Presentation given at Techmeetup Glasgow, 24th October 2012

1. @jamiemchale
Seeu.at - our story so far
Jamie McHale - Founder

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About me
• Freelance developer for two years
• WordPress for agencies
• Post-graduate in IT from the University of Glasgow
• Coding for as long as I can remember
• Worked as a political propaganda-merchant

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Problem
TOO MUCH CRAP!

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What do people want
•To hear from their friends
• To easily arrange to meet up
• To find places, offers and events they
might like

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The solution
• Search, filter and recommended local
offers, events and venues
• Share with friends - starting a
conversation
• Peer suggestion of alternatives

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The Competition

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Where are we now?
• Live beta preview running in Glasgow,
Edinburgh and Dublin
• Getting feedback from users
• Getting feedback from local developers

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Business Models
• We’re testing out the options. The key is to develop a system that
benefits ALL parties in the transaction.
• Transaction fees
• Gumtree-style pay for premium listings / widgets

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Funding to date
• Personally funded via freelance work
for the first few months
• ...and then I quit! No more income, but
a great decision.

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What technology?
• Ruby on Rails on Heroku
• MongoDB on MongoLab
• Amazon S3 for image storage
• Twitter Bootstrap for front-end
• Mandrill for email

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How did we start?
•Social Media Week, Sept 2011
• Entrepreneurial Spark, Jan 2012
• Launched first version, mid-2012

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Entrepreneurial Spark
• Startup ‘hatchery’ for all types of business
• Mentoring programme
• Peer inspiration - a kick when you need it
• Sense of legitimacy

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Lesson 1
Launching is ok
It is likely that no-one will
care if you fall over.

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Lesson 2
Define a process
Free up your time to think

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Lesson 3
People are friendly
Even when they are telling you your
product doesn’t work

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Lesson 4
If it’s better than what you
have, go with it
Get feedback, iterate fast

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What’s next
• Marketing - expanding our user base
• Quick iterations to improve
• Email invites and notifications
• Better searching and filtering

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The future
• Put the power in the hands of the
venues!
• Quick-fire offers
• The place to go to look for local offers
with friends

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So please...
• Give me feedback. I’ll buy you a free coffee or beer?
• Tell me about what you’re doing
• Keep in touch - @jamiemchale @seeuat