Slow-cooked Startup

A lightning talk with tips on turning your side project idea into a business - if it ever makes it there. The point being, you should be having fun, and you should always have a life.

Transcript

1. Slow Cooked Startup Turn your hobby project into a smashing success*
2. * success The joy of creating something valuable The satisfaction of learning
3. Build to learn Knowledge is your guaranteed reward Pick unstable, impractical technologies (if you want)
4. Solve your own problems. No toy apps.
5. Guard your time (& your life) Rule of thumb: No more than 4 hours a week.
6. Find a partner Misery loves company Align your values
7. Keep your job Startups fail. You need your Real Job.
8. Keep expectations low Avoid choices that lead to more stress. = stress
9. Find your users Reddit. Hacker News. Craigslist. The local coffee shop.
10. What do the users think? Software analytics, customer interviews. Are you solving their problems?
11. Do one thing, excellently Keep a laser focus on your little product.
12. Do It All Yourself You'll be surprised at what you can learn.
13. Be cheap Stay on the "free" side of freemium
14. Dream small Tiny growth is great.
15. Guiding principles Are we having fun? Do we still have a life? Are we proud of the work we've done? Do we have at least one passionate user?
16. If you're not doing well... Kill your darlings You had a good run. Put the product to rest.
17. If you're doing well.. Ads Easy to implement. Bad user & brand experience.
18. If you're doing well.. Premium features Do lightweight experiments, a la Lean Startup. Feature flags, A/B testing. Don't charge too much
19. The more altruistic way Donations Rely on the goodwill of your community. Patreon, Gittip
20. Thanks With inspiration from: Re:work: Jason Fried and DHH The Lean Startup: Eric Ries