Web Apps A To Z Rehash
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Transcript of Web Apps A To Z Rehash
Building Web Apps From A To Z
David Bisset's (@dimensionmedia)Rehash of Presentation By:Mike McDerment@MikeMcDermentFebruary 24th, 2009Future Of Web Apps WorkShop
What We Will Be Covering
From Scratch To Launch
Building
Marketing
Product Management
Some Metrics
Financing
General Questions
What We Won't Be Covering
Deep Metrics
Venture $$$
Deep Financing
How Brian Talked Me Into Doing This
v
Mike McDerment
An entrepreneur with two successful start-ups to his name.
Mike is a founder of the mesh conference, lecturer at Humber College and a frequent speaker at Internet conferences.
What Is A Web App?
Web Application accessed via web browser
Desktops & Mobiles
Usually give you the ability to create a personal account and personlize.
Examples:Gmail / Google Calendar
Pandora / Last.fm
Online Banking
Twitter / Facebook / 4square
GET IT YET? WELL?!?!?
Part One: Building
Getting a Launch Ready Product
Launch Ready Product
You get paid to be a crayon (being creative, creating sales; make more money for users) or aspirin (taking the pain out of a task or chore). Freshbooks is an example of aspirin. You need to figure out which of these you are it matters in marketing, etc. down the road.
FACT: You don't know what to launch with... get people using your service as fast as you can. Figure out where you are, building least number of features, and put the thing out there.
Launching and marketing are two different things. Get something up. Actually launch in the future.
Don't Build Billing Don't waste time on this. Get people to use the service first, deploy billing later.
Set a deadline for launch.
GET TO LAUNCH AS FAST AS YOU CAN.
Part One: Building
Building The Founding Team
Building A Founding Team
Two kinds of entrepreneurs: (1) Those who want control, (2) Those who want to build something big not own or control something. TRUST.
Equity = ownership = bigger pie. How much equity do you give your team?
Human qualities: PASSION. If there's no passion...
Trust, honesty, loyalty, openness otherwise it will suck the life of you
Not in it for the money.
It's a marriage. Do the 3am Test.
Founders should find people that compliment themselves. Find people that have skills that you don't have.
Key roles in a startup: Entrepreneur, Manager, Technician
Design, Development, Operations, Sales/Marketing
Part One: Building
Mo Money, Mo Problems
Greed Is Good-ish.
Lawyers (Try to find a cheap one this and docs will be single biggest expense)
Don't use shared hosting.
Don't need an office.
Advisors are nice, but probably not needed.
Business plan exercise going through it is good
Part Two: Marketing
Categories
Categories
What category are you in (AutoNation is in car, Facebook is in social networking)? What does your product or service do? These are very important because this is the place in your customer's mind in which you live.
Can you create a new category?
http://www.amazon.com/Positioning-Battle-Your-Mind-Anniversary/dp/0071359168/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267024471&sr=8-1
Creating a new category is as easy sometimes as adding online. Before there was online banking, there was banking. Hotel reservations is now online hotel reservations today.
Part Two: Marketing
Choosing A Name
Choosing A Name
Easy to remember
Easy to spell without explanation
Get a name that describes the category
Get a name that describes the benefit
Get a name that describes the difference between you and everything else
Fun. Harsh. Consonants.
Get the .com... it's just another constraint
If you are serious, you might need to pay up Freshbooks costs $2k.
Part Two: Marketing
Knowing Your Story
Knowing Your Story
There is an art to telling stories. You can convey more information in a story than any other format.
Stories give your history and will be remembered.
Different versions for different people (short, long).
Develop an Elevator pitch quick way to tell what you do in less then 30 seconds.
Stories do evolve, so make sure you refine the story online and offline.
venturehacks.com
Part Two: Marketing
Building Your Website
Building Your Website
Three pages
Startup needs homepage, signup page, tour page.
Blog possible fourth, in that order.
Home page must explain: What it is? Who it's for? Why it matters?
http://www.amazon.com/Call-Action-Formulas-Improve-Results/dp/078521965X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267027862&sr=8-1
Part Two: Marketing
Spending Wisely
Spending Wisely
Out spend or out teach how are you going to market your product?
Invest your time to teach others, talk at conferences, write books, write blogs, etc.
First step go to a conference.
Banners in your community. Marketing to your fellow community makes sense. At least it gives you brand recognization.
Google PPC (Outsource If You Can)
Community Emails
PR = renting relationships. Not exactly great.
Blogging tell your story, why you are doing it, stories of customers, etc. You are more interesting than you think. Have each member of your team blog (Freshbooks does this).
Part Three: Product Management
Do Support
Do Support
Everyone does customer support
At Freshbooks, new employees ALWAYS start off in customer service no matter what their job (to know what matters/what's broken).
Post your phone number on your website do everything you can to communicate your customers
Use a forum
Hit Twitter, Facebook. Be Everywhere.
As your organization scales, create a system for most asked features.
Usability Tests just sit down next to someone, give them a direction, don't say anything and see what they do
Do Support
Telephone Interviews are a must. Prepare a survey, and when asking about benefits keep the question open ended. In your own words, what's the single biggest benefit of our service?
Decisions = dope. Decisions are part art, part science.
You are the editor / curator of the web app.
Can't please all the people all the time.
If you aren't sure if you need to add a feature, don't do it.
If you do support, you'll know what to add.
Wait, wait, wait. Don't jump into building a feature right away.
Remove the pain, stay true to the vision. (Does this feature fit with my plan and dream?)
Part Four: Metrics
Hope You Are Comfortable With Math
Hope You Are Comfortable W/ Math
Expenses:
Hosting ~10% revenue.
Acquisition: CPA < 10 * ARPU
Burn Rate: Monthly exp monthly rev = Burn
Run Rate: Monthly Revenue * 12 = Run rate
VC asks you burn rate
What % of emails are glowing, what % of people who would refer you to friends and family.
Job satisfaction
Days you did not want to work
Part Five: Funding
When To Raise Some Dead Presidents(Money)
When To Raise Money
Raising Money Is The Beginning Of A Buttload Of Work, Or The End.
Ask When you Don't Need It, Aren't Begging For It
When you know your users better than anybody
When you have a formula for the $$$
When you've got traction
Web apps are so cheap to build, there's no excuse to building one before asking for venture dollars.
When You Know Your Market Size
Part Five: Funding
Where To Find Money
Where To Find Money
Consulting Businesses
Personal Savings
Love Money (From Family/Friends who don't expect to get it back)
Angels and Advisors
Your Mortgage
The Bank?
Venture Capital / PE
Capital Markets (When Going Public)
Part Five: Funding
What To Look For In Investors
What To Look For In Investors
Shared Values
Conviction
Trust, honesty
Operational experience
Domain expertise
3am test
it's a marriage
Am I Still Alive?
David Bisset
Twitter: @dimensionmedia
www.davidbisset.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/davidbisset
Frontend Development, Wordpress
Just Offer Free Pizza, And I'm There