Going Solo

How (and when) to leave your job, build a business,
and still feed the kids

Transcript

1. How (and when) to leave your job, build a business, and still feed the kids Ted Roden - @tedroden Going Solo
2. Introductions.
3. My name is Ted Roden.
4. Founder (fancyhands.com)
5. First...
6. Then...
7. Now.
8. Person • Live in New York City • Married • 2 Kids
9. Employee • Network Ninja • Vimeo • The New York Times • News.me / bit.ly
10. etc. One-time Author Occasional Speaker
11. You?
12. What was I saying?
13. • Introduction (you are here) • Focus • Founding • Working • Building your business • How to take the plunge • Lessons learned
14. Focus.
16. Can you focus on the right things?
17. Can you stay focused enough to get a product out the door?
18. Can you stay focused in the face of competition?
19. Can you stay focused in the face of competition? (there will be competition)
20. Can you stay focused...
21. Founding.
22. Picking your business.
23. Identifying your product.
24. It’s all about passion, right?
25. You have the most passion. Right?
26. It needs to be easy to pitch your product
27. Use what people already know.
28. Don’t be afraid to be compared to something.
30. “It’s Die Hard on a bus.”
33. Complicated business, simple model.
34. Don’t confuse customers with products.
35. Own the product, don’t attract the product.
36. Build the product, attract the customer.
37. Product vs Customer Don’t start with:
38. Don’t give yourself two masters.
39. Owning the Product Start with
40. Customer — Product Get to
41. I♥ my relationship with your credit card
42. Revenue is a beta feature
43. Don’t get eyeballs and monetize them later.
44. If I gave out free ice cream on the corner, I’d have the most popular ice cream shop in town. Nick Bilton (@nickbilton)
45. Forget raising money
46. Don’t put it off until later, don’t even consider it.
47. You need to focus.
48. Raising money will take 6 months minimum.
49. 6 months of not building your product.
50. 6 months of not gaining traction.
51. And at the end of those 6 months of raising money,
52. And at the end of those 6 months of raising money,
53. And at the end of those 6 months of raising money, you’ve given away a big slice of your delicious pie.
54. But in the end, you probably wouldn’t have raised any money.
55. (Good investors say “no” more than “yes”)
56. Building a company is about reducing risks and making bets.
57. Your first act as a founder should not be to bet against yourself.
58. The co-founder myth
59. A cofounder needs to be a perfect match.
60. Good luck with that.
61. “You need someone there for the dark months.”
62. Working.
63. Don’t talk about it!
64. Talking about your plans makes you less motivated Some NYU professor (via http://sivers.org/zipit)
65. “Don’t talk about it? But, I need feedback on my idea!”
66. This is not the time for feedback.
67. You need 100% focus.
68. You need to rule your idea and execution with an iron fist.
69. Finding the time.
70. Embrace the constraint.
71. Work on something you can finish today.
72. Solve the right problems.
73. People love to tackle the low hanging fruit.
74. Your big problems don’t disappear while you work on little ones.
75. Building your business.
76. Taking advice.
77. Who’s giving you the advice?
78. http://some.blog.com/how-I-sold-my-company.html
79. Find trusted advisors.
80. Someone like an old boss.
81. Ignore what the big guys do.
82. “We need to have Zappos style customer service.”
83. You don’t need live chat on the website.
84. or an 800 number
85. or a sales@mycompany.com email address
86. or a branded Facebook page.
87. People don’t want to do business with a company.
88. People want to connect with people.
89. How do you know you’re onto something?
90. It’s not about getting your first paid customer.
91. Getting someone to pay is easier than you think.
92. Getting lots of people to pay is harder.
93. “Oh wow, how do you do that?”
94. How to take the plunge.
95. Come up with the number.
96. How much do you need to make to quit the day job?
97. How much does your company need to make to pay you that?
98. Get the husband, wife, boyfriend, girlfriend on board.
99. Keep track of the number every day.
100. That number is now the most important number in your life.
101. Measure your own performance.
102. Meet your new boss, worse than your old boss.
103. Lessons learned.
104. Starting a startup is not really a great way to make money.
105. It’s hard, it’s competitive, and it’s terrifying.
106. But it’s kinda fun.
107. Don’t become an expert.
109. You get one shot.
110. It’s not about starting, it’s about exiting.