Web 2 0 Startup Story
- 1. Web 2.0 Startup Lessons - Varun Mathur - Co-founder / 'Chief Products Geek' of Zytran Corp. - Developed and launched a web-based RSS reader: Alertle - Some things which we did right / some things where we screwed up
- 2. Background Undergrad student at UofT Computer Science - little prior startup experience - Height of the Web 2.0 / AJAX boom in 2005 - Wanted to develop a Web OS and developer tools - Started making a team from Dec 2005 onwards..
- 3. Built an amazing team - Went out and reached to random people and talked to them. - Sought people who were smarter than me. - Founding team: Me plus a Phd student from UofT CompSci who was a top 50 programmer in the world (left for Google); plus another 2 software engineers. - Recruited people in India after searching ~1000 blogs looking for code ninjas and geeks.
- 4. Were aiming too high - We wanted to create the next Microsoft, with our platform, dev tools, etc. - Our ideas in Jan '06 were very similar to the 'Facebook Platform' which emerged in May '07. - We figured we didn't have the resources, or the background to get funded, but we wanted to do something in any case. - Decided to focus on a niche - Alertle.
- 5. Alertle
- 6. Proud of what we built - Small 5 member team managed to develop and launch Alertle. - We loved it, and so did someone in Hungary who wrote: “ I just found your feed reader, and i think it’s revolutionary! I use Google Reader a long time ago, but I signed up to alertle right after the demo.”
- 7. Got affected by "featuritis" - Were competing against Google (Reader) and wanted to ensure ours was 10x better atleast. - Got over-cautious and piled on features. Over-engineered the product. - This cost us valuable time in the market. We didn't release earlier, when we could have.
- 8. Got a lot of PR - Just reached out and randomly contacted the top tech blogs, and they heard! - Alertle was on Lifehacker, ReadWriteWeb, Google Blogoscoped, Mashable, KillerStartups, ComputerWorld Canada, StartupNorth, Techvibes. - Got reviewed in over a dozen languages. Thrilling experience!
- 9. We were very cheap Didn't have an office, didn't pay ourselves! We met at the Bahen Centre and worked out of our basements. - Spent a grand total of $15k in developing and launching Alertle. Completely bootstrapped. - Similar effort, through 'regular routes' would have cost close to $1 million.
- 10. But it also slowed us down - Learnt that it is possible to develop world-class web applications through online collaboration. But, it also severely slows down regular decision-making. - Got consumed with the product instead of on business issues.
- 11. Learnt that outsourcing works - It doesn't matter whether the developer is in Toronto or Bombay. - Its all about finding the right people. - Viewed ~1000 profiles through searching, forums; got ~250 resumes; hired 3-4 people, out of which 2 remained and worked with us everyday till 4am for over a yr! - Treated them as part of the team, not employees.
- 12. Forgot we were not in the Valley - Big Hairy Audacious Ideas (BHAGs) are fine in Silicon Valley, where they get supported and explored. - Not in Toronto! "Consumer web industry" doesn't really exist here. - Should have read less of TechCrunch, and more of local blogs like StartupNorth and Techvibes!
- 13. Didn't have a business model - We were selling 'cool' and riding on hope; never really figured out how will we make money from it. - Should have developed a thorough business plan before diving into it. - We figured out the start , but not the exit ..
- 14. Startups are like babies - need undivided attention! - It didn't help only half of the team was working full-time on the project. - Slowed us down and impacted decision-making. - Can't run a startup part-time - have to give it everything you've got.
- 15. Rinse and Repeat - Great experience - learnt a lot + got a lot of opportunities. - Alertle ver 2.0 is ready - might get launched someday and an exit might still happen. - Getting started with another venture..
- 16. If you have an idea.. "Jump off the cliff and start building the plane on your way down....you will be surprised with what you can do"
- 17. Thank you - Would love to talk with you! Currently blogging about Toronto's startups and tech events on www.techvibes.com. - Email: varun@zytran.com - Blog: www.varunmathur.net - Twitter: varun_mathur