Entries Tagged 'Startups' ↓

If you’re interested in the pre-launch discount for my book Start Small, Stay Small: A Developer’s Guide to Launching a Startup, you’ll want to head over to StartupBook.net in the next few hours.

I’ll be taking down the landing page and closing out the launch list this weekend in preparation for next week’s release.

Getting rich shouldn’t be your goal when launching a startup.

Thousands of people who are better developers than you, are better at evaluating markets, and better at marketing software have built products and still work for a living.

There is a chance that your startup will provide riches beyond your wildest dreams. A slightly better chance than buying a lottery ticket.

And while it’s true that you might get lucky your first time, “luck” is not a plan.

During his presentation at the Business of Software conference in 2009, Dharmesh Shah said “For your first startup, maximize your odds of a modest outcome.”

Have you ever considered aiming for a modest outcome?

This approach gives you time to learn the ropes. There are hundreds of things to learn your first time at the plate. That learning curve coupled with a big market and big competition is very likely to crush your chance of success.

Your first time at the plate you already have one things stacked against you: lack of experience. Don’t stack the complexity of a big market/big competition as well.

Maximize your odds of a modest outcome by choosing a niche market. It’s not as sexy as conquering the world with the next brilliant consumer-focused social media network microblog app, but your chance of a modest outcome is 10x…perhaps 100x greater.

Start your startup. Learn the ropes.

Then, whether you succeed or fail, you can swing for the fences. That second time you may just make it.

(Since several have asked…this is one of the reasons my upcoming book about starting a startup is titled Start Small, Stay Small)

I’ve communicated with hundreds of startup founders over the past three years, and I’ve begun to notice a pattern.

There are three points during the creating of a startup where the founders are most likely to close up shop. I call these the “danger points” and this post looks at how to avoid them.

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This post is an excerpt from my upcoming book, Start Small, Stay Small: A Developer’s Guide to Launching a Startup.

If you haven’t already signed up to receive the “crazy pre-release deal” when the book launches, you can do so at the startup book website.

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One piece of your marketing that you need to nail down is your “hook.”

This is not your Unique Selling Proposition, and it’s not your elevator pitch. It’s the headline of your home page. That single sentence that grabs the reader in and makes her know she’s in the right place.

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I taught an online A/B testing class yesterday at StartupSchool and the recording is now available on the course page.

It’s 50 minutes long, with about 30 minutes of presentation. The remainder is Q&A (there were some excellent questions asked).

Topics covered include:

• A/B testing basics
• Why you should A/B test
• I create an A/B test “on the fly”
• What you should test

The fourth episode of Startups for the Rest of Us, the podcast I co-host with Mike Taber, is live at our podcast website.

This episode is titled Things We Wish We Knew When We Started Out. It looks back at lessons we’ve learned during our years of entrepreneurship.

This is the last episode I’ll announce for a while so if you’re interested in hearing two software entrepreneurs talk about software and web startups, subscribe using one of the links below. New episodes are out every Tuesday.

Subscribe via:

• iTunes (opens iTunes)
• RSS
• Email

A few weeks ago I asked for your opinion on the focus and format for my book. Since then I’ve worked out a lot more specifics, and today I’m pleased to announce them.

Start Small. Stay Small. A Developer’s Guide to Launching a Startup covers everything a software or web developer needs to know to launch and grow a startup with no outside funding. Sign up to receive a crazy pre-release deal when the book launches.

Here’s a snippet from the first chapter:

Who is this Book For?

This book is aimed at developers who want to launch a software or web startup with no outside funding. This book is for companies started by real people to solve real pain points using desktop, web and mobile applications.

In this book I assume:

• You don’t have $6M of investor funds sitting in your bank account
  
• You’re not going to relocate yourself or your family to the handful of startup hubs in the world
• You’re not going to work 70 hour weeks for low pay with the hope of someday making millions from your stock options

There’s nothing wrong with going after venture funding and trying to grow a company fast like Amazon, Google, Twitter, and Facebook. It just so happens that most people are not in a place where they can pursue that route.

As I began the writing process I received input from developers who told me they were tired of “filler” material – weak case studies, superficial interviews, chapters describing 10 options for how to accomplish a task but no guidance on which path you should take.

So I’ve focused on providing a practical, step-by-step approach to getting your startup off the ground and focused on making every word count. No filler allowed.

If you aren’t frantically underlining, highlighting or taking notes as you read each chapter, then I have not achieved my goal for this book.

Sound like fun?

Sign up to receive a crazy pre-release deal when the book launches.

I will be speaking at the 2010 Business of Software Conference in Boston this October. Headliners for the conference include Joel Spolsky, Seth Godin, Eric Sink and Dharmesh Shah.

For the full list of speakers, check out the speakers page. With my luck I will speak immediately after Seth Godin.

After last year’s Pecha Kucha at BoS 2009 it took me a few days to recover from the stress. Nightmares about 20-second countdown timers and all. This year I’m looking forward to a more relaxed pace.

If you don’t have your tickets, buy them soon; they are $400 off until July 2nd.

Look forward to seeing you there.

Ever since I heard about Startup School a few months back I’ve been meaning to try it out. Next Tuesday I get my chance, as I take the reins of an online class on split testing (aka A/B testing).

The class is at 10am PST on Tuesday April 27th and 32 people have signed up so far.

Due to technical difficulties I will be re-teaching this class at 10am PST on Tuesday May 11th. It will be one hour in duration with the majority of the time devoted to Q&A.

Click here for more information or to sign up for the class.

The entertainment value of me flubbing my way through an online presentation will be priceless…

Something’s been bothering me for the past few months and today I finally put my finger on it.

It bothers me how much people like to criticize other people.

“People suck,” you’re thinking to yourself “so what’s your point?”

Ok, so it’s not just that people like to criticize other people, it’s that they like to criticize other people when they have relative anonymity, and when they haven’t achieved much themselves.

Yep, I’m gonna get flamed for this one.

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