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Lessons learned from my failed startup after 2 years, 300 users and 0 revenue

sergioschuler.com

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Re: Lessons learned from my failed startup after 2 years, 300 users and 0 revenue

#151

Post by bbwharris »

akbar501 wrote: post #139
guilloche wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a developer and solo founder, I just can not finish a serious project in one year. For example, it took me two years to get version 1 of torapp guilloche designer (www.torapp.info). We did not get consistent/significant customers and we need a new product to survive. To evaluate more ideas and to be familiar with respective areas took me another year easily (without deep knowledge in the area, how can you beat you…

>So how can you guys roll out a product in 3 months? How can you quickly pivot? Tooling. To elaborate, if you're hand writing code to call an API, then you're doing to much. This is a 15 minute task at most, and that includes production level validation, security, etc. on both the client and server. Also, basic code quality checks should be running non-stop in a separate terminal and automated tests should also be ru…

Its relatively easy, but far more than 15 minutes. Think about authentication, design and testing.

Re: Lessons learned from my failed startup after 2 years, 300 users and 0 revenue

#153

Post by koide »

tgflynn wrote: post #145
koide wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It certainly will depend on the actual product A LOT. A vector editor is very complex compared to the typical CRUD-based with a little business logic that lots of SaaS products are in the end.

"typical CRUD-based with a little business logic that lots of SaaS products are in the end" Isn't the market for that sort of thing getting crowded by now ?

Not quite. I think that most startups where technology is not their raison d'etre still fit that bill.

Re: Lessons learned from my failed startup after 2 years, 300 users and 0 revenue

#154

Post by jodrellblank »

Elizer0x0309 wrote: post #127
sergioschuler wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nah, troll harder next time.

If you can't hear and handle the truth, then you will persistently and consistently fell. Even if you generate profits, that is not the end all, be all marker of success. After all, Microsoft is ever increasing its profits, yet it is polluting the world with products that are barely innovating. But please, keep thanking the complacent comments that do nothing to better your case.

Innovation without profit would be success, but building things people buy isn't success because it's not innovative? What?

Re: Lessons learned from my failed startup after 2 years, 300 users and 0 revenue

#155

Post by techmatters »

antoinec wrote: post #49
sergioschuler wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In fact I am learning how to program, so I agree with your points - but I don't think it is for every one. There is plenty of space for non tech founders. BUT I do believe it is easier if you do know how to code.

"There is plenty of space for non tech founders." In the tech startup ecosystem, I don't think there is that much space for founders that don't want to code. Saying "I want to start a tech startup but I don't want to code" is as ridiculous as saying "I want to sell horses but I don't know anything about them and I certainly don't want to have to learn anything about them". It's possible, but you're gonna have a hard…

Agreed. You need founders who can turn their hand to anything, not just their primary skill. I ran a startup back in 2005 with another founder who was primarily focussed on marketing. It was a SaaS that was heavily dependent on data which had to be manually maintained. When he said "I'm not going to sit there wasting hours of my time entering data when I could be selling" it was the beginning of the end. From then on, I couldn't trust him to help out when needed. We folded in 2008.

Re: Lessons learned from my failed startup after 2 years, 300 users and 0 revenue

#156

Post by poseid »

avenger123 wrote: post #125
enraged_camel wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>I am not a developer, but I believe having an idea -> finding a developer is the wrong flow. It should be like this: 1. Have the idea. 2. Get customers who give you real money to build this idea. 3. Get a developer by telling "I already have paying customers". Actually, I disagree. Even if you're not a developer, you should still strive to learn enough development such that you can push out the first version of the…

I suspect the reason non-technical people have difficulty convincing developers isn't so much about respect but more to do with the idea itself and the person presenting it. Its come to a point that hiring development staff for web based applications isn't that expensive if you focus on hiring people that aren't in North America and don't need to use the whiz bang language or framework (I would put even Ruby on Rails…

Interesting! Indeed if you work with freelance developers, or you work as freelancer, getting "quotes" is quite some work, and understanding if it is a good price or not, also. As I am working on a side-project trying to help others with making quotes, would you have some time to chat more?

Re: Lessons learned from my failed startup after 2 years, 300 users and 0 revenue

#157

Post by djc14 »

davedx wrote: post #43
mmcnickle wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And I would disagree. I think you're underestimating the time and effort required for a complete beginner to produce version 1 of any non-trivial product. As a developer what I'd be looking for before coming onboard is a) a clear idea of what is being built b) that there is the money in place to pay me.

I would also disagree. I've almost finished v1 (literally, a bare bones MVP) of my SaaS idea, and my God, it took so much more time than I expected. And I'm a veteran developer who's shipped tens of projects. The thing is, there's a lot more that goes into a viable product than just the core features.

Completely agree! For my start-up, beyond the core features, there's been a versioning system, front-end framework, database set-up, server maintenance, keeping up with patches to your coding language, fine-tuning CSS, analytics packages, user feedback tools, and that's just the list that I came up with in 10 seconds. In reality, there's actually much more.

Re: Lessons learned from my failed startup after 2 years, 300 users and 0 revenue

#158

Post by djc14 »

enraged_camel wrote: post #22
sergioschuler wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are absolutely right on both comments! And additional comments: 1) I am not a developer, but I believe having an idea -> finding a developer is the wrong flow. It should be like this: 1. Have the idea. 2. Get customers who give you real money to build this idea. 3. Get a developer by telling "I already have paying customers". 2) Absolutely agree. When I say "I should build that", in fact what I wanted to say was…

>>I am not a developer, but I believe having an idea -> finding a developer is the wrong flow. It should be like this: 1. Have the idea. 2. Get customers who give you real money to build this idea. 3. Get a developer by telling "I already have paying customers". Actually, I disagree. Even if you're not a developer, you should still strive to learn enough development such that you can push out the first version of the…

I agree with enraged_camel, but not for the straightforward reasons. First, as a non-technical founder who recently learned (basic) coding skills, I can confirm his first and third claims - learning to program does make it easier to find developer support and it will greatly improve your appreciation for the technical aspects of the business.

However, most important should be the second claim since learning to code will help you build a crude MVP, allowing you to reach customers and validate your idea. In this sense, enraged_camel and OP are both correct because they both point back to the same concept of reaching customers.

IMHO though, it comes down to what value a company is providing. If it is a tech start-up where the software product is the main value-add, then a core competency must include programming. If it is a real estate start-up with a website, then learning to code can probably be pushed off in favor of customer development. So in the OP's case, the question would be, are we in business to build a SaaS tool to help teams or are we satisfied helping team management improve in any way possible?

Re: Lessons learned from my failed startup after 2 years, 300 users and 0 revenue

#160

Post by Elizer0x0309 »

jodrellblank wrote: post #154
Elizer0x0309 wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you can't hear and handle the truth, then you will persistently and consistently fell. Even if you generate profits, that is not the end all, be all marker of success. After all, Microsoft is ever increasing its profits, yet it is polluting the world with products that are barely innovating. But please, keep thanking the complacent comments that do nothing to better your case.

Innovation without profit would be success, but building things people buy isn't success because it's not innovative? What?

Read and re-read. I never said "Innovation without profit would be success". Oh and in case you didn't understand the first part of this reply. Read and re-read again.
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