Slides for this presentation given at Webdev Conf, Bristol

1. We’re not
“doing a startup”
How to cut through the hype and build your side
project into a profitable business.
Rachel Andrew, WDC 2014
Friday, 10 October 14

2. grabaperch.com
Friday, 10 October 14

3. G.K. Chesterton
“I owe my success to having listened
respectfully to the very best advice,
and then going away and doing the
exact opposite.”
Friday, 10 October 14

4. This is a marathon, not a 5K.
Friday, 10 October 14

5. Friday, 10 October 14

6. It’s not about the money
(until it is)
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7. Getting
started
Choosing the perfect
product to bootstrap as a
side-project.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/joeshlabotnik/7276841268
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8. Walt Disney
“The way to get started is to quit
talking and start doing.”
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9. • for your own community
• that you can ship 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 ...
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10. A product for your own community
https://www.flickr.com/photos/drewm
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11. Amy Hoy
“Are you a Ruby developer? Then
serve Ruby developers. Are you a UX
designer? Serve UX designers.”
Friday, 10 October 14

12. The worst that could have happened
with Perch? No-one would want it
but we’d have a useful tool for our
business.
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13. With a track record in a community
you will already have trust.
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14. A product you can ship quickly
http://freekvanarkel.nl
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15. John Radoff
“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.”
Friday, 10 October 14

16. To launch with a small product, you
need to find a problem that can be
solved with a small product.
Friday, 10 October 14

17. Perch v.1
• A simple content editor
• No way to add new pages
• No API
• Images could be uploaded - but not resized
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18. The Problem
Client requests that an already
developed static site be made
editable via a CMS.
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19. The Solution
A simple CMS that turned static
pages into editable pages by way of
dropping in a couple of PHP tags.
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20. A product that solves a problem that
people will pay to have solved
https://www.flickr.com/photos/futureshape/
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21. If you can save a business time they
will see the value in paying for your
product.
Friday, 10 October 14

22. Bootstrapped With Kids, Episode 31
“We think their workflow sucks, but
they like it…”
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23. Our target market for Perch was
designers and agencies. We aimed to
save them time on smaller projects.
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24. Feedback from paying customers
trumps feedback from free users.
Every time.
Friday, 10 October 14

25. A product that does not need a lot of
users to be useful
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22746515@N02/
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26. “Social” or “community” products
need a large user base to succeed.
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27. Choose a product that is as useful to
customer #1 as customer #1000
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28. A product that has competition
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29. Perch competitors at launch
• WordPress
• ExpressionEngine
• CushyCMS
• PageLime
• Joomla
• Drupal
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30. What problem is your competition
NOT solving? Build it.
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31. New concepts will require you to
educate potential customers as to
why they even need your product.
Friday, 10 October 14

32. Finding the
time
How to make time for
side-projects.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mybigtrip/6111406
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33. Malcolm S. Forbes
“One worthwhile task carried to a
successful conclusion is worth half-a-
hundred half-finished tasks.”
Friday, 10 October 14

34. Sir John Lubbock
“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.”
Friday, 10 October 14

35. Get set up to be able to pick up and
work on your side-project quickly -
whenever the time is available.
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36. Your product must be a first-class
citizen alongside your other work.
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37. Set aside time and plan in advance
what you will do with it
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38. Diana Scharf Hunt
“Goals are dreams with deadlines”
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39. There is power in setting a goal,
writing it down, putting a date on it
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40. How to get started
• Choose your goal
• Define what it is you are going to create
• Put a date on it.
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41. Brian Casel
http://casjam.com/the-cascading-to-do-list-or-how-to-get-big-things-done/
“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.”
Friday, 10 October 14

42. Be realistic about how much you can
achieve. Feeling as if you are falling
behind can demotivate you.
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43. If there is not enough time ...
• Either revise your end date
• Or, remove elements of the project - pushing
them into a post-launch phase.
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44. Be ruthless in cutting features that
can be added post-launch
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45. The “missing” features at launch will
seem far more important to you than
to your customers.
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46. Describe the product as it is now.
Sell the solution.
Friday, 10 October 14

47. • Start Small
• Get feedback from paying customers
• Improve and add to your product based on
their needs balanced by your vision.
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48. Minimum Viable Infrastructures
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49. Own Your Own Data
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50. Launch and
beyond
Managing a growing side-
project alongside an
existing job or business.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasamarshall
Friday, 10 October 14

51. Winston Churchill
“Now this is not the end. It is not even
the beginning of the end. But it is,
perhaps, the end of the beginning.”
Friday, 10 October 14

52. • 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
Our timeline
Friday, 10 October 14

53. A successful side-project should be
given more time as it represents a
higher % of your income.
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54. 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?
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55. The slower growth curve of
bootstrapped products gives you
time to fix problems before they
become BIG problems.
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56. Never promise a specific timeframe
to customers
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57. When your product is a side-project
you have even more things that could
cause you to push back a feature.
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58. 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.
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59. Use Cases not Feature Requests
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60. Find general solutions that will
benefit many customers rather than
adding very specific features
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61. Understanding the problem means
we can help the customer now and
optimize the solution later.
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62. Delight customers by solving their
problems and letting them know
when you have done so
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63. Protect the Core Use Case
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64. Your product will benefit by being
owned by someone who will say no.
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65. Make Frequent Small Releases
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66. 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
Friday, 10 October 14

67. Don’t be led by a noisy minority
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68. Seek out the opinion of those
customers you never hear from. The
happy majority are often silent.
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69. Marketing
How to tell people about
your product, when you
have no money to burn.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/brent_nashville/5284764031/
Friday, 10 October 14

70. Seth Godin
“Marketing is no longer about the
stuff that you make, but about the
stories you tell.”
Friday, 10 October 14

71. You have made something that
genuinely solves a problem. Go tell
people about it!
Friday, 10 October 14

72. 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.
Friday, 10 October 14

73. Your reach will give you your initial
customers. Then what?
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74. Content Marketing
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75. Write blog posts and articles on the
things your potential customer is
interested in, not about your product.
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76. Sponsorship
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77. Perch sponsoring the Unfinished Business podcast
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78. Paid Advertising
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79. If you cannot track it do not pay for it
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80. Target the “long tail” keywords
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81. Research smaller sites visited by
your ideal customer, advertise on
those less expensive sites.
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82. People love Perch - http://grabaperch.com/people-love-perch
Friday, 10 October 14

83. http://tractionbook.com
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84. Create your own definition of
success
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85. Revenue that is not worth chasing for
a 60 person business can be life-
changing for the solo founder.
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86. Is the grass greener on the product
side?
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87. The work is always worth it.
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88. Thank you
Rachel Andrew
@rachelandrew
http://rachelandrew.co.uk/presentations/not-doing-a-startup
Friday, 10 October 14