So you want to do a startup

Slide 1: So you want to do a startup? Rashmi Sinha, SlideShare

Slide 2: Are you sure?

Slide 3: Who am I?

Slide 4: SlideShare... best place in the world to share presentations

Slide 5: Taking over the world (one PowerPoint at a time!) Start May 06 > Beta > Launch Oct 06 > Grow > Grow more > Angel funding Dec 07 > Series A Apr 08 We are hiring!

Slide 6: 1. Make your app useful

Slide 7: Solve one problem really well

Slide 8: Make app social SlideShare as non social app PowerPoint plugin? No virality

Slide 9: 2. Speed is imperative

Slide 10: Why startups need speed?

Slide 11: Small & fast

Slide 12: Set the tone for speed In hiring, development, design, releases, biz dev

Slide 13: Be agile (worry about scaling later)

Slide 14: The monster of expectations

Slide 15: 3. What to build

Slide 16: Why we built products we did MindCanvas: Could sell into market SlideShare: Understood market

Slide 17: 37signals: Build less

Slide 18: Build for right reasons Start with less Add complexity (when necessary) Remove features Get people used to change

Slide 19: To build a feature or not to Listen to loudest? Watch behavioral metrics? Read blog posts?

Slide 20: Loudest users OR silent majority slidecasting example

Slide 21: How to double traffic?

Slide 22: Anatomy of a feature launch Groups: V1, V2 & V3

Slide 23: 4. Ideas are dime a dozen

Slide 24: Ideas are just a multiplier AWFUL IDEA = -1 NO EXECUTION = $1 WEAK IDEA = 1 WEAK EXECUTION = $1000 X SO-SO IDEA = 5 SO-SO- EXECUTION = $10,000 GOOD IDEA = 10 GOOD EXECUTION = $100,000 GREAT IDEA = 15 GREAT EXECUTION = $1,000,000 BRILLIANT IDEA = 20 BRILLIANT EXECUTION = $10,000,000 http://www.oreillynet.com/onlamp/blog/2005/08/ideas_are_just_a_multiplier_of.html

Slide 25: Execution is all that matters

Slide 26: Care about execution Scrutinize ideas: “can we execute on this?” How fast? When can we start work? What will first version take? Which team member will do it? What metrics to track progress? What will we push back to work on this?

Slide 27: 5. Understand market size (& revenue model)

Slide 28: http://www.flickr.com/photos/docman/5053155/

Slide 29: Potential market size No of PowerPoint presentations Blogs & Video

Slide 30: Potential revenue streams AdSense Affiliate Networks Sponsorships Fremium Licensing White label version Marketplace Job board Professional services

Slide 31: Good early legs Adsense Consulting revenue

Slide 32: Revenue stream impacts application Advertising Pro accounts & Fremium White label solutions -Revenue stream should not kill virality -Don’t loose focus on majority

Slide 33: Problems with fremium

Slide 34: VC money? Retain control till you can Take money (if you absolutely need it) From right partners

Slide 35: advisors & 6. Get angel investors

Slide 36: SlideShare advisors & angel investors Dave McClure Guy Kawasaki Mark Cuban Jonathan Abrams Yee Lee Hal Varian Saul Klein

Slide 37: Who?

Slide 38: 7.Outsource what you can

Slide 39: Outsource complexity Amazon S3, EC2 Dedicated servers instead of colocation Google Ads Google Search Different widgets (Gigya, AddThis)

Slide 40: 8. Working with remote teams

Slide 41: Challenges Getting to know each other Hard to develop informal rapport Need to look at same screen. Body clock Benefits: 24 hour cycle

Slide 42: Synchronous is must Skype GoToMeeting

Slide 43: SCRUM End of day reports

Slide 44: 9. How to Launch

Slide 45: The Alpha Feedback to the embed No publicity Browser compatibility issues

Slide 46: How developed should a Beta be? SlideShare beta Enough to get point across Little of social layer Not buggy

Slide 47: SlideShare launch Alpha Launch Open to all Stealth mode Invite only Invite only: Before or after launch?

Slide 48: Initial Momentum

Slide 49: 10. Use metrics

Slide 50: What metrics? Performance: page load times... Errors: 404, 500s... Traffic: Web logs Database tracking: No. registrations, login, uploads, contacts Customer feedback emails

Slide 51: Get yourself a shadow app Metrics we care about Simple console with daily, hourly Simpler than web analytics Whole team uses it Measure project success, iterate Proxy AB testing

Slide 52: Startup Metrics from Dave Mc Clure Acquisition: users come to site from various channels Activation: users enjoy 1st visit: \"happy” experience Retention: users come back, visit site multiple times Referral: users like product enough to refer others Revenue: users conduct some monetization behavior

Slide 53: Customer Lifecycle & Conversion Behavior SEO Campaigns, Social SEM PR Contests Biz Networks Dev Blogs Affiliates Apps & Direct, Widgets Email Tel, TV 1 . A C Q U IS IT IO N Domains Campaigns, Contests R AL 2 . FE R Ac Homepage / R E t iv Landing Page 4 . Emails & at Product widgets io n Features 5 . Ads, Lead Gen, Biz Dev Re Subscriptions, etc ve nu e $ $ $

Slide 54: Example Conversion Metrics (note: *not* actuals… your mileage may vary.) Category Conversion Status Conv % Est. Value Acquisition Visit Site 100% $.01 (or landing page, or external widget) Acquisition Doesn't Abandon 70% $.05 (views 2+ pages, stays 10+ sec, 2+ clicks) Activation Happy 1st Visit 30% $.25 (views X pages, stays Y sec, Z clicks) Activation Email/Blog/RSS/Widget/Acct Signup 5% $2 (anything that could lead to repeat visit) Retention Length of Session / # of Clicks 10% $1 (length/intensity of engaged visit, >180s) Retention Email Open/ RSS view -> Click/Repeat Visit 3% $5 (3+ visits in first 30 days) Referral Refer 1+ users who visit site 2% $1 Referral Refer 10+ users who activate 0.2% $10 Revenue User generates minimum revenue 2% $5 Revenue User generates break-even revenue 1% $25

Slide 55: Finally slides at http://www.slideshare.net/event/webvisions-2008/slideshows find me at www.slideshare.net/rashmi We are hiring!