Rashmi Sinha summarizes tips for running a scrappy startup with limited funding. Some key points include keeping costs low by having remote teams and outsourcing non-essential functions, bringing in outside experts as advisors rather than employees, focusing on building a great product before pursuing business deals, emphasizing speed in development and launches, and continually trying to double user traffic through experimentation and product improvements. The overall message is that with the right strategies, a startup can achieve growth and success even while operating frugally.

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

2. Who am I?

3. SlideShare... best place in the world to share presentations

4. Taking over the world (one PowerPoint at a time!) Start: May 06 > Beta > Launch Oct 06 > Grow > Grow more > Angel funding Dec 07 > Series A Apr 08

6. 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

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

8. Start from top in being scrappy

9. 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

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

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

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

13. Synchronous is must Need to look at same screen Skype GoToMeeting

14. SCRUM End of day reports

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

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

17. Accountants & HR Rent a CFO

18. Recruiting is hard Recruiters or not?

19. 4. Get a good lawyer

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

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

22. Deals with big companies can be a mirage

23. 7. Marketing: Do you really need that schwag?

24. User acquisition is a science Be metrics based

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

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

27. Create fun work culture celebrate every victory, have meals together

28. Have food around office (even if not Google gourmet)

29. 9. Speed is imperative

30. Small & agile

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

32. Be agile (worry about scaling later)

33. 10. Build a great product

34. a. Solve one problem really well

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

36. c. Social networks or open web?

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

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

39. Always think: How should we double traffic ?

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

41. 11. How to Launch

42. The Alpha Feedback to the embed No publicity Browser compatibility issues

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

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

45. Initial Momentum

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