It’s been approximately nine months since I left the relative safety of the corporate world with the idea to start a new company. I have done this a few times before, so I sort of know what to expect, but of course every time it is a very different experience. With this blog post I hope to give you a feeling for all the trials and tribulations I had so far.
Of course, the first question on everyone’s lips is “how is it going”? If you are a vanilla Silicon Valley entrepreneur, the standard response would be that “we are killing it”. In reality this is seldom true, so I am not going to sugar coat my response. For me it’s been a grueling months of excessive thinking, massive software development effort, now-and-then talking to potential prospects, product-market fit analysis, and early awareness promoting via social networks.
And in reality not much has happened yet, since a lot is still being figured out as I write this.
The first phase of a new software startup is always to find a product-market fit, and it is the phase I am still currently in. It takes a long time to find out what the product is and who you are going to help with it. If you don’t really understand your target market, you are pretty much lost. A new social network for cats is probably not the best idea if you’ve never owned a cat, right? I fortunately know my target market quite well, having spent the last six years developing related products, so I think I am OK on this front (and note there are no cats involved in what I am doing).
But since any new venture is typically a very long effort stretching over several years, I was also very concerned that I might be launching myself into a corner that I would regret later, requiring a gut wrenching “pivot”. So what did I do to figure it out? I took a very long vacation first!
Actually taking a very long vacation was more a necessity than anything else. I was pretty much burned out with endless meetings, global discussions at all hours of the day, travel and general corporate mischief. So I decided to spend two to three months just thinking, and seeing what would happen. Now my idea of a vacation is a bit different than most, since some of the things I like to do sound suspiciously like work to most folks.
First, I did an absolutely huge amount of reading on the latest trendy technologies knowing that I have to pick something myself that I might regret later on (I ended up making very conservative technology choices in the end). I also talked to a number of startups that were in the formation phase (some super-stealth that threatened me with death should I ever mention them), just to see if there might be something else that might be more interesting and safe than throwing myself again into a founder role. I also spent a lot of time adjusting to drinking Sauvignon Blanc with my family - I am more a Cabernet person, but you have to drink what the locals in Cape Town buy you. I also connected with several friends, a few who made massive changes to their life styles, ranging from having babies, moving to the place they really want to live, and sailing around the world. The latter cemented my belief that whatever I want to do the next decade should involve having lots of freedom.
Unfortunately the “vacation” had to end. It was very useful in that I had a basic idea what I want and don’t want to do in life, a rough outline for potentially useful product, and of course I was pretty rested and ready to rumble.
Around the fourth of January 2013, just after recovering from New Years, the massive software development effort started in earnest after many months of mental preparation. I find a lot of enjoyment in figuring things out while coding, but for most readers this is probably the boring part. Needless to say there were many ups and downs, total redesigns, duh-moments and engineering disasters. You end up doing a lot of stuff that nobody will really ever care about, and it takes a huge amount of time struggling to put stuff together. Just me coding, and running off the gym to “think” some more.
As soon as you could see some new part of the product, I was showing it to trusted advisors or connections I have to people in the design industry. I was actually very positively surprised that a lot of people immediately liked the direction I was going with it. My previous experiences in this regard was often extremely frustrating in that a lot of people would have no clue what the hell I was trying to accomplish. I attribute my small successes to learning from experience and being a bit more seasoned in product blabbering, but it is really hard to say whether that is true. Often it is just pure luck, and you can’t tell the difference.
As I was getting feedback and tailoring the product-market fit, I started getting concerned how I was going to get the message out. Previously I've had a case where I “launched” a product and there was pretty much zero reaction – which is of course an eye-opening experience after spending many months on development, and often leads to huge amounts of doubt and negativity. And I don’t have a lot of experience with early marketing, so I was getting doubly worried.
So I spent some time researching what other startups did in my situation, I formulated a few plans for myself. I just wanted to get a few people to sign up to test the software, so that when I do a private launch, there are some folks ready to play around with it.
The first step was just to get something about the product and company up on a web site. I was very concerned since I’ve spend huge amounts of time and money building a web presence before, and I really did not have the time or inclination for it again. I nearly convinced myself of a path that would have sucked up huge resources when I stumbled on the new generation of site building tools like Weebly. It was a huge relief and suddenly a site was up in one day! This was around May 8th of this year, so just about a month ago since I write this.
Of course, the next problem is how to let people know about it. I heard some “advertising tricks" people used to drive traffic, and tried a few only to fail miserably. Does anybody care? No, that is pretty much the answer. If you don’t do something useful yet, but just talk about things that might become useful sometime in the future, you pretty much have no reaction.
I had to change gears, and started using my professional network on LinkedIn to tell people that I am back in business, and to expect good things in future. It was not much effort to expand my connections to folks that somehow was not connected to me already, have interactions with them, update my profile and personal pages, etc. Slowly traffic started to flow to the web site, and people started responding with “likes” and sometimes contacting me. A lot of old friends and colleagues from Autodesk came by to check out what I am up to, probably out of curiosity and sympathy. Here is a big wave to you if you happen to be one of them reading now about my saga!
A few people signed up to be alpha and beta testers, but it is still nowhere near the number I would like it to be. If you read this far, please consider signing up yourself, or perhaps letting a friend know about the product. I promise it would be fun, and you will definitely help me sleep better at night too!
In conclusion, the product is starting to look good and finally becoming useful. I’ve had a few interactions with companies that want to field test it. It is scary and exciting at the same time. A bit of validation and traction is always great, and keeps me going.
Thank you for reading this far, and please do come back to hear more how my next life story unfolds.
Of course, the first question on everyone’s lips is “how is it going”? If you are a vanilla Silicon Valley entrepreneur, the standard response would be that “we are killing it”. In reality this is seldom true, so I am not going to sugar coat my response. For me it’s been a grueling months of excessive thinking, massive software development effort, now-and-then talking to potential prospects, product-market fit analysis, and early awareness promoting via social networks.
And in reality not much has happened yet, since a lot is still being figured out as I write this.
The first phase of a new software startup is always to find a product-market fit, and it is the phase I am still currently in. It takes a long time to find out what the product is and who you are going to help with it. If you don’t really understand your target market, you are pretty much lost. A new social network for cats is probably not the best idea if you’ve never owned a cat, right? I fortunately know my target market quite well, having spent the last six years developing related products, so I think I am OK on this front (and note there are no cats involved in what I am doing).
But since any new venture is typically a very long effort stretching over several years, I was also very concerned that I might be launching myself into a corner that I would regret later, requiring a gut wrenching “pivot”. So what did I do to figure it out? I took a very long vacation first!
Actually taking a very long vacation was more a necessity than anything else. I was pretty much burned out with endless meetings, global discussions at all hours of the day, travel and general corporate mischief. So I decided to spend two to three months just thinking, and seeing what would happen. Now my idea of a vacation is a bit different than most, since some of the things I like to do sound suspiciously like work to most folks.
First, I did an absolutely huge amount of reading on the latest trendy technologies knowing that I have to pick something myself that I might regret later on (I ended up making very conservative technology choices in the end). I also talked to a number of startups that were in the formation phase (some super-stealth that threatened me with death should I ever mention them), just to see if there might be something else that might be more interesting and safe than throwing myself again into a founder role. I also spent a lot of time adjusting to drinking Sauvignon Blanc with my family - I am more a Cabernet person, but you have to drink what the locals in Cape Town buy you. I also connected with several friends, a few who made massive changes to their life styles, ranging from having babies, moving to the place they really want to live, and sailing around the world. The latter cemented my belief that whatever I want to do the next decade should involve having lots of freedom.
Unfortunately the “vacation” had to end. It was very useful in that I had a basic idea what I want and don’t want to do in life, a rough outline for potentially useful product, and of course I was pretty rested and ready to rumble.
Around the fourth of January 2013, just after recovering from New Years, the massive software development effort started in earnest after many months of mental preparation. I find a lot of enjoyment in figuring things out while coding, but for most readers this is probably the boring part. Needless to say there were many ups and downs, total redesigns, duh-moments and engineering disasters. You end up doing a lot of stuff that nobody will really ever care about, and it takes a huge amount of time struggling to put stuff together. Just me coding, and running off the gym to “think” some more.
As soon as you could see some new part of the product, I was showing it to trusted advisors or connections I have to people in the design industry. I was actually very positively surprised that a lot of people immediately liked the direction I was going with it. My previous experiences in this regard was often extremely frustrating in that a lot of people would have no clue what the hell I was trying to accomplish. I attribute my small successes to learning from experience and being a bit more seasoned in product blabbering, but it is really hard to say whether that is true. Often it is just pure luck, and you can’t tell the difference.
As I was getting feedback and tailoring the product-market fit, I started getting concerned how I was going to get the message out. Previously I've had a case where I “launched” a product and there was pretty much zero reaction – which is of course an eye-opening experience after spending many months on development, and often leads to huge amounts of doubt and negativity. And I don’t have a lot of experience with early marketing, so I was getting doubly worried.
So I spent some time researching what other startups did in my situation, I formulated a few plans for myself. I just wanted to get a few people to sign up to test the software, so that when I do a private launch, there are some folks ready to play around with it.
The first step was just to get something about the product and company up on a web site. I was very concerned since I’ve spend huge amounts of time and money building a web presence before, and I really did not have the time or inclination for it again. I nearly convinced myself of a path that would have sucked up huge resources when I stumbled on the new generation of site building tools like Weebly. It was a huge relief and suddenly a site was up in one day! This was around May 8th of this year, so just about a month ago since I write this.
Of course, the next problem is how to let people know about it. I heard some “advertising tricks" people used to drive traffic, and tried a few only to fail miserably. Does anybody care? No, that is pretty much the answer. If you don’t do something useful yet, but just talk about things that might become useful sometime in the future, you pretty much have no reaction.
I had to change gears, and started using my professional network on LinkedIn to tell people that I am back in business, and to expect good things in future. It was not much effort to expand my connections to folks that somehow was not connected to me already, have interactions with them, update my profile and personal pages, etc. Slowly traffic started to flow to the web site, and people started responding with “likes” and sometimes contacting me. A lot of old friends and colleagues from Autodesk came by to check out what I am up to, probably out of curiosity and sympathy. Here is a big wave to you if you happen to be one of them reading now about my saga!
A few people signed up to be alpha and beta testers, but it is still nowhere near the number I would like it to be. If you read this far, please consider signing up yourself, or perhaps letting a friend know about the product. I promise it would be fun, and you will definitely help me sleep better at night too!
In conclusion, the product is starting to look good and finally becoming useful. I’ve had a few interactions with companies that want to field test it. It is scary and exciting at the same time. A bit of validation and traction is always great, and keeps me going.
Thank you for reading this far, and please do come back to hear more how my next life story unfolds.
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