© 2009 Ninian Solutions Ltd
From Concept to Cashflow
Andy McLoughlin
I am co-founder and VP
strategy at Huddle.net
Award-winning cloud
collaboration and project
management
Huddle was launched in
April 2007
HQ in London, US office
in San Francisco
Venture funded, cash-
flow profitable
A little bit about us...
Securely manage all your
projects from one place
Share files with online editing, auditing,
versions, permissions and workflow
Collaborate and organise with
discussions, whiteboards and tasks
Live meetings with integrated
telephone and web conferencing
Work the way you want! Multi language,
RSS, iCal, social networks, desktop,
iPhone, mobile, open API
Who wants to build a $10M+ company?
Who wants to build the next $100M+ company?
Picture of a path (yellow brick road?)
The beginning of
the adventure
On trend
Taking the plungeTaking the plunge
Founding Team Picture of old school football team
Your founding team
In the Gospel according to…
Where to live (London vs San Fran) Picture: Golden Gate Vs Tower BridgeDo I stay or do I go?
(i.e. know your market!)
Launch: how soon
is too soon?
Launch early vs. launch late
Early feedbackEarly revenuesFirst mover adv.
× Imperfect product× Production bugs× It could bomb
Better productFewer bugsBig launch buzz
× No revenue× No user feedback× Someone gets there
first!
Generating buzz (or: how do i get featured on techcrunch?) Build a great product Learn how to pitch your product in one
sentence
Generating buzz
(or, “How do I get featured
on TechCrunch.com?!”)
Finding your first customers
Raising Finance
Financing your start up
Send me an angelSend me an angel
Venture capitalVenture (vulture?)
capital
AKA “Kissing Frogs”
The VC Process
Things you’ll need to know! User acquisition cost Cost to convert to paying Lifetime value “Payback time” (less than 1 year FTW) Monthly churn Yearly churn Viral co-efficient Justification for all projections
More money, more problems
What’s in store post-funding? Lots of hiring (and some inevitable firing) No longer in complete control User targets Revenue targets Virality targets Activity targets Measurement targets Targets to set targets
Hiring
Things we've learnt Your initial team may not make the grade Don’t be afraid to say no Meeting the perfect candidate is like falling
in love Working in a start-up isn’t for everyone Don’t hire people if you wouldn’t want to
spend all day, every day with them Go for smart, entrepreneurial people And…
“Bet on openness, build trust” Huddle’s product and company mantra Keep the team in one building Publish company targets and roadmap Weekly company stand-up with open floor Get engineers and product on sales calls Get sales and marketing people testing Company-wide product planning sessions 10% hack time to build cool stuff
Development: Moving from fragile to agile
Development: from fragile to agile
Process, process, process
Product Management FTW!Product management
(a.k.a. ‘how to lose friends
and alienate people’)
Pricing your product
Pricing – the hard lessons Decide how you’ll make money early Ad-funded free? Freemium? Enterprise? Don’t get into a price war People will pay more than you think Where possible, migrate customers to
yearly payments
Iterate, iterate, iterate!
Dealing with recruiters
Building a sales
team that sells
Making partnerships work
Making partnerships work
Partnerships – what we learnt Good partnerships can deliver everything
you want but... Be realistic Pick your battles wisely Be prepared to invest Be prepared to wait Be prepared to argue, argue, argue Only 1 in 10 will really succeed But remember that David beat Goliath!
“A place I'd want to work”
Creating “a place I
would want to work”
Creating that place Great people + nice surroundings = WIN Make everyone a shareholder Invest in a good coffee machine Table football league / Wii / beanbag area
encourage creative thinking and bonding Eat together regularly Regular outings with partners invited Continually ask yourself if this truly is a
place you’d want to work
Exit Exit?
© 2009 Ninian Solutions Ltd
Thank you! Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @bandrew
Promo code: 1MONTHFREE