Fast Cheap Barely In Control Web2 Expo

Rashmi Sinha, SlideShare Fast, cheap and barely in control: 10 lessons from SlideShare

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1. Make your app useful

Solve one problem really well

Make app social
SlideShare as non social app
No virality

2. Speed is imperative

Why startups need speed?

Small & fast

Set the tone for speed
In development, design…

Be agile
(worry about scaling later)

3. Ideas are dime a dozen

Focus on execution
Can we execute on this?
How fast? When can we start work?
What will first version take?
What metrics to track progress?
What will we push back to work on this?

4. What to build

We build products we use ourselves

37signals: Build less

Add complexity for right reasons
Start with less
Add complexity (if needed)
Remove features
Get people used to change

To build a feature or not to
Listen to loudest?
Watch metrics?

How to double traffic ?

Anatomy of a feature launch

5. How to Launch

The Alpha Feedback to the embed No publicity Browser compatibility issues

How developed should a Beta be?
(Enough to get point across)

SlideShare launch
Invite only: Before or after launch?
Alpha Stealth mode Open to all Launch Invite only

Year 1 Open to all Launch Invite only

6. Focus on your users, not your competition

7. Don’t spend too much time on Biz Dev

8. Use metrics to make decisions

What metrics?
Performance: page load times, errors
Traffic: Web logs
Database tracking: No. registrations, login, uploads, contacts
Customer feedback emails

How metrics?
A/B testing
Metrics Dashboard: Shadow App
Daily Email reports

Get team buy-in for metrics

Metrics and the danger of local minima

9. Hire Design Engineers

10. Find your community

Community is a great way to grow
Reduce marketing costs, users evangelize

11. Outsource what is not your core competency

Outsource complexity
Amazon S3, EC2
Dedicated servers instead of colocation
Google Ads
Google Search
Different widgets (Gigya, AddThis)

My slides at
http://www.slideshare.net/tag/w2e
Find me at www.slideshare.net/rashmi www.twitter.com/rashmi

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Fast Cheap Barely In Control Web2 Expo

by Rashmi Sinha on Nov 19, 2009

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Fast Cheap Barely In Control Web2 Expo — Presentation Transcript