How to Start Up

How to get your ass up and make something or practical advices for lunching your first web startup

Hello

My name is Grigor

I do software engineering for living.

Also I'm wannabe entrepreneur and make web apps on side.

grigy.com        grigor.yeghiazaryan        @grigy

The Story

I have a dream, to see 1000 tech startups in Armenia

So I started one. It is not successful yet but it grows and there is potential. So we need the other 999

Today I came here to tell my story and share what I have learned so far...

... hope that some of you will start to make something

Our StartupInspection2.com

Still in Private Beta

Email Signups: 180Registered Users: 80From Armenia ~ 20

Web Startups

Why should you start a startup?

• Solve your money problem at one shot.• Work on what you love.• Learn new things every day.• Get experience to support future success.

How to come up with ideas?

• Solve your own problem.• See what’s broken in other apps and fix.• Pick a business niche and research demand.• Think big, make it international.• Armenia is too small market for most of ideas.• Idea is not secret. Tell friends.• Execution is the key, not the idea.

Time Management

• Do you already have a full time job? Me too.• Make it side job. Consider it as a pay job.• Plan your day. Dedicate a few hours a day to your

“night job”.• Get motivated to make it easy getting into zone. 

Pick a Co-founder

• Difficult to start alone. Get a friend or two on board.• Ideally better than you in something. Diversely skilled

works best.• Decide on your intents at the beginning.• Divide shares up front.

Funding

• There is good news. You don’t need money (or need too little) for starting a web startup these days.

• But don't try to go all free.• Fund yourself.

Naming

This is separate topic itself. • Everything else can be easily changed, but not the name.• Take your time to choose a good name.• Discoverable vs. brandable• Start with finding a domain name• Get .com domain, or at least as part of name .io .ly• Don't get cheap or free domains .tk• This can be helpful domainjig.com

Design

Don’t make crappy design.Hire a professional designer or ask designer friends to help.

Design is the third deciding factor of the product success

1. market– marketing– aesthetics– functionality

Landing Page

• Start with landing page• Pitch in your ideas• Collect emails• Show a demo or prototype• Get Google to know you

Blog

• Communicate your ideas• Keep notes about important events• Share your stories• Give helpful advices, tips, links• Eventually advertise your product and get users

Launch Fast

• Get something done while still motivated• Launch fast and iterate• Create minimum viable product (MVP)• Learn from user feedback and improve• Try Hollywood Lunch

Fail Early

• Your first startup will probably fail.• Realize failure early.• Distinguish “give up” vs. failure.• Learn from failure and start over.• Real entrepreneurs fail but don't give up.

Web Services

• Bug Tracking FogBugz• Code Hosting Assembla• Collaboration Yammer

• Email Marketing MailChimp• Online Forms Wufoo• User Feedback UserVoice• Screencasts Screenr

• Email Service SendGrid• Web Server Amazon EC2

Reading

• Start Small, Stay Small: A Developer’s Guide to Launching A Startup http://www.startupbook.net ($20)

• How to Start a Startup, Essays by Paul Graham, http://www.paulgraham.com/articles.html (free)

• Getting Real, http://gettingreal.37signals.com (free)

• Do More Faster: TechStars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup, Brad Feld, David Cohen ($20)

• Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days, Jessica Livingston ($15)

What's next?

Let's create a community and discuss local issues

• No community (startup culture, founders, angels, VCs)• No startup incubators• Technical problems, for ex. payment gateways

I've created a blog startups.am as a first step. 

Thank you

Any questions?