Page 16 - The 7 Day Startup: You Don’t Learn Until You Launch - PDFDrive.com

My First Startup

There was enough money from the sale of my first business to cover 12 months
of expenses. If I couldn’t get traction by then, I would have to move cities and
get a job. This was scary, but it didn’t seem like a real threat because I was
confident that I could make it work.

I knew what to do this time. I was going to create something big, something that
could scale. I had four possible ideas I could run with.

1. A pot plant stand that supported heavy pots—a friend had told me they
couldn’t find one.

2. A surfing app that allowed surfers to check into their local break—think
Foursquare for surfers.

3. An SEO app that enabled website owners to order SEO services for
keywords.

4. An analytics dashboard that simplified analytics from various places.

I had no idea about product design or manufacturing, so the pot plant stand was
out. I couldn’t foresee making any money from the surfing app, so that was out
too. I started building the SEO app and Google introduced new rules that
punished that style of link building. Strike Three.

The analytics dashboard was the remaining idea, so I ran with it. I called it Web
Control Room at first and later renamed it Informly to make it sound more like a
startup.

Throughout the twelve months, most of the time I felt things were going well;
there was good traction on the website, a lot of free signups, and regular press
coverage. I had a great team and we put together a solid application that was
unique, useful, and solved a big problem. Or so some people said.

After eleven months of trying everything, I was earning just $476 in recurring