Prezentare Antreprenoriat ASE - Viorel Spinu

It's easy to build a

startup !

Viorel Spînufounder of TaskWriter.com ASE

October the 14th, 2009

Sooo...you wanna build a

business ?

Great !

What is “a business” ?

“A business (also called a firm, or

enterprise) is a legally recognized

organization designed to provide

goods and/or services to

consumers.”

wikipedia

Still wanna build it ?

Very good !

Viorel Spinu

Foxpro programmer for the last 4 college years Java programmer for 3 years after the college

started my own Java company - 2005 - 10

employees in 2009 started Homix, intelligent houses company (and

failed it – 1.5 years ago) started TaskWriter.com 8 months ago

What is the first thing you

need to start a business ?

(of course, you already

have “THE IDEA”)

we all do

“ MONEY ”

WRONG !

1. “Why am I doing that ?”

2. gather data

“A business (also called a firm, or

enterprise) is a legally recognized

organization designed to provide

goods and/or services to

consumers.”

wikipedia

“Is there someone who

would actually pay ??”

Yeah, besides yourself ! :)

who would buy ?

define your market

how many possible

customers are there ?

market size

Is there competition ?

- no competition -

REALLY ?!?!

NOT GOOD !

I've started Homix with

(almost) no competition

and I've closed it after one

year only :)

- there is competition -

OK, good start, means

there are also some money

in the market

gather as much data as you

can about the competition

compete.com, alexa.com,

forum members, blogs,

crunchbase.com, your

friends, support forums,

RSS feed readers on their

blogs

write down the numbers

does it still make sense for

you ?

good !

now do the planning !

“hm..no programming yet,

no money raising yet ?”

no, just not yet :)

and use pen and paper,

don't just keep the data in

your mind

how many users you will

have in

1 month ?

3 months ?

1 year ?

3 years ?

how much money you will

make in

1 month ?

3 months ?

1 year ?

3 years ?

“but how can I possibly

know that ???”

you can't

do “educated guess” !

why do that anyway ?

you need to run a

marathon, and not just the

first 500 meters !

you need to get used to the

numbers, you need to trust

your projections

OK, * NOW * it's time for

some programming :)

build the simplest thing

that works

and get out there to the

users !

NOW !!!

taskwriter.com

one month prototype

experiment a lot, measure

everything

(google analytics, use

events)

tell the world what you do

.ro. Bucharest :

OpenCoffee, GeekMeet,

Wurbe

“but they're gonna steal my

idea !!!!”

really ? :)

I already have 1000 ideas of

my own

and the fact that you have

the product ready will not

stop me anyway :)

release often !

as in “several times a day”

build a process

automate extensively

use SCRUM

think * on * what and why

you're doing

plan and monitor

daily

weekly

monthly

watch your money !

“what money ?!??!!”

* DAILY * cashflow !

keep your expenses LOW !

“what do I get from that ?”

have fantastic customer

support

gather people around you

it's NO magic, YOU can do

that !

“if I could only work for a

month with X”

months later

you have a working

product

you have users and fans

around you

you have a few paying

customers

* NOW * it's time to think

about raising money :)

Great audience ! :)

@viorelspinu

viorel@taskwriter.com