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Introduction
These days, being “lean” is all the rage in startup circles. And for good reason. In a nutshell, the goal of a lean startup is to quickly build a product that customers actually want, not one YOU think they want. Others have written insightful articles on the topic, so instead of regurgitating their excellent points, instead, I thought I’d give you insight into how TripLingo utilizes lean startup principles.
Team TripLingo’s Lean Machine: 11 Ways We’re Lean, and 1 We’re “Not”
1. Hustle.
Hustle is a word I learned from Gary Vaynerchuck. It’s a combination of hard work, opportunism, and refusal to take “no” as an answer. It’s about finding opportunities and going after them with all you have. No excuses, just effing do it. And if there’s any word that embodies lean, its “hustle”. Here are a few examples of our hustle:
Hustle Rule #1: Never accept a ‘No’.
Our team met at StartAtlanta. It was sold out by the time I tried to register and they told me I couldn’t go. I emailed them 4 times, begging to be let in. I would get coffee, take registrations, clean the toilets, anything! 45 minutes before it started, I got an email that said they had given me the last spot, despite the waiting list, because I’d been so persistent. At the event, my idea was chosen, a team was formed, and we won the event to gain access to Startup Riot.
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Clik here to view.Hustle Rule #2: Just Ask.
At StartupRiot, we wanted to all wear blue shirts so we could be easily identified. They were $350. After negotiating with the manager, we got them for $200. Not cheap, but that $200 investment was a part of what helped us stand out at StartupRiot and ultimately beat out 49 other startups for the top prize. This resulted in us getting coverage on CNN along with $15,000 in prizes. Worth it.
Image may be NSFW.
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Hustle Rule #3: Be proactive.
My top choice to be an advisor to TripLingo is a luminary. I emailed him months ago, asking him to be our advisor. No response. Emailed again a few weeks later. No response. Emailed again a few weeks later except this time, I politely told him that until I was explicitly told to “go away”, I’d continue to keep him (ahem) updated on the situation. I’m not sure if that was the kicker, but he finally responded, lauding my persistence.
We had a great phone call and hopefully there will be something to show for it, but either way it was great getting to talk to someone I greatly admire in the travel space, and at the very least we won’t regret for not trying.
Hustle Rule #4: Negotiate.After we won StartAtlanta, we needed a space to work together. The Atlanta-Journal Constitution was going to write an article about us, so I proposed a simple deal: give us discounted rent for space and we’ll have our picture taken at your coworking location and get you mentioned in the AJC. Win-win for both of us, and helped us save some precious cash that could be put to other uses.
2. Be economical, not cheap.
Running a business can be expensive, no matter how lean you are. Incorporation fees alone can cost hundreds of dollars, not to mention legal fees, any IP protection you need, hosting, software (like PivotalTracker, HipChat, Kissmetrics, etc.),payroll expenses, and on and on. But being lean isn’t about not spending money- it’s about spending money effectively.
Spend money where it’s necessary. In terms of costs, there are lots of ways to minimize cash out the door. For example some law firms accept delayed payments or will take a small equity stake in returned for reduced legal fees. When you’re early on in your venture, many service providers will offer limited free services as you ramp up, with the expectation that you’ll use them when you grow to an appropriate size. Don’t be afraid to ask or negotiate.
Also- many services provide “free” plans that you can use at first (most notably MailChimp), and every now and then you’ll get lucky enough to stumble across an Appsumo deal that knocks your socks off.
Beyond just services, our culture and the way we work together is precious and deserving of effort and investment. So sometimes we spend money on beer, or food, or once even on Karaoke. Are these costs absolutely necessary? No. But we put in a lot of hours, and these are the kind of things that keep us close as a team and realize our dream of doing something awesome and having fun at the same time.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
3. Outsource non-core and time-consuming tasks.
We’ve got a weapons-grade team, and given the time I’m confident we could build just about anything. But we don’t have the time, and some things others can do more cheaply or more quickly.
We don’t oustource any front-facing tasks, but there have been several pieces of internal software that we’ve needed to build in order to make some of our operations scalable. It may cost $300, but if it moves our schedule up a week or two then it’s absolutely worth it. Time is precious. We use Elance.
4. Talk to everyone.
A core assumption of customer development is that your customers know best. To find out what they know, you’ve got to talk to them.
I assume everyone is a potential customer. If you’ve been unfortunate enough to encounter me at any kind of social event in the past several months, then you know I’ve asked your opinion of TripLingo. If I’ve seen you in the past month, you’ve been handed an iPod touch and asked to check it out, while I (ahem) casually observe from the corner of my eye.
As a team, we’ve gotten a ton of insights from the collective wisdom of our friends and everyone we’ve encountered. Even competitors. Talk is cheap, and in this case that’s a good thing: you can afford it. Talk to everyone.
5. Get interns.
As a startup, your to-do list might not fit in a 100-page book. There are way more things to do than people to do them, so the more people the better (to an extent). Not only are interns great because they add valuable human resources, but you can also find interns that will gladly work for the sheer interesting-ness and fun of working on something they enjoy. And if you can’t pay them, that’s OK.
I think the key here is giving them a small piece of work that they ‘own’. This applies to anyone, including interns. Give them real responsibility, give them a good environment, let them be part of an exciting new venture, and give them something to put on their résumé. Have something they can believe in. In return, you’ll gain valuable help and be able to execute on your plans much more quickly.
6. Learn, learn, learn.
Just like you don’t need to reinvent the wheel, there’s no sense making mistakes that have been made before or ignoring innovations you yourself didn’t come up with. Thanks to the internet, there is more knowledge available out there than you could ever possibly digest. That’s awesome: may the best man win.
Learn everything you possibly can: learn about startups, marketing, technology, business, development, etc. Most importantly, learn your market and competitors inside out- they’re often attacking a very similar problem and they’re probably smart folks, so don’t be an idiot: stand on their shoulders to see even farther.
For tech and startups, our favorite site is undoubtedly Hacker News (our HN handles are onwardly, w0lver, whoisvince, prpatel, mstigall).
There’s also a TON of great content out there from folks like: VentureHacks, Seth Godin, VC blogs (Fred Wilson, Mark Suster, Dave McClure, Brad Feld, Eric Ries). (Note: We didn’t include these because they’re affiliated with the Lean Startup Challenge- we actually read them daily!)
7. Get sponsors.
You know how much it costs to hold a local startup event (like we’re holding Wednesday!)? For 20 people, space, pizza, and beer, it’s about: $150. But if you’ve got a beer and space sponsor, now it’s just $40.
Find local companies that are willing to help out local startups. The difference between having a sponsor and not is simply asking.
8. Pick the right programming language.
A key component of being lean is choosing a software stack that lets you focus on the core of your product, rather than wasting time setting up the internal infrastructure and other reinventing the wheel tasks. Another key is choosing a software stack that lets you iterate and deploy quickly. Two products we use and love are TestFlightApp.com and Appcelerator’s Titanium.
Using Appcelerator’s Titanium makes it much easier to have reusable code in our mobile development. We can use the same code with a few tweaks to build iOS and Android version. Titanium has a lot of built in modules and uses the native UI elements as well. We’re not starting from scratch every time we need to add in various functionalities or deploy to new features.
9. Rapid prototyping.
Currently, the TripLingo app is on version 21. No biggie, except for the fact that we’ve officially been a company for less than 45 days.
We build, we deploy, and we test. Think, debate, do, iterate.
If instead of rapid iteration we had just gone into a room and said: “OK, these are the features we want, these are the specs, now build it,” then the app would be nothing like it is today. Almost every screen you’ll see in the TripLingo app has been substantially modified from the original version, and each time for the better. The only way to do this is to quickly deploy and test the concepts as you build them.
Besides our app, we’re on Version 3 of our website. Its OK, but we can do better. To that end, Version 4 is coming next week (after a weekend hackathon Friday/Saturday). Every time we’ve launched, it hasn’t been perfect. There may have even been (gasp) typos. But constantly pushing stuff live is one of the best protectors against creating crappy stuff to begin with.
10. Test on the “Dumbest” People You Know.
Ever watched your grandma navigate a website? Its excruciating. But get her to use your website and you’ll learn a lot. There’s a high correlation between an app with a fluid UI and an app that is idiot-proof. And by “dumbest” people you know, I mean the people that are the least tech-savvy.
Sometimes, potential members in your target market might not be avid readers of TechCrunch or an iPhone power-user. What are they looking at when they use it? What do they click on first? Second? What questions do they have? What do they miss?
These people help make sure you don’t overlook issues because your own tech-savvyness blinds you to how others use your app:
11. Get Data.
Data isn’t just useful for investor presentations and due diligence- it can help drive forward product development. Understanding your market, competitors, and the technological landscape requires data- no matter how brilliant you are, you simply can’t understand the needs of your customers on your own. Even anecdotes aren’t enough. You need data.
Many people ignore competitor/market research because of time, but this is stuff you need to figure out before you even commit a bunch of time. I’ve written before about how to go about this, but its absolutely important. Know it so well you can use the figures casually in conversation. You’ll need to, because your investors and partners are going to want to know that you’ve got a firm grasp on the market, the pain, and how your solution fits in.
Not all data exists or is available, and sometimes you have to make your own. For example, I was telling investors that the name “TripLingo” is a giant advantage. Most people agree with that, but how do you quantify it?
I used AskYourTargetMarket.com to do a survey. I told the 50 respondents to pretend they were going on a trip to Mexico. (They had no idea I was affiliated with TripLingo.) I then gave them a list of 15 possible choices, which were the names of 15 competitors. I asked them to pick which one they would choose.
When I got the answers back, TripLingo had the highest rating other than the fictionally named “Spanish!” app. The survey was useful because going forward I had cold, hard facts to back up my assertion that TripLingo is a fantastic name. It wasn’t just me making the point.
1 Way We AREN’T Lean: Minimum Viable Product
Being lean is a way of approaching problems and issues- not a religion with clear laws. And since the nature of startups is to navigate uncharted waters, all advice in this domain must be taken with a grain of salt.
One of the tenants of the lean startup is to launch ASAP with an MVP (minimum viable product). And for this, we’ve ignored the advice while still embracing the principle. After all, we’re launching our app less than 70 days after we started.
Right now, we have a working version of TripLingo. It functions, looks great, is useful, and it’s awesome. When people play with it, they don’t just look at it and say “cool”, they actually sit around and use it for 10 minutes. Then they want to keep it.
BUT. We only get one launch, and our goal is nothing less than a chorus of “WOW!”s. Our launch is when we will get the most initial exposure, and especially in the App store, getting negative reviews early on can severely tarnish your brand. Anything less than a super-polished and awesomely functional V1 isn’t going to cut it.
That’s not to say that we’re constantly adding features. In fact, we cut off the addition of new features 2 weeks ago, and we’ve got a prioritized list of features for our Version 2.
But the point is- as we’ve judged it, rather than release something that lacks polish, we’re waiting to launch with a product that functions flawlessly and offers a user experience as-yet-unseen amongst language apps.
In the spirit of learning- what do you think? What’s missing, what doesn’t belong?
Yours truly,
Jesse, Founder & CEO