Lessons Learned from a Software Developer’s First Attempt at Launching a Startup | Hacker News Reader

Lessons Learned from a Software Developer’s First Attempt at Launching a Startup

softwarebyrob.com

74 pointsoreilly14 comments

>"...building the product was the easy part"

A new 'thought experiment' I've been working with lately is: "Imagine the (minimum viable) product was already built - what now?"

It's easy to get caught up in the challenge of 'The Build' when really that's just a part of the business.

If you want to build a business around a web/tech product, then you need to consider a whole load besides the product.

That is a very good question, but I think we differ on the answer. The moral of the article doesn't seem like he should have cared more about marketing, usability, business relationships or all the other cruft involved in forming a business, but that his idea, sadly, didn't have traction. So really it was more likely the product. If the minimum viable product is built and doesn't have traction it is entirely possible the idea may not have enough traction.

This makes me think of my first attempt at an iOS app.

I'd read about all the successes stories & decided to jump on the app store bandwagon.

After months of furiously working at learning Objective-C & Cocoa, development & testing, I released my creation on the app store and with high hopes and…

nothing.

It sank like a stone off the new releases page never to be seen again. I think it sold one copy in Egypt (thanks whoever you are!).

It was only as I sat scratching my head over why my crappy ill conceived app hadn't set the world on fire & made me instantly wealthy that it occurred to me that without some sort of business & marketing plan I was wasting my time.

Perhaps off topic, but you really should consider reading Rob's book if you plan to bootstrap a startup or run a micro ISV.

Maybe so, but he should also probably revise his website starting with the confusing and grammatically bad copy:

"MicroMaximus is a simple on-demand service designed to assist Reward Checking Account holders' to supplement their monthly transaction requirements. MicroMaximus users will be able to schedule $1.00 transactions online quickly and securely enabling a higher rate of return."

Anyone up for iterating that copy for practice? Here's my attempt:

"MicroMaximus helps you fill your monthly Reward Checking Account transaction requirements quickly with $1 transactions."

"Fill your monthly Reward Checking Account transaction requirements quickly with $1 transactions."

"Profit $500 monthly with Reward Checking Account"

Have a Rewards Checking Account?

Use $1 charges to meet minimum monthly transactions

The Easiest Way to Meet Your Rewards Checking Account Requirements.

Where is the benefit? Don't forget that he has to sell the customer on RCAs as well!

Earn higher interest from your checking account. Get a reward checking account from your bank and use MicroMaximus to meet the minimum transaction limit.

Get higher checking interest rates without the hassle from required transactions.

These types of posts are posted really often. Is there a conglomerated list of all these "lessons learned" posts? I think that would be really useful.

That's a good thought, aggregating them. Or better yet, curate a yearly print journal of product Post Mortems. Hard to get people to disclose details though, really hard to find these on the corporate level. Most published post mortems seem to be from really small companies or from former government contractors. I appreciate these posts a lot as I find post mortems to be much more useful and enlightening to read than books written by consultants who have never run a successful business containing their latest theory on what should probably work if someone would try it.

My own theory is that the best way to achieve success is to avoid doing all the things that ensure failure.

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