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Moving from programmer to entrepreneur

ianlandsman.com

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Re: Moving from programmer to entrepreneur

#41

Post by franzus »

dkb wrote: post #38

I agree that code is not the only thing that should be worked on. Loving customers, treating them with respect and listening to them is also essential to me. I am currently working on an idea and have a lot of questions on different aspects and don't even know where to look for answers. Is there some online resources related to the different aspects of an online business? (understanding a service that you pay for and…

> should you start to give a service for free at the beginning and then monetize it when you have a lot of users

Are you VC backed and can live without positive cash flow? Ore are you trying to build a real business?

Re: Moving from programmer to entrepreneur

#42

Post by ams6110 »

rmATinnovafy wrote: post #34
nodemaker wrote: post #3

As a single founder I am sort of confused about these things too.Here is what my plan is -> Basically become a code monkey for a first four-five months and do minimal promotion marketing.Once MVP is ready then do full time marketing pitching and fix bugs once in a while.If you get funded hire more people and more coding. Anyone see a problem with that approach?

I do. You are wasting your time by building the product first. You have to do the inverse. Become a marketing money for the first four to five months and do minimal coding (that is why its called an MVP). Once you have people buying your product, then you focus on improving it (or refactoring to rails, for example). If you do get funding, then use the money to grow the business and software at the same time/ratio. Re…

Also requires you to market the thing that programmers hate, vapor-ware.

Re: Moving from programmer to entrepreneur

#43

Post by rmATinnovafy »

ams6110 wrote: post #42
rmATinnovafy wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do. You are wasting your time by building the product first. You have to do the inverse. Become a marketing money for the first four to five months and do minimal coding (that is why its called an MVP). Once you have people buying your product, then you focus on improving it (or refactoring to rails, for example). If you do get funding, then use the money to grow the business and software at the same time/ratio. Re…

Also requires you to market the thing that programmers hate, vapor-ware.

I disagree. You would have an MVP. Something tangible to sell. Vapor-ware is software/hardware that is sold before it is built.

The purpose of the MVP is to get something good enough out of the door so you can focus on testing. Testing sales, marketing, user experience, etc. Once the initial testing is done, and the product has proven itself to be profitable if not then iterate/pivot), then you go and refactor the software if, and only if, the costs of doing so are worthwile.

I know of products out there that are complete and total bowls of spaghetti that make a lot of money and would be re-written by most of us. But they are profitable, and that is the ultimate test for a product. Does it sell?

Re: Moving from programmer to entrepreneur

#44

Post by j45 »

Regarding the 5% number, it might be closer to 20%. We spend more time reading about tools that benefit technologists than strategies that create value and convert into paying customers.

Most startups don't solve technically complex problems, except how the technologists are making their own lives easier through the latest language, tool or framework.

Building a project is different than a product. A product is not just the code. We see proof of marketing ruling with garbage products getting into customers hands and they have no idea of better solutions that are available.

The most important part of this journey is absolutely finding the customer, finding their need that they're willing to pay for, finding how to reach them, and then part addressing their need through code.

You need all of those to have a business that makes money, other wise you have a project you want to try to make money with, not a strategic approach to establishing a business.

Focusing on making money is terrifying to too many technologists. The only way you get there is realizing the product itself is 20% of your business and you will inevitably spend 80% of your time learning to get it traction and paying customers. Of course, it's easy to just code some more to add some "value". If that value doesn't reach customers, it's not realized value, just more potential that will sink.

I agree with the entire article except for the last point: read everything possible.

It's an epic waste of time to read about things in detail that you aren't looking to implement right away. Reading articles, especially if you don't end up acting on them is too often a waste of time because you have to come back to them later and re-read when you're ready to do something with them.

I use a slight tweak on the rule: Only read in detail what I need to do right now, or my next step. Only read things in general to understand where I am on the overall project.

Re: Moving from programmer to entrepreneur

#45

Post by j45 »

nodemaker wrote: post #3

As a single founder I am sort of confused about these things too.Here is what my plan is -> Basically become a code monkey for a first four-five months and do minimal promotion marketing.Once MVP is ready then do full time marketing pitching and fix bugs once in a while.If you get funded hire more people and more coding. Anyone see a problem with that approach?

It's a little backwards.

What you're proposing is a little like building a house to see if a customer likes enough to buy it, without letting them pick a layout/blueprint they like, or the conversation that goes into the blueprint of ensuring the customer would want the house.

First, find a target customer. Learn what their painpoints are. See if they're willing to pay for that painpoint. Then, build something to sell to them. This allows you to explore multiple hypotheses, instead of going to them with your idea that ends in a yes or no. By involving customers from the get go, they are more engaged, invested and committed, especially if it could make their life easier.

You will find that this path will reveal to you a completely different set of priorities and pain points that would be small to do, but have a huge impact, which is a great basis for an MVP.

By doing it doing it in reverse, you're hoping you take a stab at it and it pans out, at the expense of not doing the idea development upfront before writing a single line of code. The best way to "market" is to do it as you explore what to do and build a mailing list. Share your journey through a blog focussing on the life and business problem you're solving (not your code or tech breakthroughs).

Learn about your customer instead of guessing your way through what someone might want. Having domain knowledge in a field that you build something for could be helpful but you still have to validate, first, if anyone will pay for it. That's the scary, and what makes it a real business (self sustainable and makes money for you).

Re: Moving from programmer to entrepreneur

#46

Post by wpietri »

nodemaker wrote: post #3

As a single founder I am sort of confused about these things too.Here is what my plan is -> Basically become a code monkey for a first four-five months and do minimal promotion marketing.Once MVP is ready then do full time marketing pitching and fix bugs once in a while.If you get funded hire more people and more coding. Anyone see a problem with that approach?

Yes! Like others, I see a problem.

You have a big assumption: Product X will be valuable enough that people in group Y will pay for it. Your way of testing that assumption is to spend 5 months coding plus N months trying to sell it.

So at the end of 6-12 months, suppose you discover that Product X is in fact not valuable. All of the coding time and a substantial portion of the marketing time will be wasted.

Ask yourself: what's the cheapest possible way to test your core assumption?

Re: Moving from programmer to entrepreneur

#47

Post by wpietri »

ricardobeat wrote: post #8

I have to disagree with the first points: 1. Code is 5% of your business: no, it isn't. If you have a watchmaking company, is making watches 5% of the business? Marketing, sales, and operations are only important as long as you have a quality product. 2. Design is everything: it can used to great advantage, but let's keep it real. There are plenty examples of successful "gray boxes" applications, don't confuse aesthe…

On what basis are you disagreeing with #1? Experience? I'm on company #5 right now and I'd say he has it about right.

There are in fact plenty of businesses where a quality product is not particularly necessary. I'm sure you can name some.

Even when quality is important, it is often not what a coder would identify as quality. As long as your customers receive what they perceive as quality, you've got a business.

And even when you're talking about the kind of quality your customers are seeking, that still doesn't cover all of the time and attention you will have to spend on things that aren't code.

Re: Moving from programmer to entrepreneur

#48

Post by wpietri »

rmATinnovafy wrote: post #43
ams6110 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also requires you to market the thing that programmers hate, vapor-ware.

I disagree. You would have an MVP. Something tangible to sell. Vapor-ware is software/hardware that is sold before it is built. The purpose of the MVP is to get something good enough out of the door so you can focus on testing. Testing sales, marketing, user experience, etc. Once the initial testing is done, and the product has proven itself to be profitable if not then iterate/pivot), then you go and refactor the so…

Not to nit-pick to much, because I agree with your basic point, but I think the ultimate test for a product is does it profitably deliver value. Every scam artist in the world is profitable, and I see too many people go wrong by pursuing pure profitability. Coughzyngacough.

Re: Moving from programmer to entrepreneur

#49

Post by benblodgett »

getsat wrote: post #9
nodemaker wrote: post #3

As a single founder I am sort of confused about these things too.Here is what my plan is -> Basically become a code monkey for a first four-five months and do minimal promotion marketing.Once MVP is ready then do full time marketing pitching and fix bugs once in a while.If you get funded hire more people and more coding. Anyone see a problem with that approach?

Bro, you need to read this book: http://www.startupbook.net – http://www.amazon.com/Start-Small-Stay-Developers-ebook/dp/B... That mentioned 4-5 months will, statistically, be for nought if you don't do the important marketing/prep work ahead of time.

I would say this is a more appropriate recommendation - http://www.amazon.com/The-Four-Steps-Epiphany-Successful/dp/....

Re: Moving from programmer to entrepreneur

#50

Post by wpietri »

franzus wrote: post #40

> Design is everything I don't think this is true. Features are far more important than shiny buttons. Custom design is a problem too as it fragments the user experience. People want software that looks and feels native .

You're arguing with something he didn't say. Nowhere did he advocate non-native UI widgets. He's just saying that in the eyes of your audience, your product should look better than the competitors.
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