Systematically evaluating our startup ideas helped us pick one to proceed with confidence. After launching my last product (a Twitter bookmarking browser extension), I was ready to experiment with my next idea. The goal is to quickly validate what works and what doesn’t, so the approach is to build and…

Lots of people using a free product is validation that people want to use it for free. It’s not validation for a business model. Last September I launched Markfolder, a free Twitter bookmarking browser extension and web app. I built it for myself because Twitter’s bookmarking sucks* and I needed…

For most non-trivial applications, fixing a technical bug could take hours or days. In this case, fixing the actual bug should probably come last. First, fix the customer’s confidence, followed by the customer’s experience. Then the bug. Fix the customer’s confidence When something breaks, the first thing that happens is doubt being cast in…

It’s the sort of warning that makes sense but doesn’t seem serious until you’re on the receiving end of it: “Don’t create a business that your competitor can easily kill by adding a feature to their product.” With Markfolder I did just that mistake: created a business around a feature…

There is a right and wrong way. A while back I came across the concept of building an audience as a way to grow a following and to grow a customer base. Along the way I made the mistake of equating audience with customers. I shared some learnings in a…

I’ve started and failed at startup and business ideas and quite often I realised that some of these failures can be avoided if I knew the questions to ask of them in the first place. Before spending months trying to “validate” the idea. I started compiling these questions and then…

Grow, then sell, then make. — What I’ve learned in the last 3 years of trying to start/survive new businesses, as a solo founder: Old rules: Make, then sell, then grow. New rules: Grow, then sell, then make. GROW your audience/following By creating useful content, building something publicly, or just being helpful to your community. Use newsletters, social media…

Building an effective landing page is surprisingly hard, but there are tried and tested methods. Here’s how I did it while building a new product called Markfolder, a tool for bookmarking tweets. I’ll start with what I learned, and then details after if you want to read further. Learnings Create a…