Crystal Taggart, MBAFounder and CEOAtlas-Innovations.comTrainAsYouGo.com

The $6K Software StartupHow to Launch your Startup on a Budget

Case Study

TrainAsYouGo.com – V1 cloud training platform developed for <$6k

All development was outsourced through ELance

Learning Self Service Platform focused on online help, FAQs, Ask a Question and Customer Notifications

About Me – Crystal Taggart, MBA

Technologist and Entrepreneur

CEO and Founder TrainAsYouGo.com

18 years of design, development, leadership experience

Overall Process

Define business model

Prototype solution

Get Feedback

Technical Design

Find ResourcesBuild

Marketing Setup using Wordpress

Testing Budgeting

Identify your Business Model

How does your company make money?Who are competitors in the market?What is the target market?

Before beginning – verify that your product isn’t saturated, your product is differentiated and there’s not a ton of ‘free’ competitors in this space.

Common Business Models

Type Description ExamplesFree Users use product/service for

free. Revenue is generated through advertising

Facebook, PopGames

Freemium Users get basic version for free and pay for upgrades

Evernote, DropBox

One-Time Users pay for initial install of the app

Paid appstore apps

Subscription Users pay to use software on monthly/annual basis

Salesforce.com, Hootsuite

Affiliate Refer customers to products/services and receive referral fee

Upsellit, Blogging sites

Service Pay for services or customization of free product

eLance, DotNetNuke

The Software Development Process

Design on Paper

Get Feedback from

potential custome

rs

Design a

prototype

Get feedback

Document

Hire Developers!

Prototyping Tools

Axure RP ProRecommended

http://axure.comEasy to use, looks

like an app but doesn’t require coding

Creates documents that can be sent to a development team (Pro is worth it!)

Create.lyAllows you to create

wireframesEasy to useDoesn’t create

documentation (must be done in Word or another tool)

Two Rules when Designing Software

Developers are smart, but they don’t understand your business and can’t read your mind.

If you want it coded, write it down.

CRUD – Where the ‘magic’ happens

For any entity (or item) in the system, remember CRUD:◦Create: How is the data created◦Read: How does someone view or search for

the data◦Update: How does someone update data (and

WHO can update the data)◦Delete: How does someone delete the data (or

CAN they delete?)

Testing Your Business Model

The Lean Startup Methodology is about building the smallest possible product to test the market.

Don’t waste money on ideas that aren’t profitable.

Requirements

Requirements in ‘tech-speak’ is how the developers know what to code. These contain all the screen definitions, error messages, and any non-functional requirements (such as response time or security requirements)

Documenting Requirements

1. Create a swimlane with the high-level process◦ This gives developers a summary view of how it

works2. Create a functional prototype (again, we

recommend Axure RP Pro)3. Document the screen rules (items on the form

and what their requirements are)4. Document business rules (what are the rules

for the application, i.e. once the data is saved on the screen, what happens next)

Technical Specifications

Include Non-Functional requirements◦Browser versions, App versions, Security

considerations, page speed, responsive, email, expected number of users

Define your technology stack◦Database – what technology will store your

data◦UI/Middle Tier – what technology will be used to

display/capture the data

Database Pros/Cons

Oracle: Scalable but expensiveMicrosoft SQL server: Scalable but

expensiveMicrosoft SQL express: Free but only

stores 10 GBMySQL: free and scalableMongo/Hadoop: Free “Big Data” databases

Development Languages Pros/Cons

Not an all-inclusive list ◦I’m not starting a Holy War on the best

development language) – only focused on three commonly used languages

Technically – Any language can do pretty much anything you need it to

PHP

Pros Cons

Cheap hosting on Linux

Free IDE

Hard to find quality developers in a sea of hacks

.Net

Pros Cons

Generally a talented development pool

Lots of training and resources available from Microsoft

More expensive developers than other technologies

Have to pay for Visual Studio IDE

Java

Pros Cons

Good pool of developers

Many free tools

Very open source, which means it’s hard to find the ‘right’ libraries that are commonly used/supported by the community

Hosting/Source Control

Ask your developers to check in their code into a third-party source control system such as Github

Use a scalable hosting service such as Amazon Web Services or Azure

Documenting

Document your database modelDocument your system architectureDocument any third-party integrations

required (i.e. for payment)Document major features in the system

that aren’t otherwise covered ◦i.e. scheduled jobs that send information

Hiring a Developer

Select your top 3 companies using Elance or Odesk

Provide a summary of the system, the technology requirements, number of screens, and any third-party integrations to get an initial estimate

Once you select the top 3, get an NDA signed and provide the detailed specifications and ask for a fixed-bid estimate and team structure

Managing the Project

It won’t happen unless you follow-up regularly with the team

Set up weekly meetings (at a minimum) to review status and progress

WordPress setup

Use WordPress – it’s the easiest and best website content management system around

Find a hosting provider such as HostGator or Bluehost who have tools that automatically install WordPress for you

Wordpress – Select a Theme

Buy a theme that provides the look and feel for your site and customize it for your look and feel

Wordpress – Clean it up

Delete Sample Pages/PostsUpdate the security (out of the gate

everyone has comment access to your site)

Delete Plugins that you don’t needAdd useful plugins such as Yoast SEO,

Google Analytics, Revolution Slider

Testing your software

Scalability/Load Testing – how many users does the site support

Stress Testing – how many users until it crashes and burns

UAT testing – pre-deployment testing with actual users

Beta Testing – testing with initial users

Budget (My Actual Budget)

Helpful resources

Learn more in the book The $6k Startup on Amazon.com

http://steveblank.com - king of lean startuphttp://atlas-innovations.com - consulting serviceshttp://trainasyougo.com - support and training

Content Management System for your software solution

http://startupweekend.org/ - launch a startup in a weekend

ctaggart@atlas-innovations.com