This post: Random Thoughts on Being an Entreprenur is one of my all time favourites. It inspired me to go back through my endless pages of notes (i don’t throw out any of my notebooks) and collect some of the musings I’ve had over the past two years. By no means am I an expert on being a founder/entrepreneur, but the past year or so, I’ve seen things really take off and would like to share some of my thoughts.
- Running a web app that people rely on is painful. When your app breaks it hurts real bad.
- I would rather have a website that matters than one that just makes money. Thankfully I have one that does both
- My biggest mistake(s) was selling an app. I did this multiple times. Twice I bought them back, but by then, they were ruined.
- Break down your income. Know exactly how much money you need to live on and work towards that figure each day.
- Be frugal. Thankfully thats how I grew up and It comes naturally to me. frugal living can have a huge impact on your life.
- At some point, everyone, even your parents will doubt your products potential. Don’t fight this, just learn to deal with it.
- Track everything. Money, stats, clicks, sentiment, time. You can track everything without being anal. If you don’t, you’re burying your head in the sand.
- Make personal connections and be a communications rockstar. Don’t cold call/spam email bloggers. Write them a personal email – it works.
- Techcrunch said they wouldn’t cover a feature release of my app because Mashable got the story first. Totally makes sense. I’ll email Techcrunch first next time. But…
- Getting a post on the big tech blogs, although its awesome (and an ego boost), only delivers a burst of traffic. Where as, getting featured on DailyCandy (a Female targeted blog) which I never even thought to get in touch with, sent through a huge amount of sustained traffic.
- Hire a person not a skillset. You can always train the right person.
- If you don’t believe people will invest in your app, build it and then figure out exactly how to make it profitable (and do that do), people then will want to invest in your app (true story).
- Don’t answer support emails first thing in the morning. They can be kinda depressing (damn IE6). But make sure you answer them within 24 hours.
- Don’t be afraid to change and adapt. My app will change dramatically over the coming months.
- I’m 100% sure my app will be a huge success. The mere thought it wouldn’t seems incredibly distant. This is the only state of mind to be in.
- If you want to design a lifestyle that involves less work, more travel, don’t rely on one income source. I’m building many
- I failed multiple times. The only way I actually learn is by failing. Scary but true.
I’m sure in another 2 years these musings will be completely different…..so stay tuned.
Photo by: Olivander
Can I Read this post later or send a copy to my email
6 Comments
Anthony,
I always love reading other peoples’ thoughts, especially when they shed light into personal things. Your first two thoughts were especially surprising to me.
I’ve had a notebook for a little while now, it’s nice to map out plans and cross of goals, etc.
Anthony,
A very interesting read; thank you for sharing your thoughts honestly and openly. There are some very useful tips to take onboard in your musings. I’ll certainly be making anote of them.
Regards
Paul
Dude, I love your website.
The banner is so cool; it conveys a very upbeat and funky feeling.
Keep going !
Thanks Mars – thats the exact feel I wanted to protray with the design.
Btw. I came across your blog yesterday and had a lot of fun reading through the articles.
Hey Anthony,
I’ve been reading a lot about being frugal right now and I think it’s the right mindset for entrepreneurs (and especially webapps) – but then I wonder, what about Youtube (which I know the sheer scale of it is an exception), or perhaps something similar – where when times are good and money (and credit) is easy, building a large audience is all that matters?
Do you think you’d still say be frugal if cash was easy to come by, and your investors were just throwing it at you to grow the userbase as fast as you could? Or totally disagree with that as a business model?
Personally I’ve always thought that model of “lets just grow the audience really, really big and fast and who cares about revenue” was unsustainable, and just betting that you get bought before you run out of money, but then I wonder how many other frugal, responsible startups end up getting shuttered because their larger competitors got bought out.
Frugal is definitely the way to go. If you’re building a startup to get simply get acquired it may be different. The goal of my app is to provide a sustainable monthly income that pays for my lifestyle. The book Getting Real is a my inspiration. Written by the folks at 37signals who have similar goals with their apps.
btw, youtube has big monetisation issues at the moment. They are tying really hard and from what I’ve heard, its going to be extremely difficult. Vimeo on the other hand, who have a more slow and steady approach seem to be doing ok and I expect big things (business wise) from them in the coming year.
Twitter, who wants to go it alone, had to remove features (international sms) in order to stay afloat, simply because they grew to fast. They then changed tactics and now are looking at a more frugal approach.
I think its the way to go – its not 2000-2003 anymore, investors don’t throw money at startups anymore (even if they want investors).
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