A FULL STARTUP JOURNEY from a technical point of view

Better Software 2015 - Michele Orsi (@micheleorsi)

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No need of fundingThe “reality”

Not in selling mood

The good and the bad

Why this presentation

Map2app overview

What platform for creating

mobile travel apps

Who 3 co-founders with

different backgrounds

Where Bologna and San

Francisco

How first paying

customer + FFF + 2 investments

When started 2011,

acquired in 2015

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Met with co-founders 2008, march

Moved abroad2009, july

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Started company

First payed project

Once upon a time ..

2011, January

2011, June

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The startup engine

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Knowledge in the domain

Experience but not too much

New market emerging in popularity

An “obsession” in all discussions

The idea

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STARTER

FREERevenue sharing

iOs app

Android app

Fixed app price

map2app logo

Professional

$500+Full revenue

First business model

iOs app

Android app

Free or payed app

White label

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FAIL

’C’ Attitude

Content

Opportunity

Problem vs

solution

Revenue sharing

Customer

lifetime value

Support

.. and the first “storm”

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Market niche

Early adopters

Big projects

Startup network

.. with a little umbrella ..

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Analytics, but ..Ready to scale, but ..

Working, but .. User stories done, but ..

Technical frustration

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Design for validation focus on market fit

Long term vision money will arrive

Find “secret sauce” do not rely on ads

Be a small company focus on saving time

Some lessons learnt

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The difficult part is in the visibility (of the “good” part)

The bad times (beginning of 2012 for us)

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Won Mind the Bridge first seed funding: 50k

late 2012: the BIG opportunity

Incubation period me as biz “front-man”

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San Francisco the context

Accelerator advisors, entrepreneur, events

The lean startup Get out of the building!

B2B solution subscription

Pitch elevator found the “value proposition”

New investments50k (instead of 300k)

Silicon Valley accelerator

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Data driven decision

Insight & KPI drive features

Move fast and (do not) break things

Good enough code for validation

The iterative new process

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Availability eager to help

Difficulties raising money

High competition top universities and startups

US centric lack of knowledge

Tight network of recommendations

american track record

Outsider

.. together with SV disillusion

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European marketwas the biggest one

America Europe Asia / Other

30%

60%10%

Italy, the return

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The incubator no events or advisors

Funds stick with Italy

Our growth 20% per month

B2B growth with big publishers

Trade fair travel specific

Champions are resellers

The Italian package

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new, smart and more efficient Travel promotion

better experience for tourists Curated content

app creationFast and cheap

600 apps and 2M downloadsDistribution channel

Map2app: our real values ..

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.. and the acquisition

“how many 'no' are you able to say?”

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THANK YOU!

https://ch.linkedin.com/in/micheleorsi

@micheleorsi

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