Get going - Boston

Get Going!

Build & test your idea without programming Elizabeth Yin

Jennifer Chin co-founders of LaunchBit

We want to thank our event

sponsor – MIT E-Center

In high school, we decided to

become internet entrepreneurs

Shiny Orb is a social shopping site

for wedding apparel

DressMob is a social shopping

site for all dresses

Building a website has become

very accessible

1990s 2010

Difficulty HARD Easier

Speed Months/Years Days/Weeks/Months

Options Hire, Try to learn Hire, Try to learn, outsource,

3rd party tools

Resources Books, friends Books, friends, online,

forums, Craigslist

Sites are being built more quickly and easily

The biggest obstacle for you is no

longer technical

Do you have a product that

people want??

We believe in the “Lean Startup”

philosophy and execution

Eric Reis (nytimes) Steve Blank (nytimes)

The Lean Startup Model is just

like playing poker

Go all in without

seeing your cards?

Fold if things are

not looking good?

Image Credit: lasvegasvegas.com

The first step is to achieve

product/market fit

Maximize Profit

Product/Market Fit Scale Up

You can build and test your web

idea without programming

Research

Building

Marketing

Measuring

Q & A

Doing the

Research

Find potential customers outside

your own social circle

Filter prospects with a simple survey.

Offer $25 for a 30 minute phone

conversation if selected

Join mailing lists and forums

Email people. Oftentimes, the right

people will help for free

Craigslist can be a great place to

get feedback Cindy Alvarez

Use the "gigs" section

Providing your first name and a voicemail number will grant you legitimacy

Clearly state the compensation amount upon meeting qualifications and completion of the call

Expect a 10-15% flake rate

Ask about behavior and bring a

simple set of “paper” prototypes

Do people “get” your idea?

Image credit: Simon Collison (flickr)

Image Credit: Mathieu Brault

Hanging around coffee shops

helps Pulse refine their new ideas

Building

a Landing

Page and

MVP

There are plenty of free (or almost

free) WYSIWYG platforms

Make sure your landing page

messaging is clear

Dropbox got 200,000 signups

with just a video

Your Minimum Viable Product

should have just 1 or 2 functions

Can you explain your product in 1 sentence?

Image Credit: Hammacher Schlemmer

We challenge you to think

creatively when building your MVP

Easy MVPs Hard MVPs

Aardvark went to see the

wonderful Wizard of Oz

Food on the Table started with

real, live “concierge” service

The Wed Connect is our own

experience at quick idea testing

Online tools made it possible to

work behind the curtain

Image Credit: Wizard of Oz

Early Stage

Marketing

Early stage marketing is a

complement to Measurement

My Website

Ads are a perfect way to get

traffic immediately

Q&A forums and other industry

specific sites are like “annuities”

Community marketing channels

can offer quality verbal feedback

Measuring

Results

Find out what your users are doing

on your website

There are many affordable tools for

quantitative & qualitative analysis

At least 40% of your users should

be very disappointed if you’re gone

Sean Elllis (startup-marketing.com)

Not disappointed or

Somewhat disappointed

Very disappointed

Successful Product / Market Fit

In 5 days, we had numbers to

evaluate The Wed Connect

Quick math: Charge wedding vendors $2 / lead * 21 leads = $42

Costs: $0.44 * 68 people = $29.92

Potential profit: $0.58 / person

Bounce Rates

87% of 68 people

56% of 16 people

21 Signups

Qualitative feedback taught us

about the customer

We determined the viability of The

Wed Connect in just 1 week

Great initial numbers but a frustrating business

0 1 2 7 8

1 day Customer Research

1 day Build MVP

5 days Testing and Marketing

1 day Analysis

Ante up, make your bets, then

decide -- will you go all in?

Image Credit: Logan Ingalls

Bet MVP

Early Marketing

Blinds Research

Landing Page

All In Hire People

Seek PR

LaunchBit helps new, aspiring

entrepreneurs launch their ideas

Build and test your idea without

programming – Get going!

More questions? hello@launchbit.com

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Blog: blog.launchbit.com

@launchbit

www.launchbit.com