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Yes
No
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Douglas Hackney,
Enterprise Group, Ltd.
The step by step story of an entrepreneur’s journey from idea to bootstrap web startup from her vi...
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The step by step story of an entrepreneur’s journey from idea to bootstrap web startup from her viewpoint and that of her mentor’s. The critical decisions, hurdles, tests, fears and anxieties are reviewed from both perspectives including: testing her big idea, proving her market, developing her business plan and launching her web startup into the marketplace. Lessons learned, mistakes made and “What I’d do differently” are all included in this fast paced review of a year in the life of a bootstrap web startup entrepreneur.
Bootstrapping entrepeneurship, entrepreneur, startups
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Yes
No
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Jason Glaspey,
PIE (Portland Incubator Experiment)
Side projects used to be hobbies you did in your garage. And they
stayed in your garage.
But now...
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Side projects used to be hobbies you did in your garage. And they
stayed in your garage.
But now, people are using side projects to advance their careers,
change professions, or gain notoriety amongst their industry's
leaders. And with the price of professional-grade tools coming down,
sophisticated software becoming more accessible, and distribution no
longer an obstacle, the ability to build something the world will see
has never been easier.
In this session we will look at college students who made commercials
for their favorite products, which in turn became real commercials.
Coders who built web apps, which in turn became full businesses. And
how simple projects have landed their creators awesome jobs without a
resume ever changing hands.
Bootstrapping Bootstrapping, Side-Projects, startups
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Yes
No
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Simon King,
Wordspreadz
Ideas are cheap but the real work starts after the idea sprouts. This presentation will focus on the...
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Ideas are cheap but the real work starts after the idea sprouts. This presentation will focus on the most direct path to bringing tech ideas to fruition. The presentation takes a humorous look at building a tech start-up from both sides of the equation: technical product development and business/marketing management.From refining the original epiphany and building a start-up team to using social networks to effectively launch the company this presentation will bring focus to the steps involved.
Bootstrapping business planning, New ideas, Start-up
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Yes
No
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Brian Williams,
Viget Labs
You work in (or run) a services company. Your clients pay you to design and build web sites and app...
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You work in (or run) a services company. Your clients pay you to design and build web sites and apps, and you're pretty damn good at executing on their ideas. But, what about your ideas? We've all heard of product companies that started out providing services (e.g., 37signals), and you've probably heard of services companies that tried to launch a product but ultimately failed.
This talk will focus on why *every* services company should build their own products, and how -- contrary to popular belief -- you can balance both products and services without damaging your core business, regardless of how successful your products turn out to be.
Bootstrapping Bootstrapping, Entrepreneurism, products
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Yes
No
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Matthew Smith,
Squared Eye
So you’ve tumbled down the rabbit hole into the world of freelancing and you’re ready to make it...
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So you’ve tumbled down the rabbit hole into the world of freelancing and you’re ready to make it a legit career so your friends stop thinking you’re unemployed. But how does it actually happen? Should you take the red pill... or the blue one? Do you have to grow a big agency or outsource work to India? Maybe neither. Designing a successful business takes vision, organization and communication mixed with grit and determination. And our panel guests are in the thick of it—building a business together and ready to share their successes and failures with you.
Bootstrapping business, Clients, Profitability
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Yes
No
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Adam Healey,
hotelicopter
When you master this essential trick of building a business, you can
apply it to every new endeavor...
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When you master this essential trick of building a business, you can
apply it to every new endeavor. Adam Healey, cofounder and CEO of
hotelicopter, and Colin Steele, the CTO, share their experiences
creating "product-market fit". We explore how hotelicopter applied
the practices and principles of _The_Four_Steps_to_the_Epiphany_ to
build an agile customer development process that matches the agility
of product development. Through conscious work on customer discovery
and learning, we eliminated much of the "wandering in the dark" we'd
otherwise have dealt with when moving to a B2B model from B2C. We'll
illuminate practical aspects of deliberately and systematically
focusing on the speed and accuracy of matching our company's products
to the needs of real customers. We'll cover a gamut of challenges,
from prosaic ones like "Who should talk to the customers?" to
substantially more subtle ones, such as, "If we shoot for parity
competitive positioning, can we move beyond that as our product line
grows?" If your company struggles with issues like "Where are our
customers?", "What changes must be made so our product can be sold
scalably?" and "How do we price our product?", then this presentation
is for you.
Bootstrapping customer development, Entrepreneurship, Startup
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Yes
No
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Jason Cohen,
Capital Thought
After starting three companies, I've found that some widely accepted advice lead me to failure while...
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After starting three companies, I've found that some widely accepted advice lead me to failure while trusting my (inexperienced) gut lead to success. So many business philosophies profess they're the One True Way, yet different business face different hurdles. With stories, six actionable lessons, and a workshopping of 37signals' philosophy, you'll learn when to follow the rules and when to go your own way.
Bootstrapping advice, entrepreneur, startups
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Yes
No
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Michael Coté,
RedMonk
Why cater to a market that makes you eat ramen when you can slap on a suit and get budget for sushi?...
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Why cater to a market that makes you eat ramen when you can slap on a suit and get budget for sushi? In this panel industry analyst Michael Coté (RedMonk) will lead a discussion with other analysts and experts illustrating how to approach enterprises and large gold-holding organizations with your technologies and services. Selling to consumers is fun, but the pay is poor compared to corporate customers who actually would like to pay for good software. We'll cover the exceptions these outfits have, what types of technologies they're looking for, sales processes, pricing, deflecting FUD from incumbents, and other aspects to help you bootstrap into the enterprise market.
If you're just holed up in an apartment waiting to get bought by Facebook or Google, there's nothing for you here. But if you'd like to find out what all those dry-cleaned people are doing, come check it out and ask questions.
Bootstrapping enterprise, marketing, Sales
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Yes
No
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Babette Pepaj,
BakeSpace.com
"What we have here is a failure to communicate." This famous line (spoken to Paul Newman in Cool Han...
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"What we have here is a failure to communicate." This famous line (spoken to Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke) aptly describes the relationship that can develop between a Web site publisher and the site's developer. We'll examine real-world examples (some hilarious, others downright frightening) and discuss strategies to help non-techie entrepreneurs communicate effectively with their tech/development team.
This panel will help your bootstrapped startup avoid being taken for a ride.
Bootstrapping development, Startup, Website content
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Yes
No
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Chris Bernard,
www.designthinkingdiget.com
Getting big is a great problem, but rapid and unexpected growth can be filled with peril – both fr...
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Getting big is a great problem, but rapid and unexpected growth can be filled with peril – both from a technology perspective and ability to continue delivering on your company’s core promise to consumers. Join industry veterans that have experienced this dilemma as they share lessons on how to limit unpredictability in today’s connected social world of the cloud, Web, and multiple devices. From starting small in your kitchen and growing to support thousands of users to running a business whose data stores jump from gigabytes to terabytes; or coming up with the next big thing that established behemoths want to mimic—if they can’t buy you first. Hear how firms like Graphic.ly, Redbox, Dodgeball, and Mediabank survive and thrive as they manage growth.
Bootstrapping cloud services, mobile development, start-ups
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Yes
No
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Jon Loyens,
Bazaarvoice
Over the past ten years, the rise of the consumer web and the availability of better measurement too...
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Over the past ten years, the rise of the consumer web and the availability of better measurement tools has lead software design towards leaner, more iterative product development methodologies that place emphasis on quantifiable success metrics. Due to the ability to quickly iterate and fail fast on the web, companies have become more and more willing to let it all hang out with their new product ideas. What happens though when those ideas extend over the bleeding edge? The desire to get further in front of the technology curve has lead to the establishment of Labs groups within many companies both big and small.
By their nature, Labs and their projects evolve, change, succeed, fail -- and kick off innovation that bleeds far into the company as a whole. You'll hear / learn how large and small companies created and grew their Labs.
Join panelists from three very different companies that have successfully created public facing incubators in the form of Labs as they discuss the evolution and execution of the concept within their organizations. The panelists will walk through the various challenges, successes and failures they've encountered both organizationally and technologically as their incubation processes have evolved.
Attendees will leave with a broad survey of what makes a Labs group work and whether or not having such a group could kick start innovation at their own companies.
Bootstrapping process, product development, Prototyping
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Yes
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Ed Brojerdi,
Spies and Assassins / MDC Partners
How to create a technology start-up inside a large organization - based on how we are doing it right...
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How to create a technology start-up inside a large organization - based on how we are doing it right now
We'll look at different SkunkWorks models, looking at companies we have started inside larger parents. How do you leverage the resources of a large company, but maintain the agility and efficiency and passion and motivation of a start up?
Bootstrapping marketing, Start-up, Technology
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Yes
No
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Jeff Reckseidler,
tuuk
Simply, there are thousands of agencies, design shops and communications firms across the world, all...
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Simply, there are thousands of agencies, design shops and communications firms across the world, all trying to find a way to position themselves and create demand for their work.
Our session idea is simple - we want to talk about and showcase:
1) New and emerging firms / business models that have moved beyond being an agency to marketing or advertising clients exclusively
2) Talk about role structure and staff needs that have become necessary to be "creative" in a post digital era
3) Discuss trends that demonstrate the need to be more "generalist" than "specialized" to create compelling and relevant solutions for the people we do our work for.
Bootstrapping agency innovation, creative industries, creative thinking, anthropology
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Yes
No
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Chris Ennis,
OneRecovery
Many web startups enter the market facing an uphill struggle against naysayers, critics and skeptica...
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Many web startups enter the market facing an uphill struggle against naysayers, critics and skeptical investors who want to see results before they invest their money in the company. Proving the concept is critical and for entrepreneurs with limited capital, building a viable product without breaking the bank is an essential ingredient. Imagine cutting your staff and still producing a successful product. It is possible as this presentation will show. This presentation will look at both successful and failed startups and the approaches different development teams take to quickly create a product that provides a barometer for the startup's concept.
Bootstrapping development, minimum viable product, startups
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Yes
No
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Bijoy Goswami,
Aviri
Your Interactive Life Venture starts much earlier than the Ideation Phase (3). It starts in the YOU ...
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Your Interactive Life Venture starts much earlier than the Ideation Phase (3). It starts in the YOU (1) and QUEST(ion) (2) phases. Failure to properly account for these earlier phases leads to much trouble and gnashing of teeth later on.
This talk will provide you with the critical tools needed to begin your journey at its true beginning.
Bootstrapping awaken, discover, quest
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Yes
No
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Christopher Watkins,
Formspring.me
Have you ever had an idea for a great product, but thought any of the following:
"I don't have en...
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Have you ever had an idea for a great product, but thought any of the following:
"I don't have enough time to work on this and keep my full-time job."
"I don't have the dev/design/business skills to make this on my own."
Come hear from three people who have each figured out their own unique ways around these (and other) challenges. From the designer with zero development skill, to the developer who freelances to fund their own project, to the developer who focuses full-time on scratching his own itch, this panel runs the gamut for dreamers of all shapes and sizes. Hear what's worked for us and what could work for you!
Bootstrapping bootstrapped, Startup
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Yes
No
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Nick Francis,
Brightwurks
Building a web app is the easy part. Launching usually brings some publicity and hype, but how can y...
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Building a web app is the easy part. Launching usually brings some publicity and hype, but how can you maintain a marketing strategy long-term and avoid crickets? This panel is about developing a solid long-term marketing strategy for your web app. The people you will hear from have been there and have successful apps today because they know how to reach customers. Each panelist will share how they invest their marketing dollars, what works and doesn't work for them and how they measure ROI. Topics Covered include building an audience, word of mouth marketing, social media, banner ads, pay-per-click and SEO. Armed with tips, experiences and resources from industry experts, you will leave prepared to create long-term success for your app with the right marketing strategy.
Bootstrapping Marketing Strategy, social media marketing, web applications
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Yes
No
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Chris Henry,
Behance
Starting a dev team is hard. Starting a dev team to build a brand new idea is harder. The constrai...
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Starting a dev team is hard. Starting a dev team to build a brand new idea is harder. The constraints around building a new product in a bootstrapped startup make the decision-making process almost more important than the development process. Doing the right things early on can make a company's future. Doing dumb things, or unnecessary things, early on can doom the product to missed deadlines, broken promises, and being flat-out broke.
But how do we make the right decisions? Knowing what's right for your company starts with a realistic assessment of who your team is, what their strengths are, and what you're trying to accomplish. Some examples:
INFRASTRUCTURE:
Who you have on your team and their expertise - as well as how they overlap - isn't just PART of the equation for decision-making, it IS the equation. For example, deciding how to host your site. Cloud hosting requires a huge time investment that may not be in your team's expertise. Managed hosting is totally be worth the cash if it frees up the time of the team to actually build your product. Cheaper isn't always better.
LEARNING FROM FAILURE:
Best practices are no substitute for learning from your OWN experience. We keep a little diary called "The Book of Fail" that tracks what goes wrong. It's a handbook of institutional knowledge, and a useful tool for revisiting what not to do every so often. With documentation, there's no excuse for making the same mistake twice.
Bootstrapping development, team management
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Yes
No
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Gareth Knight,
Technovated
I first attended SxSW in 2006, and was blown away. It opened my eyes, and I said to myself that one...
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I first attended SxSW in 2006, and was blown away. It opened my eyes, and I said to myself that one day I would do the same in South Africa, for Africans, not because I wanted to compete with SxSW, but because if an event was going to galvanise Africans, it had to happen on home soil.
Fast forward to 2010 and we're doing the first TECH4AFRICA in South Africa, and I'm unashamed to say that many of the ideas and details are straight from SxSW. Why? Because it works!
This talk is not about those details however, it's about the road getting there, the challenges faced in making it all happen, and what we did to overcome them. It's warts and all bootstrapping at it's best.
Wouldn't it be awesome if people in the audience in SxSW could take those lessons and apply them in their own situation, so more and more people could be inspired by events like SxSW, and the people there?
Bootstrapping Bootstrapping, business, Startup
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Yes
No
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Christopher Hastings,
Hastings Consulting Group / HindSite Analytics
Most entrepreneurs fail because they start the business the only way they know how - thinking about ...
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Most entrepreneurs fail because they start the business the only way they know how - thinking about their business as they experience it - as a customer.
They start with a name, a website, an idea, a price and run out in search of legal help and dollars. They start businesses like 14 year olds decide to start bands. Lately, many very smart people have jumped feet first into both business model design and lean startup methodologies - believing that the fast survive.
They build pro formas and they talk to customers and they still fail to learn how to think through the business model, reflect against the opportunity, the industry and the market. They read all about John Boyd's OODA loops, but forget how that changes what they do an hour later because they are too busy building a startup that has too many demands. The moment they write their business plan (for themselves or investors) it is becoming obsolete as they learn more. Their business plan turns to ashes in real time.
By the end of this session - each participant will have a mental model for how to design their business model and in what order. They'll know when to drop assumptions, which assumptions to make and how to take huge opportunities and bolt small startups to them - until the startups own the space.
Bootstrapping design thinking, Entrepreneurship, opportunity analysis
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Yes
No
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Ash Maurya,
WiredReach
While not the same thing, Bootstrapping and Lean Startups are quite complementary. Both cover techni...
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While not the same thing, Bootstrapping and Lean Startups are quite complementary. Both cover techniques for building low-burn startups through the maximization of existing resources before expending effort on new or external resources.
While bootstrapping provides a strategic roadmap for achieving sustainability through customer funding (i.e. charging customers), lean startups provide a more tactical approach to achieving those goals through validated learning.
Come see how to apply bootstrapping and lean startup techniques to maximize your chance of success at your current or next startup.
Bootstrapping boostrapping, Funding, lean startup
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Yes
No
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Adam Howell,
Mocksup
So, you've got a dayjob, but also aspirations of taking your own thing full-time. You've either laun...
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So, you've got a dayjob, but also aspirations of taking your own thing full-time. You've either launched, are currently building or are in the process of dreaming up a webapp to work on in your spare-time.
First of all, congrats, working on a personally fulfilling side-project is one of the greatest things about working on the web. Working on Mocksup.com while holding down a demanding full-time job, freelancing on the side and being a husband and father has been one of the most tiring but rewarding things I've ever done.
But, getting a webapp out the door in your spare-time and building a webapp into a business that you can take full-time are two very different things.
Here are just a few of the topics I'll touch on in this talk:
* You need a partner. Get over it.
* You need to be working on a business tool. Get over it.
* Be your product's most active user from day one. It's QA, customer support, feature development and product evangelism all rolled into one.
* Turn your weaknesses -- time, energy, resources, exposure -- into strengths by being clever, inventive, upfront and honest.
* A blog and a twitter account aren't enough. You'll need to have a side-project to your side-project to help garner extra attention.
This will be a straight-forward, funny and, hopefully, enlightening talk filled with examples, stories and pretty pictures.
Bootstrapping full-time, side-project, webapp
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Yes
No
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Spencer Fry,
Carbonmade, LLC
We'll use all the panel members' experiences to tell a "how to story" about bootstrapping to million...
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We'll use all the panel members' experiences to tell a "how to story" about bootstrapping to millions of dollars in profits. All panel members are founders of their companies and all have achieved this success. All the companies are bootstrapped. The topics that we plan to cover are “Idea Generating,” “Team Building,” “Off Hours,” “Consulting on the Side,” “There’s No Need to Rush,” “Building Organically,” “Making That First Dollar,” “When Investors Come Calling,” and more. We’ll take you through a series of stories from starting out to, well, never ending. Every topic will be interwoven with anecdotes from Carbonmade, Harvest, Wufoo, and HypeMachine. We’ll change the way you think about starting and running your company. Building a company shouldn’t be something you flip in five years to Google, Facebook and others. You should enjoy coming to work for it every day of the week. For example, under “Idea Generating”, did you know that both Carbonmade and Harvest were small two-to-three person web design studios before they developed their product? Did you know that Wufoo was built on the back of a web development blog? Did you know that HypeMachine started in a college dorm? Those are all atypical starts compared with how typical companies are founded these days: going from angel funding to venture capital to (with luck) merger and acquisition. Whatever happened to building a company that affects peoples’ lives, all the while maintaining control and bringing in loads of profit?
Bootstrapping bootstrap, Profitability, Startup
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