We're Not Doing a Startup

We’re not
“doing a startup”
How to cut through the hype and build your side
project into a profitable business.
Rachel Andrew, #revolutionconf 2014
Friday, 26 September 14

grabaperch.com

“I owe my success to having listened
respectfully to the very best advice,
and then going away and doing the
exact opposite.”
G.K. Chesterton

This is a marathon, not a 5K.

It’s not about the money
(until it is)

Getting
started
Choosing the perfect
product to bootstrap as a
side-project.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/joeshlabotnik/7276841268

“The way to get started is to quit
talking and start doing.”
Walt Disney

A product ...
• for an audience you are already part of
• that can get to a shippable version 1 quickly
• that solves a problem people will pay to have
solved
• that does not need a lot of traction to be useful
• that has existing competition

A product for an audience you are
already part of.

Solve problems for your own
community.

“Are you a Ruby developer? Then
serve Ruby developers. Are you a UX
designer? Serve UX designers.”
Amy Hoy

The worst that could have happened
with Perch? No-one would want it
but we’d have a useful tool for our
business.

With a track record in a community
you will already have trust.

A product that can get to a
shippable version 1 quickly.

“The goal of a startup is to find the
sweet-spot where minimum product
and viable product meet – get people
to fall in love with you.”
John Radoff

To launch with a small product, you
need to find a problem that can be
solved with a small product.

Perch v.1
• A simple content editor
• No way to add new pages
• No API
• Images could be uploaded - but not resized

The Problem
Client requests that an already
developed static site be made
editable via a CMS.

The Solution
A simple CMS that turned static
pages into editable pages by way of
dropping in a couple of PHP tags.

A product that solves a problem
that people are happy to pay to
have solved.

Money is the only validation

A product that does not need a lot
of traction to be useful.

“Social” or “community” products
need a large user base to succeed.

Choose a product that is as useful to
customer #1 as customer #1000

A product that has existing
competition.

Perch competitors at launch
• WordPress
• ExpressionEngine
• CushyCMS
• PageLime
• Joomla
• Drupal

What problem is your competition
NOT solving? Build it.

New concepts will require you to
educate potential customers as to
why they even need your product.

Finding the
time
How to make time for
side-projects.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mybigtrip/6111406

“One worthwhile task carried to a
successful conclusion is worth half-a-hundred
half-finished tasks.”
Malcolm S. Forbes

“In truth, people can generally make
time for what they choose to do; it is
not really the time but the will that is
lacking.”
Sir John Lubbock

Get set up to be able to pick up and
work on your side-project quickly -
whenever the time is available.

Your product must be a first-class
citizen alongside your other work.

Set aside time and plan in advance
what you will do with it

“Goals are dreams with deadlines”
Diana Scharf Hunt

There is power in setting a goal,
writing it down, putting a date on it

How to get started
• Choose your goal
• Define what it is you are going to create
• Put a date on it.

“In a nutshell, the idea is to start with
the end-goal in mind, then divide it
into smaller and smaller increments.
Plan all of the actions in detail
beforehand, then get to work.”
Brian Casel
http://casjam.com/the-cascading-to-do-list-or-how-to-get-big-things-done/

Be realistic about how much you can
achieve. Feeling as if you are falling
behind can demotivate you.

If there is not enough time ...
• Either revise your end date
• Or, remove elements of the project - pushing
them into a post-launch phase.

Be ruthless in cutting features that
can be added post-launch

The “missing” features at launch will
seem far more important to you than
to your customers.

Describe the product as it is now.
Sell the solution.

• Start Small
• Get feedback from paying customers
• Improve and add to your product based on
their needs balanced by your vision.

Minimum Viable Infrastructures

Own Your Own Data

Launch and
beyond
Managing a growing side-project
alongside an
existing job or business.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasamarshall

“Now this is not the end. It is not even
the beginning of the end. But it is,
perhaps, the end of the beginning.”
Winston Churchill

Our timeline
• We launched Perch at the end of May 2009
• At launch we were still 100% booked out on
client projects
• Income from Perch was initially reinvested into
Perch
• January 2013 we made the decision to stop
taking on new client work

A successful side-project should be
given more time as it represents a
higher % of your income.

Not making a profit?
• Are you pricing too cheaply?
• Are you reliant on expensive services?
• Are you attracting customers who need a lot of
support?

The slower growth curve of
bootstrapped products gives you
time to fix problems before they
become BIG problems.

Never promise a specific timeframe
to customers

When your product is a side-project
you have even more things that could
cause you to push back a feature.

We don’t publish a roadmap
• It allows us to be flexible and react to customer
needs and changing trends in web design.
• It means that customers are not relying on the
launch of feature X in order to complete a
project.
• It means that we can hold back a feature until
we are absolutely sure it won’t cause anyone a
problem.

Use Cases not Feature Requests

Find general solutions that will
benefit many customers rather than
adding very specific features

Understanding the problem means
we can help the customer now and
optimize the solution later.

Delight customers by solving their
problems and letting them know
when you have done so

Protect the Core Use Case

Your product will benefit by being
owned by someone who will say no.

Make Frequent Small Releases

Small releases
• Fewer changes = fewer things to go wrong
• Easier to isolate the issue if a problem does
occur
• Get features to customers more quickly
• For our customers, less of a dramatic change
that they need to communicate to their clients

Don’t be led by a noisy minority

Seek out the opinion of those
customers you never hear from. The
happy majority are often silent.

Marketing
How to tell people about
your product, when you
have no money to burn.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/brent_nashville/5284764031/

“Marketing is no longer about the
stuff that you make, but about the
stories you tell.”
Seth Godin

You have made something that
genuinely solves a problem. Go tell
people about it!

Pre-launch of Perch
• A month before we put up a landing page and
email signup form
• About 500 people signed up
• We emailed the list on launch and those people
represented enough sales on launch day to pay
back all pre-launch costs.

Your reach will give you your initial
customers. Then what?

Content Marketing

Write blog posts and articles on the
things your potential customer is
interested in, not about your product.

Sponsorship

Perch sponsoring the Unfinished Business podcast

Paid Advertising

If you cannot track it do not pay for it

Target the “long tail” keywords

Research smaller sites visited by
your ideal customer, advertise on
those less expensive sites.

People love Perch - http://grabaperch.com/people-love-perch

http://tractionbook.com

Create your own definition of
success

Revenue that is not worth chasing for
a 60 person business can be life-changing
for the solo founder.

Is the grass greener on the product
side?

The work is always worth it.

Thank you
Rachel Andrew
@rachelandrew
http://rachelandrew.co.uk/presentations/not-doing-a-startup

We're Not Doing a Startup

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