power of personal connections. We meet so many amazing people, but it's getting harder to track them and stay in touch. We created contactually out of this desire." Zvi Band, Founder Join Today Contactually synchronizes with your GMail account and contacts, and will help you connect with new contacts you email. Track how you met them, remind you to follow up, follow on twitter, and more. Features Gmail Sync We Email You Weekly Wrap Ups Automated Follow Ups Online Research Twitter/LinkedIn Add to Salesforce, Highrise, + more For Your Domain We plug into your email, and monitor who you e-mail. If we see you strike up a conversation with someone new, we'll be there to help you remember them. For Your Google Apps Domain? Click here Call us (800) 521-6830
10. Your customer development: the survey • simplify your survey • drill down • send to collected list + friends
11. Establish your MVP • limited subset of features • one good developer; one weekend • paragraph + wireframes
12. Gmail Cron Job Kicks off retreival Process goes and retrieves all recent email addresses Redis DB Keeps track of :inbox_id :email_address :created_at :processed Process Goes Through DB and Review each Email Address Is email address in CRM? Ignore Yes Send "Who is this" email User responds to email Cloudmailin (or similar service) converts this to HTTP POST to our server Backend parses email, drops it into a queue Queue adds it to Mechanical Turk Mechanical Turk Processes it Retrieve Response Add to CRM User configures via Oauth
13. Just build it! • yourself • your nerdy friend/coworker • your future co-founder • freelancer • firm } intentions, intentions, intentions
14. Next steps • web app? detailed wireframes • find a designer: ask other startups • or pre-made: ThemeForest
15. Launch & grow user base • launch product: no shame. • measure, measure, measure • increase user adoption
16. Execution is everything take  your  idea test  your  concept  -­  landing  page ask  them  what  they  need build  just  enough  to  get  users measure  +  adjust
17. Zvi Band @skeevis contactually.com Everything we talked about http://district.io/resources