Slides from talk at MicroConf

1. $0 - $1.5 million in 11 months(while working a 9 – 5) Todd Garland @toddotodd@buysellads.com

3. Early employee at HubSpot

4. Freelance web designer / developer

5. Mindfire.com

6. We help aliens buy and sell ads online

7. Acquired domain for $2,160

8. Sold our first ad February 2008

9. 1 man show for first 8 months, nights and weekends

10. $0 --> $1.5mm by end of 2008 (11 months)

13. The GOOD News

14. … it IS out there

15. Your Product

17. Potentially Insightful Tweet Bait #1 “Silver bullets don’t exist… unless you build your own – it’s called your product.” via @toddo #MicroConf

18. DISCLAIMER I’m relatively unsophisticated

19. Testing Amazon.com Google Microsoft Playdom (Disney Interactive) Zynga eBay (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A/B_testing)

20. “Yes, it’s true that a team at Google couldn’t decide between two blues, so they’re testing 41 shades between each blue to see which one performs better. I had a recent debate over whether a border should be 3, 4 or 5 pixels wide, and was asked to prove my case.” - Douglas Bowman (http://stopdesign.com/archive/2009/03/20/goodbye-google.html)

21. Potentially Insightful Tweet Bait #2 “Figure out what works for YOUR business. Testing is useful, but instincts and intuition are more important” via @toddo #MicroConf

22. FEAR

23. 6 Months

25. You overcome fear by doing

26. Potentially Insightful Tweet Bait #3 “He who is afraid of making mistakes is afraid to succeed.” via @toddo’s dad #MicroConf

27. The dreaded 9 to 5

28. If you have a 9 to 5… You have an EXTREME Competitive Advantage

29. You become more efficient

30. Typical day… 6am – 8am: work on BSA 8am – 8:15: shower 8:45-ish: arrive at HubSpot 6pm: return home from HubSpot 7pm: Dinner Option A: 9pm – midnight: work on BSA Option B: Hang out with wife, pull the “fake sleep” move, and then work on BSA from ~ 11:30 – 2:30

31. Let’s break down the $1.5 million 125K / month 4K / day 40 orders per day 1 order every 36 minutes

32. It’s not easy, but you can build aREAL business while working a 9 to 5

33. If users ask about your odd hours… Just tell them you’re Australian

34. Potentially Insightful Tweet Bait #4 “Constraints breed creativity. Embrace your constraints and use them to your advantage.” via @toddo #MicroConf

35. Family

36. Don’t work long hours Work SMART hours

37. “Americans live to work, and Europeans work to live”

38. That’s not healthy

39. Potentially Insightful Tweet Bait #5 “The first rule in any company should be family first. Without family we have nothing.” via @toddo #MicroConf

40. Automate Everything

41. Automate Everything

42. Automate Everything

43. Automate Everything

44. Automate Everything

46. Why are you in the software business?

47. No one-offs

48. Potentially Insightful Tweet Bait #6 “2 rules: Automate everything, and NO one-offs. This is the key to scaling your revenue per employee.” via @toddo #MicroConf

49. How did we get our first users?

50. We Invited Them

51. People don’t like being sold to

52. Hi Joe, I run a company called BuySellAds.com. I’d love to have your site included in our inventory. You would be in good company, and we’ll work really hard to help you sell more ads. Here’s an invite code if you are interested & thanks for your time: http://buysellads.com/?invite=KJs87sH Cheers, Todd

53. We focused on the non-consumers

55. Potentially Insightful Tweet Bait #7 “Don’t overlook the non-consumers. They are waiting for the OPPORTUNITY to buy.” via @toddo #MicroConf

56. Invest in Customer Happiness & Good Vibes

57. Asynchronous Ad Code

63. Potentially Insightful Tweet Bait #8 “WOWing your customers has to be authentic. It isn’t transactional. It’s a way of life.” via @toddo #MicroConf

64. Branding

65. Incredibly hard for small companies to measure the effects of branding efforts

66. It’s OK to invest in stuff that’s not measurable

70. Potentially Insightful Tweet Bait #9 “Don’t underestimate the value of branding.” via @toddo #MicroConf

71. Momentum

72. MAY 2011 Where are we today? average ads sales (in dollars) per day, month over month FEB 2008

77. Where should we stop? Should we try to grow forever?

78. What if you don’t have momentum?

80. Questions? (free t-shirts)