December 18th, 2007
One topic that came up today was Bijoy Goswami’s “Demo Sell Build” model for bootstrapping.
Bijoy Goswami, the prime mover behind the Bootstrap Network and founder of Bootstrap Austin, has an approach he advocates he calls “Demo Sell Build” that recognizes that most of the risk in a startup is not technology but market. Bijoy goes into more detail on his model in the “Bootstrap Bootcamp Fall 2007” DVD.
Starting with a demo forces you to figure out the core value you want to provide users. These demos can start out as short presentations or briefings (e.g. one page handout, one slide, one HTML mock-up page) to make sure you’ve nailed it before developing the full application.
December 7th, 2007
One topic that stimulated some thought provoking conversation at this mornings breakfast was managing a consulting business while developing a product in a startup. Below is a summary of our discussion.
Many early stage software firms start out having to balance their time allocation between consulting to keep the lights on, looking for customers (whether for their product or their consulting services), and developing/finishing the product. Most of the breakfast attendees were able to relate to this situation because it was one that they were currently wrestling with or had previously had to manage.
The consensus: “it’s a real challenge and a very hard problem.”
Some suggestions:
- Set aside a minimum amount of time for product development so that you make detectable progress every week, or at least every month.
- Don’t let consulting crowd out development completely, even if you have to forgo some consulting work.
- Split time between development and looking for consulting work when you are “idle” (don’t have consulting work).