iLaunch: Get going

iLaunch:Get Going!Elizabeth YinJennifer Hsieh

We want to send a huge shout-out to our event sponsors

You can build and test your web idea without programming

Introduction

Building

Marketing

Measuring

Q & A

Getting Started

In middle 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 learnHire, Try to learn, outsource, 3rd party tools

Resources Books, friendsBooks, 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

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 forumsEmail people. Oftentimes, the right people will help for free

Craigslist can be a great place to get feedback

Cindy Alvarez

Use the "gigs" section Don't use an anonymous email address - but

don't use your main email address either 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

Building a Landing Page and MVP

You can learn a lot about your idea with a simple landing page

Learn who may want your product

Image credit: Simon Collison (flickr)

Dropbox got 200,000 signups with just a video

There are plenty of free (or almost free) WYSIWYG platforms

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

The Wed Connect is our own experience at quick idea testing

Demo: Use Weebly to create a drag-and-drop MVP

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

Make sure your landing page is going in the right direction

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 orSomewhat disappointed

Very disappointed

Successful Product / Market Fit

We determined the viability of The Wed Connect in just 5 days

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

The Wed Connect just wasn’t the right business for us

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 MVPEarly Marketing

Blinds ResearchLanding Page

All In Hire PeopleSeek PR

LaunchBit is an easy way to add functionality to your MVP

Build and test your idea without programming – Get going!

More questions? hello@launchbit.com Purple feedback index cards LaunchBit beta signup sheet Blog: www.launchbit.com @launchbit

MVP case studieshttp://leanstartup.pbworks.com/Case-Studieshttp://venturehacks.com/articles/minimum-viable-product-examples