The Plan
Building a software startup?
LeanFounder is an execution plan for new software-focused entrepreneurs, particularly moonlighters who are building their startups while holding down full-time jobs. If you have ever thought about building a startup, especially a software startup, get involved using one of the icons above.
1. Start with the end in mind – Month 1
- Post a vision statement and measurable goals on your mirror (LeanFounder)
- Have clear, measurable, time-bound milestones for your business (LeanFounder)
- Instrument your goals to keep you focused on what matters (LeanFounder)
- Answer these 4 questions and you have a business model (Business Model Development)
2. Get to know your customer – Month 2 and 3
- Write a press release before you write any code (Customer Development)
- Validate your customer pain (Customer Development)
- Create a 10-person customer advisory group (Customer Development)
- Learn the art of WordPress, Part 1 (Customer Development)
- Learn the art of WordPress, Part 2 (Customer Development)
- Enable Conversations Within Your Community (Customer Development)
- Pitch your idea to 5 potential partners (Customer Development)
3. Get to know your business – Month 4
- Project significant costs and revenues (Money)
- Business Model Spreadsheet (Business Model Development)
- Search engine optimization for Startups (Customer Development)
- Conduct your first Google AdWords Campaign (Customer Development)
4. Get to know your technology core – Month 5
- Working with Rails, Heroku, and Git as your technology stack (Agile Development)
Dyor.com – Design Your Rolodex.
Startups are built by people – make sure the right people are in your rolodex.
Matt, I think this is a really solid outline overall. Can you provide some context as to why you stopped at Tell The World? Or, maybe provide some comments on what you decided not to include so that I can provide some better feedback. Is the goal to take this up to the point where people have a viable business so they can quit their day job and that is where Lean Founder ends? I think that is some of what we have discussed.
For example, I would say that the moment you incorporate a business, you have a bunch of government agencies that you need to keep updated on the progress of your business so they can take a little bit of your flesh. Is this something that should be included in Kill Your Business?
Also, if you make it to the point where you start a business, I strongly encourage building relationships with the right types of professionals i.e. lawyers, accountants, bankers, etc. In the case of the first two, you don’t need to rack up any fees with them, but the right ones can truly accelerate your growth plans or dampen the learning curve. Is that something that would be included in Tell The World?
Shilo, As far as the communication with government agencies, this is something that I think should be solvable with limited time/money investment if a founder elects to follow the plan. I am working with a good friend and great attorney (or should that be good attorney and great friend) to develop the Minimum Viable Incorporation to see how businesses can start efficiently, imperfectly, and without doing any irreparable harm–even having a plan as to when and how to repair the harm that the imperfect inception has created.
I also hope to put some of this knowledge in a box for accounting. I am looking for a really smart accountant who can help envision what Lean Accounting looks like so that new companies can get their Minimum Viable Books in place (OK – enough with the minimum viable). If you know any accountants that might be interested in discussing the idea, send them over!
Why would professional service providers be willing to give up their knowledge for free to help new companies? Good professional service providers are busy and they want to work for successful companies with complex problems and charge them full freight. Charging a guy with an idea $250 an hour to tell him how to fill out some forms is not the way these people want to spend their time. By laying out a plan that founders can autonomously implement, these professionals can focus their time and energy on the 10% who are able to translate their idea into revenue and need the professional to help them solve valuable and complex problems.
Let me know your thoughts. Is it possible to give valuable yet generic advice when a founder is just getting started? Can you emphasize convention over configuration in business as you can in Ruby on Rails or CakePHP?
Thanks for the comment.
Matt
Matt,
As you well know, entrepreneurs have to be ever learning, lean and agile in hearing the customer, ensuring the solution reflects what the CUSTOMER needs, that they are able to build a marketplace while getting their idea into a business model. Since the time I have read the blog post and we had discussion, I’ve tried to put a few thoughts together to respond but frankly I keep coming back to random thoughts…
1) Do, do something, do anything, but for god sake DO! Action is required to move forward. This is the corollary to “ideas are a dime a dozen, the secret sauce is execution.” While we all have heard these statements, its discipline to consistently implement them with focus.
2) Learn every day! It can be something small, but you have to learn. How else can you keep abreast of market changes, technology changes and fluctuation in customer functionality or feature requests.
3) Accept now that the only constant is change itself. Once you accept that change will occur, now take the waves out of life – no high highs, no low lows. Steady (albeit quickly) goes the day.
4) Failure can be a success IF you learn from it. Keep in mind, its often better to learn from others so that you don’t have to learn the hard lesson yourself, but if you do…. Learn from it. Here are some lessons…
a. http://www.chubbybrain.com/blog/startup-failure-post-mortem/
5) Your network is very important. Often times it’s not what it (your connections) can do for you, but rather what you can do for others. Karma has a way of playing out…
a. http://brianbalfour.com/post/2813742577/core-groups
6) Keep things simple. You need to answer three questions:
a. What is the problem the solution is solving?
b. Who is the customer that the solution is solving the problem?
c. How will you monetize the solution?
There is a difference to knowing what is good enough to solve the problem versus what the developer thinks is good enough. What matters is what the customer thinks solves the problem. Anything else is fluff no matter what the bells and whistles could be – is it what the customer needs, wants and can be monetized effectively? If not, don’t do it!
Justin – My favorite comment: keep things simple. When given a choice between a simple option and a complex option, always go for the simple option. If there is no simple option, try something different.
I wrote the comment “always go for the simple option” without much thought, but I think it is correct. Perhaps it needs a bit of a qualifier — the most simple option that satisfies the need.
Thanks for the comment.
Matt
Hi Matt,
sounds like a decent plan. One thing I see is that you are going deep into technical topics. Do you think when bootstrapping you need to be a single handed army? I am technical guy in essence but always defer to experts, maybe something I can think about as a flaw.
Take care
Branko
Great question, Branko. I have been thinking about this a lot lately. I was going to write a post on this, but I will start with a lengthy reply.
First, I think that the plan can be used by an individual or by a team. But, I think that the more progress an individual can make, the more likely he will be to build a strong team.
Regarding the technical focus of the plan, there are four key activities that an early stage software startup must do well (and repeatedly):
1. Design the business: customer development, business model design, validation
2. Design the software: user experience, look and feel, landing pages, copywriting
3. Develop the software: architecture, database, web, mobile, tablet, jQuery, unit testing
4. Deploy the software: operations, infrastructure, source control, deployment, integration testing, A/B testing, analytics
First off, what do you think of these four buckets? Do you think they represent the bulk of the work that is required of an early stage startup? What percentage do you think each of these tasks comprise (25% a piece, or some different break down).
Given these activities, it seems that a founder has got to be willing to go wide in order to cover all of the bases, and a lot of these bases are technical. A founder can outsource a task (e.g., build a website, incorporate), but can a founder outsource an ongoing and core activity?
I would love to shift the question around for you: can a founder start a software company without getting into a lot of technology personally? More specifically, could a service provider offer the technical tools for a non-technical, business-focused founder to make progress? I look forward to any thoughts you might share. Happy to share them on a call with you if that is easier.
Thanks for the comment.
Matt
Hmmmm you really got me in a bind here
I do agree that we need to do more to keep the cost down at start and its a balancing act and sometimes hard to see if you are doing too much yourself. On the buckets I would split them differently.
1. Design the business: What problem are you solving, where are your customers, business model design. (somewhat similar to yours)
)
2. Design the software: desktop or web (not considered often enough), core value you are providing, additional value (when is less enough), totally agree on the user experience/look and feel, easy flow of work (remove unnecessary steps)
3. Develop the software: here the main thing for me is portability desktop/web/mobile/future devices (think: Kindle which sold ~8mil devices last year)
4. Develop the software: Defer to experts totally (implement solid business processes eg. lean
I am more concentrated on the first 2 as that is what I do so I think they are more important.
On the last questions I have to think about it and will get back to you.
Cheers