Blitzbuilding Product with Rails

My RailsConf 2018 presentation. Story of how I build a crypto exchanges ( OTCBTC https://otctbtc.com) under 1 month and get 300X growth in next 60 days.

Business & Advanced version of my last talk in 2016 RailsPacific:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3TWE5k3fnM
( about winning a world hackathon in 7 hours )

Transcript

1. Blitzbuilding Product
   with Rails
   YiTing Cheng
   

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2. Xdite ( Yi-Ting Cheng )
   1. Founder & CEO of OTCBTC
   2. CTO of ico.info
   3. Organizer of RailsPacific
   4. Built product with Rails since 2007
   

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3. Fiat Coin
   OTC Crypto Exchange
   

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4. Fiat Coin
   You can think of OTC market as an “eBay for Crypto”,
   where you can buy and sell cryptocurrencies to and from
   others using fiat currencies.
   

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5. Coin Coin
   The other part is cryptocurrency exchange, where you
   can use BTC to buy and sell other cryptocurrencies.
   

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6. 300X growth ( in 60 days )
   

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7. OTCBTC
   • Launch at 2017/10/26
   • Over 50000 users ( in first month)
   • Over 1.5 Billion CNY in GMV ( in first month)
   

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8. OTCBTC
   • Break even at first month
   • NPS > 70
   • Growth Rate 20%+ (weekly)
   

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9. Building Unicorn Product
   with Rails
   YiTing Cheng
   

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10. Developer Entrepreneur
    

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11. Developer Entrepreneur
    • Step 1: Quit Job in 2012
    • Step 2: Open my own Rails consultancy
    • Step 3: Join an Series A company in 2014
    • Step 4: Quit job again to start my business in 2015
    

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12. Developer Entrepreneur
    • Step 5: Build a product that grow rapidly
    • Step 6: Build a product that grow rapidly and
    go big for multiple times in 2018
    

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13. Part 1 : Choosing the topic
    

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14. • Online Rails code camp
    • 500 students / batch
    • 2M USD revenue in 6 month
    2016 —
    

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15. • ICO platform
    • Crypto version Kickstater
    • 22 projects in 2 moth
    • 200 M USD
    • Got shutdown….
    2017 —
    

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16. What is ICO ?
    • Raising money from Crypto
    • Using ETH to contribute
    • ICO madness in 2017/05
    • Everyone wants to invest in crypto for 10x return
    ETH
    Token
    

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17. • Catch the rising trend
    • Monopoly
    • Reinvent the wheels
    • Big market
    • Huge population
    

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18. What’s the next?
    

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19. Crypto exchanges
    • Crypto to Crypto
    • Fiat to Crypto
    • OTC exchanges
    

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20. Crypto exchanges
    • Crypto to Crypto
    • Fiat to Crypto
    • OTC exchanges
    99%
    75%
    15%
    

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21. Why OTC?
    • Too many competitors in crypto exchanges
    • Fiat exchanges need to have license in some country
    • OTC compliant with current law
    

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22. The one and the only OTC
    

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24. Part 2 : Launch the idea in 1 month
    

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25. • Have the idea - 2017/09/22
    • Purchase the domain - 2017/09/23
    • Launch the product - 2017/10/26
    OTCBTC
    

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26. • You product need 10x better than old one
    • 3X - Customers see current solution
    • 3X - Entrepreneurs see their solution
    • Build the 10x product, make competitor miserable
    10X Theory
    http://www.mikedp.com/articles/2017/4/12/10x-and-the-largest-technological-improvements-of-all-time
    

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27. Agile?
    

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28. • Scrum?
    • User Story? - Must have / Should have / Could Have / Nice to Have
    • Prototype?
    Build product in 1 Month
    

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29. No
    

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30. • Crypto Wallet + Advertise + Escrow
    • Chatroom
    Only build for MUST HAVE
    

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31. • People hire you for
    “Jobs to be done”

    • Not because the
    platform look awesome
    Jobs to be done
    

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32. • One more “character”, complexity: x2
    • One more “currency”, complexity: 2x
    • One more “language”, complexity : 10x
    Really Focus
    

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33. • Build a site that people can post “Sell BTC offer”
    • Buy “BTC”
    • Built-in Chatroom
    • Simplified Chinese Only
    Step 1: Single-side market
    

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34. • Build a site that people can post “Buy BTC offer”
    • Sell “BTC”
    Step 2: Double-side market
    

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35. • Support ETH
    • Support Tradition Chinese
    Step 3: more currencies
    

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36. Product Market Fit
    Solve real problem and get paid
    make team survive
    

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37. Part 3 : Grow 20% every week
    

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38. Customer Support on WeChat / Telegram
    

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39. Intercom ( get replied in 5 mintutes)
    

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40. Reduce Churn Rate
    

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41. • Trader > Buyer
    • Protect the trader, reduce the churn rate
    User experience and operation
    

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42. • Week 1 : Build for trading volume
    • Week 2: Trader’s experience
    • Week 3: Reduce customer complain
    • Week 4: Referral Program
    • Week 5: Reduce Fraud, automate everything ….
    One week, One Goal
    

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43. Part 4: Onboarding-oriented
    

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44. • 30% - Didn’t understand how to use
    • 30% - Didn’t feel the product value
    • 10% - other product is good
    • 10% - technical flaw…
    Why Customer left?
    

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45. They don’t understand how to use
    therefore feel no value.
    

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46. Before After
    Ongoing
    Why hesitate?
    Why they screw up
    at the first place
    Best practices
    Prevent “suicide”
    Checkpoint
    Positive cycle
    Testimonial
    Referral
    Reward
    Showcase
    

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51. • Most product stop evolve after it’s launch
    • Most engineers thinks customers are idiot because
    “they are not smart enough to use our product”
    • When complains everywhere, it’s too late
    • It’s very hard to re-attract churned customers.
    • It’s all about speed and evolve.
    Pre-interact
    

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52. Part 5: Viral Growth
    

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53. Referral Program
    

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55. Airbnb
    

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56. Airbnb
    

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57. • We started referral program after NPS > 70
    • Referral program only works when your product is
    good enough
    • Reduce acquisition cost
    It’s time to referral
    

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59. And later we ICO …
    

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60. OTCBTC
    • We have > 200,000 users, > 100M RMB GMV daily
    • Good profit , NPS > 70
    • The largest OTC exchanges in Asia
    • Building worldwide operation and engineer team
    • Well-founded in Our ICO
    • The one and only exchanges built with Rails
    

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61. Summary
    

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62. JOIN US
    https://career.otcbtc.com
    

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63. When I am a developer
    • Dev-speed is everything, I choose Rails
    • Teamwork-speed is everything, I choose Scrum
    • Prototype-speed is everything, I choose User Story
    

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64. When I am a entrepreneur
    • Topics and trends are important
    • Customers are important
    • Onboarding is very very important
    • Only make what user want
    • Always make product easy to use, and it’s OK without PM
    • Growth or Die
    

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65. Q & A
    xdite@otcbtc.com
    twitter: @xdite
    

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