Closing down shop
by Dheeban SGDecided to close down Workapp, after a year, with a few lessons about mistakes made while building this app.
- Need to be lean, expect failure is an option
- Move fast, see if you can build on some intuition on the problem
- Don't be in analysis paralysis, but quickly, build some MVP
- Will never build for internet again, need a new platform
- Automation, Do more with less, Do scalable marketing
- Keep your other options open - in my case, preparing for interviews, because the opportunity cost is high, not to try
- If closing down, do that sooner, faster, cleaner
- Start solo, write a lot of code yourself, before hiring even your co-founder
- Aim for a sustainable small business, instead of the next big thing - that's just day dreaming.
- Be open to pivot, or even killing your idea
- Very important - Follow the product-market fit pyramid, know your customer, competitor, under-served need, at least have a thesis. Iterate multiple rounds, slightly better each time.
- If its undifferentiated, it not worth doing (personal opinion)
Update:
12.b. My most important lesson in addition to the above, is being humble, thankful for the gifts in life - when we take some time out and think, we realize its amazing to be alive, healthy, with good mental facility and above all passion / drive to do things... nothing else matters more.
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@sgdheeban, thank you a lot for sharing this. I think some of the most relevant points in a startup post are the lessons learned.
But, could you please explain better the point number "4" (Will never build for internet again, need a new platform) ?
I'm thinking about that too and would be great to know your thoughts.
And what platforms do you see as possible options?-
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@DanCampos I am focusing on Crypto. Its just my humble opinion, at the risk of sounding like a speculative talker, there are a few cycles that happen say each 15-20 year period in computing. We are at the beginning of one such cycle in tech as of 2015-2017. The next big trend which will hit the shore a big way in another 5 years, I believe are 1) AI 1.0 2) Crypto 1.0 3) May be VR / AR / IoT, Voice, AI, Crypto enabled devices, basically smart devices. I am focusing on 2) Crypto 1.0, as that's the only thing within my area of expertise. I believe there are going to be many waves in these directions, in the next decade to two, hence called them 1.0. So, a lot to be done.
Also, I believe AI will be the first to hit the shore, but, that's not my expertise. Also, there could be some other mini-platforms, like say GitHub , Chrome Plugin or Mailchimp (for example)... If you prefer building a smaller niche product, instead of going mainstream with a pie-in-the-sky idea. These mini-platforms could yield decent returns with better odds in a shorter term, with lesser competition.
PS: I still believe Internet will be a primary distribution channel, simply because, its awesome :) and we have built so much awesome infra. But, the nature of the apps, will start leveraging other / above mentioned platforms.
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Thanks a lot for sharing this, @sgdheeban
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Nice! Thanks for sharing
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Thanks for sharing Dheeban.
Analysis paralysis is definitly something I can relate to. It's great to hear your advice.I've been reading lately start small stay small by Rob Walling.
He insists on not automating too soon and outsourcing to virtual assistants as much as possible (even software) to focus on things you harder to delegate such as marketing. I'd be curious what's you thought on this.
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Agreed, Am a huge fan of Rob Walling :) . Automation of redundant stuff - I meant. Something that's like you need, but not something where you need to pay attention to get insights. For ex. in this example, it's important to automate views to scale i.e., ads (in small daily dosage), so you get your product in front of as many people as possible, as it's a numbers game. But, when they come to your site, it's better to engage with them manually - if not with everyone, at least as much as possible. Idea is automating necessary / routine stuff, so we can pay attention to more insightful stuff or simply learn something else.
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Makes sense! Thanks for your answer.
Can you tell us more about the product-market fit pyramid?
I'm not familiar with the concept you're referring to.-
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@Bipbop These 2 materials spoke to me a lot, when I read them, each one of them is a book. I keep revisiting them, every now and then, like textbooks.
Idea to MVP - Concept of Product Market Fit Pyramid
https://medium.com/@Productized/a-playbook-for-achieving-product-market-fit-by-dan-olsen-3e97f7cb1006This is the book for the above.
https://www.amazon.com/Lean-Product-Playbook-Innovate-Products/dp/1118960874?source=post_page---------------------------MVP to a Solo Dev-startup.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003YH9MMI/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1-
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Thank you very much for sharing theses books @sgdheeban! Best of luck for your next adventure!
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Thanks for sharing this. There's a lot to learn with "failure". I'm currently doing a post-mortem of my last month-and-a-half being a maker so I find this very interesting to read while I'm about to "reboot".
I need to ask what you mean by "Will never build for internet again"? What's the context?
Also, "do scalable marketing" contradicts stuff I've learned by professional marketers. There is something as "non-scalable marketing" to get the wheels turning. What leads you to your conclusion?
I have a hard time understanding point number 6, too. I'm not sure what you're talking about (interviews??)
- "If closing down, do that sooner" well it's not so easy to know exactly when, is it? Also there's plenty of examples of successful "obstinate persistence" out there, no? I get your point, but it's hard to know when to apply it. You certainly DON'T want to kill an idea for the wrong reasons.
-"If its undifferentiated, it not worth doing." I certainly agree, although "differentiation" can be as simple as lower price, higher performance, nicer design etc...…….
-"Be open to pivot, or even killing your idea" Definitely don't get attached to your code and your idea - I think that's a big one for all the technical guys out there (like me!) In fact my most recent "task" on producthunt was "the software itself is NOT the most important thing. ACCEPT IT. " I'm a developer and everything tells me otherwise but I've come around to (finally) believe and accept that 'marketing' is definitely more important. I'm rebooting with 'marketing' as my primary focus.
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@headofficeonabike First up , all the best for your reboot. Just to clarify -- all these were just my personal, unedited thoughts / reflections on my personal experience ... so its subjective ... it's very well possible that for another person, some or all of the points could have been a totally different experience .. and to clarify the specific points that you mentioned...
- Will never build for internet again ~ this is just a personal decision, I am a dev, and grew up in the internet age, always believed in internet, started building apps for it, but, one experience i felt while working on Workapp was that it has gotten crowded... plus, I went down the rabbit hole of crypto / web3 ... and so this is just a personal choice, not a broader reflection of reality
5, 6. Scalable marketing, interviews - Again, this is subjective to my situation, i.e., in my current / foreseeable future capacity, my next project will also be a side project, while i keep my day job ~ so its in my best interest to do more automation, and put the product in front of more customers (this time around, I was manually scouting for customers), but its also a numbers game - so that was a mistake. And balance my time to prepare for interviews (just to get a better day job).
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Closing down sooner, is tricky, was hard - there is always one final straw that breaks the camel's back. It was just hindsight. In our case, it was our realization, that we did not want to build a consultancy type of business and our platform product was undifferentiated (I mean it was really bad as an original product :) ) ~ so we decided to quit.
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Differentiation - This is just my current theory, I am yet to succeed personally to have a personal experience of what it feels like or even what "product-market fit" feels like for that matter.
As for your marketing comment, I agree. But, I think viewing it as "distribution" is equally important. At the end of the day, if we don't tell enough people about the party, or don't receive them properly when they show up for the first time or fail to retain them, it will end up in a failure... One of my todo, is to build some viral loops (even simple is good).... like an email referral or something, that way if we are spending a $ in marketing, when people come, there is at least a theoretical chance that they may spread the word ..
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@sgdheeban All valid points. Good luck finding a great job until you come back in force. Don't lose sight of the dream :)
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@headofficeonabike Thanks for the wishes. Luckily by God's grace, I am not out of job, just I realized that if we are doing a side project, if we automate, we can free up bandwidth to learn more things - whatever that could be, so we don't put everything in basket. I already started my next project, based on the lessons from Workapp. Please check out https://cryptoday0.org/
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Wow, you have great ideas. I guess I'm more in need of luck than you are, ha ha ha. Seriously, this looks promising.
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@headofficeonabike Thanks for the kind words . Nothing like that. This is just a random hunch, may be completely false as well. But, the only way to tell is to try it out. Let's see how this experiment goes, keeping fingers crossed.
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I am curious to know what will you be working on next? What industry?
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@visq I have already started my next project, https://cryptoday0.org. This is based on the learning from Workapp. At this point, it's just a hunch, but feels like a good learning opportunity.
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@sgdheeban that is a nice project, may I ask why you have chosen the Ethereum blockchain?
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@deifos Thanks for the complement & a great question ! Because, upon evaluation, I have not seen a better Turing complete / heavy blockchain (as of today), which truly prioritizes decentralization + security over scalability in a blockchain Trilemma (which is the whole point of a blockchain). Initially, I had my hopes on EOS, but, they totally screwed up on decentralization.
Second, I was very worried about the UX, of people having to pay gas, but then it dawned on me that people will learn this UX if it's 10X useful than alternatives. We just have to build On-Off ramps, like underground metros do, to make it easy for the people to get in and out. This is like how we learned to type on keyboards, use a mouse, touchscreens, voice commands, connecting modems, carrying laptops, spreadsheets, trusting strangers in Uber and AirBnB...
A third subtle aspect is , any such core blockchain project should be structured as a foundation like Bitcoin or Etherum, to avoid any interference so in the long-run, things will be aligned, even though in the short-term, it looks chaotic and slow.. EOS blew it ... IMHO.
Forth, Dev tools, seriously.. here there is no competition, you can literally run a CI build to deploy to Ethereum, and so much blogs, frameworks... I don't see it anywhere else.... in short, developer adoption.
Finally, as for scalability, I am not worried. Layer 2 + PoS + Sharding will fix these issues in the next 3-5 years. General idea, is Sharding + Layering ... which are basic principles in Computer Science. Also, in PoS, Casper V2 looked more secured + decentralized than EOS dPoS, from my limited research... Please correct me if I am wrong.
@deifos - Do you have any interesting Blockchain, that I should look into , which is better technically than Ethereum ? Please let me know.
PS: For the curious ~ learn about blockchain Trilemma here : https://medium.com/@aakash_13214/the-scalability-trilemma-in-blockchain-75fb57f646df
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