bootstrapping your startup & building it lean:

stop wasting timeas endured by Joel Gascoigne

How I ended up here

• Developer for 10 years

• Graduate of Computing Systems

• Running 2 startups, some success

• Bootstrapped, no outside investment

• Actively involved with other startups

• Organiser of StartupMill events

myonepage.com/joel

Coming up

• Startups: methodologies & techniques

• Applying what we’ve learned

• Roundup and how to start

Startups

• Some key people

• Learnings

• Specific techniques

People who defined my thinking

• Eric Ries

• Steve Blank

• Sean Ellis

• Dave McClure

• Look these guys up!

Eric RiesThe Lean Startup

• Use of platforms enabled by open source and free software

• Application of agile development methodologies

• Customer-centric rapid iteration

Minimum Viable Product

• Version of a new product which allows you to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort

• Avoid building products nobody wants

• Probably much more minimum than you think

Eric RiesThe Lean Startup

• The “pivot”

• Looking back at the beginnings of successful companies shows they often started as a different idea

• Many examples: PayPal, Flickr, ...

Eric RiesThe Lean Startup

Eric RiesThe Lean Startup

Eric RiesThe Lean Startup

Eric RiesThe Lean Startup

Eric RiesThe Lean Startup

Eric RiesThe Lean Startup

• http://leanpub.com/startuplessonslearned/

• http://startuplessonslearned.com

Steve BlankCustomer Development

Steve BlankCustomer Development

• http://bit.ly/FourSteps

• http://custdev.com

Sean EllisProduct/Market Fit

• Comparing results across over 100 startups, those that struggle have not reached “Product/Market Fit”

• Sean’s metric: ask existing users how they would feel if they could no longer use the product. 40% very disappointed = P/M Fit

• Engage existing and target users to learn how to make your product a “must have”

Sean EllisProduct/Market Fit

Sean EllisProduct/Market Fit

• For more, check outhttp://startup-marketing.com

Dave McClurePirate Metrics

• Acquisition

• Activation

• Retention

• Referral

• Revenue

Dave McClurePirate Metrics

Dave McClurePirate Metrics

• More from Dave McClure:

• http://500hats.typepad.com/

Learning

• Embrace change, avoid assumptions

• “Pivot” & iterate through feedback loop (Eric Ries)

• “Get out of the building” (Steve Blank)

• Strive for Product/Market Fit first (Sean Ellis)

• Use metrics, not opinions (Dave McClure)

Techniques

Techniques

• Testing

• Cloud computing

• Split tests

• Continuous deployment

Testing

• Unit testing

• Acceptance testing

• Automated test suite

Cloud computing

• Cloud storage (Amazon S3, Rackspace CloudFiles)

• Cloud computing (Amazon EC2, Rackspace CloudServers)

• Other services (email, selenium testing)

Split tests

• Test a change against an existing feature

• For example, a new landing page versus the old one

• Show 50% of people the old one and 50% of people the new one, and test the metrics to decide which is better

Continuous deployment

• The time taken for code to be committed to the repository to it being live on the production server is less than 20 minutes

• Code is passed through tests in order to determine whether it should go live

How I see lean, and ways to bootstrap

• Stop wasting time

• Activities aren’t always wrong, just often timed wrong

• Just do it, there are too many reasons not to start

Lean & bootstrapping:my experiences

• 2 things which worked for me

• 2 things I will now always question

• 3 examples of keeping things lean

Worked for me:Open source

• Use a framework, careful with a CMS

• Use a familiar language

• Save learning a new one for a side project which isn’t a business

• Use other people’s code

Worked for me:3rd party services

• It makes no sense to do non-core activities

• Email - sendgrid, mailchimp, ...

• Deployment - beanstalk, github, ...

• Metrics - mixpanel, KISSmetrics, ...

• Feedback - uservoice, GetSatisfaction, ...

• Hosting - AWS, Rackspace, Heroku, ...

I will always question:delaying a launch

• I didn’t think I was ready to launch OnePage or Buffer when I did

• OnePage - 4 months

• Buffer - 7 weeks

• “be notified when we’re ready” works well

• Users are very forgiving

• Question every feature

I’ll always question:“closed beta”

• “closed beta” for far too long with OnePage

• No closed beta for Buffer

• Use it only when it makes sense

• You have people desperate to see what you built next

• You have a very clever social hook

Keeping things lean:Launching incrementally

• Start small, measure throughout

• Example: Buffer

• Started with “coming soon” page

• Added full landing page, no other pages

• Then added pricing page, still no app

• Finally added the app

Keeping things lean:No fancy signup process

• Buffer has no signup process yet

• Launching it without was scary

• Pleasantly surprised with outcome

• Better to launch, measure conversions and then build a better signup process

Keeping things lean:Integrating PayPal

• PayPal has a feature to allow you to automatically switch a user’s account level in your app when they make a payment

• Maybe considered necessary, I launched without implementing it

• Better to spend the time getting the first customer

Act tomorrow:Starting from scratch

• Keep your MVP minimal

• Don’t get carried away with code

• Measure before you build more

• Focus on qualitative feedback

Act tomorrow:Already launched?

• Add in actionable metrics (Dave McClure)

• Lots of traffic? Start split testing

• Check out Optimizely.com

Thanks!Get in touch: myonepage.com/joel

Avoid assumptions

Question everything

Test everything