lessons learned birthing and building web startups
DESCRIPTION
Lessons Learned Birthing and Building Web StartUps Mark Fletcher http://www.wingedpig.com May 15, 2006TRANSCRIPT
![Page 1: Lessons Learned Birthing and Building Web StartUps](https://reader033.vdocuments.mx/reader033/viewer/2022052822/554f01beb4c90577698b4efc/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Lessons Learned Birthing and Building Web StartUps
Mark Fletcherhttp://www.wingedpig.com
May 15, 2006
![Page 2: Lessons Learned Birthing and Building Web StartUps](https://reader033.vdocuments.mx/reader033/viewer/2022052822/554f01beb4c90577698b4efc/html5/thumbnails/2.jpg)
One Nerd, Two Startups
• Launched 1998• Acquired by Yahoo 2000 (as eGroups)
• Launched 2003• Acquired by Ask Jeeves 2005
![Page 3: Lessons Learned Birthing and Building Web StartUps](https://reader033.vdocuments.mx/reader033/viewer/2022052822/554f01beb4c90577698b4efc/html5/thumbnails/3.jpg)
Garage Philosophy
• Solve a Pain Point• Have Passion for the Idea• Be Cheap!!• Release Early/Release Often (3 Month Rule)
– Doesn’ t Have to be Perfect• Involve Your Users
![Page 4: Lessons Learned Birthing and Building Web StartUps](https://reader033.vdocuments.mx/reader033/viewer/2022052822/554f01beb4c90577698b4efc/html5/thumbnails/4.jpg)
Garage Philosophy
• Moonlighting limits risk• Friends/Family funds• Free services = less pressure• Hire a lawyer• Outsource to eLance/Rent A Coder
![Page 5: Lessons Learned Birthing and Building Web StartUps](https://reader033.vdocuments.mx/reader033/viewer/2022052822/554f01beb4c90577698b4efc/html5/thumbnails/5.jpg)
Garage Marketing Philosophy
• Wonders of viral growth• Users are all that matters• PR is cheapest marketing you can do• Don’ t worry about biz dev• Pay attention to and leverage blogs
![Page 6: Lessons Learned Birthing and Building Web StartUps](https://reader033.vdocuments.mx/reader033/viewer/2022052822/554f01beb4c90577698b4efc/html5/thumbnails/6.jpg)
Design Philosophy
• Amy Jo Kim’ s presentation at Etech -Putting the Fun in Functional:
http://shufflebrain.com/etech06
![Page 7: Lessons Learned Birthing and Building Web StartUps](https://reader033.vdocuments.mx/reader033/viewer/2022052822/554f01beb4c90577698b4efc/html5/thumbnails/7.jpg)
On Raising Money
• How Much?• Raising Money Takes Time• Friends and Family• Angel• VC• Debt Financing
![Page 8: Lessons Learned Birthing and Building Web StartUps](https://reader033.vdocuments.mx/reader033/viewer/2022052822/554f01beb4c90577698b4efc/html5/thumbnails/8.jpg)
On Being A Sellout
• eGroups vs Bloglines• Don’ t sell – be bought• Investment Bankers
– What they are– Finding/Interviewing them– Negotiating with them
![Page 9: Lessons Learned Birthing and Building Web StartUps](https://reader033.vdocuments.mx/reader033/viewer/2022052822/554f01beb4c90577698b4efc/html5/thumbnails/9.jpg)
Software Choices
• Linux/Apache• C/C++/bash/python• DJB (http://cr.yp.to)
– qmail– DJBDNS– Daemontools
• ClearSilver (http://www.clearsilver.net)• Berkeley DB (http://www.sleepycat.com)• Memcached• Avoid NFS• Avoid table-level locking in MySQL
![Page 10: Lessons Learned Birthing and Building Web StartUps](https://reader033.vdocuments.mx/reader033/viewer/2022052822/554f01beb4c90577698b4efc/html5/thumbnails/10.jpg)
Hardware Choices
• Dedicated servers vs. Buying/Hosting• Design for cheap hardware• eBay!• APC PDUs for remote power cycling• HP ProCurve• Avoid Seagate Ultra-SCSI drives• Good phone for SSH
![Page 11: Lessons Learned Birthing and Building Web StartUps](https://reader033.vdocuments.mx/reader033/viewer/2022052822/554f01beb4c90577698b4efc/html5/thumbnails/11.jpg)
Architecture Choices
• Copying files vs. Client/Server– Bloglines News RSS Feed
• Calculate on the fly vs. Cache– Subscriber counts
• Memory vs. Disk– Notifications
![Page 12: Lessons Learned Birthing and Building Web StartUps](https://reader033.vdocuments.mx/reader033/viewer/2022052822/554f01beb4c90577698b4efc/html5/thumbnails/12.jpg)
Storage Choices
• Relational DB vs. Flat Files• RAID vs. Redundant
– ONElist/eGroups with hardware RAID– Bloglines without hardware RAID
• Linux Software RAID 1
![Page 13: Lessons Learned Birthing and Building Web StartUps](https://reader033.vdocuments.mx/reader033/viewer/2022052822/554f01beb4c90577698b4efc/html5/thumbnails/13.jpg)
SysAdmin Choices
• DNS round robin for web servers• Hot back-ups for off-line processing• Worry about cooling in the co-lo• Avoid using swap
![Page 14: Lessons Learned Birthing and Building Web StartUps](https://reader033.vdocuments.mx/reader033/viewer/2022052822/554f01beb4c90577698b4efc/html5/thumbnails/14.jpg)
Avoid Making Stupid Bets…
![Page 15: Lessons Learned Birthing and Building Web StartUps](https://reader033.vdocuments.mx/reader033/viewer/2022052822/554f01beb4c90577698b4efc/html5/thumbnails/15.jpg)
Avoid Making Stupid Bets…
![Page 16: Lessons Learned Birthing and Building Web StartUps](https://reader033.vdocuments.mx/reader033/viewer/2022052822/554f01beb4c90577698b4efc/html5/thumbnails/16.jpg)
Questions?