Post on 17-Jan-2017
transcript
A Tech Guide to Staying Scrappy in Startup Land
Presented By
www.returnlogic.com @returnlogic
WHAT IS RETURNLOGIC?We are a SaaS platform utilizing analytics and data science to prevent retail returns and improve
bottom lines and customer experiences.
WHAT WE ENJOY
TALK TO US
James MuirPeter Sobotta Robert Sell
Passionate People Great Ideas Delivering Value
@dukeofnode@jmuir@psobotta
Our Story
Returns are Bad
1/3 of all orders get returned.
Returns damage the customer experience.
$26 billion dollars a year are lost to returns.
Prevention is Good
Identify areas that are performing poorly
Remediate supply chain deficiencies
Improve customer experience and bottom line
Initial Services
• 3PL handling returned CE products.
• Warehousing portal to provide transparency.
• Mobile application to collect supplementary data.
• Good but not great. Too slow to detect trends.
Current Services
• Data ingestion and transformation.
• Trend detection and customized notifications
• Root cause analysis of supply chain defects
• Predictive and prescriptive feedback
Our Approach
Scaffold infrastructure and base functionality Acquire data to validate value proposition Deliver MVP
Generate case study
Customer acquisition
Growth
Application Stack
We Open Source
Angular 1 + 2
Bootstrap
D3
(we also Javascript)
Node.js
Express
Seneca
Postgres
MongoDB
Client Server Persistence
Free!
Dev Tools
Core Tools
Webstorm ($50 / year)
Javascript IDE
Atom(free)
DataGrip ($100 / year)
Database IDE
PgAdmin3 (free)
RoboMongo(free)
Git (free)
Source Control
SourceTree (free)
Additional Resources
Chrome Developer Tools (free)code debugging
Box ($5 per month / user)secure file sharing
JIRA ($10 per month / 10 users)project management / ticketing
Bitbucket (free up to 10 users)remote source control
NPM ($7 per month / user)private package repository
Office 365 ($99 per year / 5 installs)productivity tools
Outlook 365 ($99 per year / 5 installs)communication
Slack (free)communication
Environments
Internal (dev/test)Cheap ass hardware + virtualization =
WIN!
Current Hardware
Dell R710 Server X 3 (~ $300 per server on Ebay)(the important stuff)
Synology RS815 Network Array Storage ($ 717.02 on Jet.com)
APC Smart UPS 1500 X 3 (~ $60 per UPS on Ebay)
Dell Server Console (Dumpster find!)
Trendnet TK 803R KVM Switch ($75 on Ebay)
Dell 42u Server Rack ($179 on Ebay, suggest recycler)
Netgear GS724T Network Switch ($80 on Ebay)
Total Cost~ $2100
Alternatives(infrastructure on the cheap)
Dell R710 Server X 1 (~ $300 per server on Ebay)
APC Smart UPS 1500 X 1 (~ $60 per UPS on Ebay)
Netgear GS724T Network Switch ($80 on Ebay)Total Cost~ $440
Proxmox
• Open source virtualization layer• Scale up new instances as needed• Web UI, easy to manage
• Open source, Debian based server OS• Large market share, highly reliable• Supported by most cloud providers
Ubuntu Server
Virtualization Fun
The best part? They’re both FREE!
External (production)Embrace the
Cloud!
We use AWS
• Highly scalable object storage• Static assets and content• Images, documents, public content
Amazon S3
• Resizable compute capacity
Amazon EC2
• Multiple flavors of OS
• Cost-effective email platform
Amazon SES
• Helps ensure reliable delivery
• Vastly configurable
• Built in feedback loop
• Scalable RDBMS
Amazon RDS
• Optimized images for a variety of DB’s• Automated backups
Most services offer a limited free tier
Alternative Providers
Resources
Considerations
Considerations Cont.
Outsourcing vs.
Technology Debt
Roles
build
sell
Creative
Sales
Developers
Ops
DBAs
Marketing
Sourcing
Software teams want to hire people with aptitude, not a particular skill set
- Joel Spolsky# The Guerrilla Guide to Interviewing (version 3.0)
• Capacity to learn
• Team fit
• Motiviation
• Cost
Conclusion
It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so
- Mark Twain
Like what you’ve heard? Talk to us!