How to use Ruby & Rails to hack your MVP

Kevin Dewalthttp://kevindewalt.com

Weibo, fb, twitter, in: ‘kevindewalt’

FounderSoHelpful, 3 previous

Angel Investor Collabspot (JFDI), Power Supply (500 Startups), Vericant (???)

Mentor/Advisor 1,000s, mostly Lean Startup

Ruby Programmer

Former VC

kevindewalt.com@kevindewalt

Beijing, China

Anyone want to do a startup?

“I built it and nobody used it”

Lean Startup & Rails – Test in Stages

Lean Startup

Don’t (try to) sell what you built

Build what you can sell

What does this have to do with Ruby?

• Rails most popular with Lean Startups• Great for rapid testing of startup ideas– Rails built for developer efficiency (DRY …)– Gems– Smart people – e.g. YOU!– Platforms (e.g. Engine Yard, Heroku … )

Build as little as possible …

Build as little as possible …

… to see if you can actually sell it!

Here’s how we did it

So I had a problem …

• In Beijing, China. • Not meeting enough startups.• How can I (efficiently) help them over Skype or

Hangout?

… that lead to a startup idea …

• Place to give and get free advice.• And I sell tools to people giving free advice.

(Did you catch that?????)

My idea …

Get people to PAY ME to help others for FREE

SoHelpful

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Hardest technical challenge

Building a scheduling system that integrates with Google Calendar.

Dear Google, Your API is crap.

5 Stages of testing your startup

1. Interviews. 2. A tool for me.3. Problem.4. Money.5. Growth.

Stage 1 – Interviews

Before writing 1 line of code …

100s of interviews – test key assumptions in conversations

How do you meet customers?Do you try to help them solve problems?What are the challenges you had?What do you buy now?

** I did this for 6 months **

What I learned

1. People WANT to help others for free – they just call it marketing.

2. I can make a “tool” – not a “market”

What YOU can do

Interview 100s of people before building.

Much faster to change ideas … than code.

5 Stages of testing your startup

1. Interviews. ✔2. A tool for me.3. Problem.4. Money.5. Growth.

Stage 2 – A tool for me

Would I use SoHelpful?

Key questions:

1. More calls?2. Saves me time?3. Gets me recommendations?

How can I test without a scheduling system?

3-6 months of work … how can I test this in days?

I hacked Google Calendar

What I learned

1. More calls? – Somewhat2. Saves me time? - YES3. Gets me recommendations? - YES

What YOU can do

1. First test if YOU will use it.2. Build it in days – not weeks.

5 Stages of testing your startup

1. Interviews. ✔2. A tool for me. ✔3. Problem.4. Money.5. Growth.

Stage 3 – Problem?

Would others use it?

Key questions:

• Would they sign up for “free trial”?• Would they use it?• Would they give me feedback?

How I did it

• 4 weeks development• Added Basic Rails App stuff– Registration (Devise, CanCan)– Mailer (SendGrid)

• Still no scheduling system – Instructions + Google Calendar

What I learned

Key questions:

• Would they sign up for “free trial”? YES• Would they use it? YES• Would they give me feedback? YES

What YOU can do

• Focus on the problem first – build as little as possible and see if you’re solving a real one.

5 Stages of testing your startup

1. Interviews. ✔2. A tool for me. ✔3. Problem. ✔4. Money.5. Growth.

Stage 3 – Money?

Will they pay – anything - for it?

Key questions:

• Will they pay?• Are my assumptions about money correct?• Am I charging the right price?

How I did it

• First conversations– What do you buy NOW? How much is it?– “Would you like a free trial. Will be ….”

• Added Payment processing– Stripe – not straightforward.

• (Still no scheduling system … )

What I learned

Key questions:

• Will they pay? YES• Are my assumptions about money correct? YES• Am I charging the right price? I DON’T KNOW

**When I collected the money they used it MORE!**

What YOU can do

• Stop doing stuff for free – you learn bad signals

• Ask “what do you buy now?”• Before collecting money – tell them the price.• But then start charging.

Mastering Modern Payments

5 Stages of testing your startup

1. Interviews. ✔2. A tool for me. ✔3. Problem. ✔4. Money. ✔5. Growth. ?

Growth later – needed to build

• Spent 3 months building scheduler + 3 months fixing it.

• Site unstable – crashes 50% of the time.

But kept selling … kept growing …

Seriously – stop building shit

•Know your risks•Hack to test •Build them “right” if anyone cares

Want to learn HOW to do this?

“This is really cool!

I want to learn how to build startups like this – so I know how to build my own someday!”

Even better – get PAID to learn this!

“You mean … someone will PAY me to learn how to do this?”

Talk to Joey Mendoza

jose.mari.mendoza@gmail.com

SoHelpful.me/joeymendoza

We’re building our team in Manila …