Scrappy Startup2

Rashmi Sinha, CEO & Cofounder, SlideShare How to run a scrappy startup

Who am I?

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How to run a scrappy startup
OR how to make the most of the money you have
OR How to build the best product with little money

1. Keep your day job till your idea has legs
MindCanvas to SlideShare

Start from top in being scrappy

The lower the CEO salary, the more likely it is to succeed …it goes to whether the mission of the company is to build something new or just collect paychecks. Peter Thiel, Founders Fund

Cash is important
Know your burn rate & fume date (when you will run out of money) at any moment

2. Have a remote team
Offshore not outsource
Everyone should feel ownership (& have stock options)
Hire smart people, give them ownership

Challenges
Getting to know each other (developing informal rapport)
Body clock
Benefits: 24 hour cycle

Synchronous is must Need to look at same screen Skype GoToMeeting

SCRUM End of day reports

3. Bring expertise into company without hiring
Advisory roles – SEO, Sales, Metrics, Marketing

How to structure advisory relationships
How much stock?
Setup monthly meetings
Create action items at each meeting, complete them, report back

Accountants & HR
Rent a CFO

Recruiting is hard
Recruiters or not?

4. Get a good lawyer

5. Outsource what you can Amazon S3, EC2 Dedicated servers instead of colocation Google Ads, custom search Different widgets (Gigya, AddThis)

6. Don’t let biz-dev get ahead of product

Deals with big companies can be a mirage

7. Marketing: Do you really need that schwag?

User acquisition is a science
Be metrics based

SEO not SEM
Have an organic SEO story
How to incorporate seo from ground up

8. Don’t skimp on team
Hire the best designers & developers you can

Create fun work culture
celebrate every victory, have meals together

Have food around office (even if not Google gourmet)

9. Speed is imperative

Small & agile

Set the tone for speed
In hiring, development, design, releases, biz dev

Be agile
(worry about scaling later)

10. Build a great product

a. Solve one problem really well

b. Make app social
SlideShare as non social app
PowerPoint plugin?
No virality

c. Social networks or open web?

d. Understand markets you build for
MindCanvas: Could sell into market
SlideShare: Understood market

e. To build a feature or not to
Listen to loudest?
Watch behavioral metrics?
Read blog posts?

Always think: How should we double traffic ?

f. Everyone on team should use product
Let engineers directly get customer feedback

11. How to Launch

The Alpha Feedback to the embed No publicity Browser compatibility issues

How developed should a Beta be?
SlideShare beta
Enough to get point across
Little of social layer
Not buggy

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

Initial Momentum

Finally
find me at
www.slideshare.net/rashmi
http://twitter.com/rashmi

http://www.coworking-news.de	130
http://gauteg.blogspot.com	64
http://localhost	28
http://www.gautamblogs.com	13
http://blog.davidreche.com	12
http://indianstartups.collectivex.com	6
http://www.slideshare.net	6
http://blogdepruebadesandrapachajoa.blogspot.com	3
http://www.gauteg.blogspot.com	2
http://localhost:3000	2
http://michelechristine.wordpress.com	1
http://yok.to	1
https://www.mturk.com	1

Scrappy Startup2

by Rashmi Sinha

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