Domain registration on the cheap courtesy of GoDaddy & Honey Chrome Extension.
The founders were a ‘who's-who’ of tech all stars with prior successful companies. The product was riding the trends of social and mobile. They had raised $41,000,000 in venture funding from top-tier investment groups. The app was launched with incredible anticipation, press, and attention. However, within months, it was sputtering. Soon after, it would be shut it down. How could a beginning with so much right go so wrong?
“Color” is perhaps the most notorious example of what happens when a company pushes forward without any customer validation. The team infamously received piles of cash to build a product that no user had yet indicated they wanted. It was financed and built purely on speculation, with little more than a wild guess.
So what is the opposite of this frivolous fundraising? The movement itself is described as the “Lean Startup Philosophy.” Eric Ries is perhaps the best known advocate of this concept, most notably via his book appropriately called The Lean Startup. Chris Guillebeau’s The $100 Startup also outlines how to create a successful start up on a small budget. I highly recommend reading both.
In February 2014, I set out to build SpareSquare for next to nothing. Here’s how I buckled down and launched a functional product in the real world for the price of a tank of gas.
Website
Other than nominal charges for hosting, a website costs only as much as the time that goes into it. If you are building it yourself, your hard cost is nothing. But alas, not all of us can code. Fortunately, there exists a number of products out there that allow nearly anyone to build and publish a website without any technical expertise. These products are designated as WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get), and allow for simple drag-and-drop functionality. I evaluated many options, and concluded that Weebly was superior to any others.
Not only do they have the best looking templates and elements, but they allow an unrestricted access to the complete HTML and CSS source code. This provides the ability to add on custom features and avoid limitations of the stock functionality. Even though I could dive into the code if I desired, it was still incredibly easy to build a killer site without doing so. A classic "have your cake and eat it too" scenario.
Cost: Free for 30 days, $29.00 / month thereafter
Domain Name
GoDaddy has been my go-to for all things domain related for years. Usually domain registration is around 12-15 bucks. In the true spirit of cost cutting, I was able to knock that down quite a bit. I used a Google Chrome extension called Honey that scoured the internet for promo codes and applied them all at checkout with just one click. (See screenshot below.)
Want to see how I came up with the domain name SpareSquare?
Cost: $2.17
So what is the opposite of this frivolous fundraising? The movement itself is described as the “Lean Startup Philosophy.” Eric Ries is perhaps the best known advocate of this concept, most notably via his book appropriately called The Lean Startup. Chris Guillebeau’s The $100 Startup also outlines how to create a successful start up on a small budget. I highly recommend reading both.
In February 2014, I set out to build SpareSquare for next to nothing. Here’s how I buckled down and launched a functional product in the real world for the price of a tank of gas.
Website
Other than nominal charges for hosting, a website costs only as much as the time that goes into it. If you are building it yourself, your hard cost is nothing. But alas, not all of us can code. Fortunately, there exists a number of products out there that allow nearly anyone to build and publish a website without any technical expertise. These products are designated as WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get), and allow for simple drag-and-drop functionality. I evaluated many options, and concluded that Weebly was superior to any others.
Not only do they have the best looking templates and elements, but they allow an unrestricted access to the complete HTML and CSS source code. This provides the ability to add on custom features and avoid limitations of the stock functionality. Even though I could dive into the code if I desired, it was still incredibly easy to build a killer site without doing so. A classic "have your cake and eat it too" scenario.
Cost: Free for 30 days, $29.00 / month thereafter
Domain Name
GoDaddy has been my go-to for all things domain related for years. Usually domain registration is around 12-15 bucks. In the true spirit of cost cutting, I was able to knock that down quite a bit. I used a Google Chrome extension called Honey that scoured the internet for promo codes and applied them all at checkout with just one click. (See screenshot below.)
Want to see how I came up with the domain name SpareSquare?
Cost: $2.17
Saving some cash via Honey.
Payment Processor
In the past, accepting credit cards has proved to be challenging and time consuming. I’ve done the traditional route in the past (using authorize.net and an independent processor), and wanted to avoid that. I reviewed a newer entrant to the space, Jack Dorsey’s Square.
Square is incredibly beautiful and intuitive. Every touch point is pleasing, and in a world not known for user experiences, this was a breath of fresh air. Better yet, the only fees they charge are a rather reasonable 2.75% of sales. Others charge hefty fees to open up and maintain an account. With Square, I didn’t waste money on useless fees during the early stages when I wasn’t yet earning revenue.
Cost: $0 / 2.75% of sales
Customization
At this point, I had built the basic product myself. There were some minor tweaks I needed, so I opted to find a contractor to help me out. I used Odesk to connect with a guy in Spain who met all my search criteria and was specifically an expert with Weebly. He spent 4 hours modifying the code at $15/ hour.
Cost: $60
In the past, accepting credit cards has proved to be challenging and time consuming. I’ve done the traditional route in the past (using authorize.net and an independent processor), and wanted to avoid that. I reviewed a newer entrant to the space, Jack Dorsey’s Square.
Square is incredibly beautiful and intuitive. Every touch point is pleasing, and in a world not known for user experiences, this was a breath of fresh air. Better yet, the only fees they charge are a rather reasonable 2.75% of sales. Others charge hefty fees to open up and maintain an account. With Square, I didn’t waste money on useless fees during the early stages when I wasn’t yet earning revenue.
Cost: $0 / 2.75% of sales
Customization
At this point, I had built the basic product myself. There were some minor tweaks I needed, so I opted to find a contractor to help me out. I used Odesk to connect with a guy in Spain who met all my search criteria and was specifically an expert with Weebly. He spent 4 hours modifying the code at $15/ hour.
Cost: $60
Advertising
I discovered that SocialBro had partnered with Twitter to offer $50 in free advertising, which I could use to get some buzz. While this particular promotion may be over, I recommend conducting a brief search for ad credits before committing any funds. Facebook, Google, and Twitter seem to always have a first timer promotion of some kind.
Cost $0
Summary
Until user data supports that a product change will drive a key indicator of growth, the change isn't worth pouring cash and time into. Elements that you think will look good or are cool are nothing more than your opinion until your users tell you otherwise.
You may have grand visions of what you want and what your product/company could become. While nothing is wrong with this in the long run, this needs to be kept in check in the short term. I found myself continuously having to stop from embarking on non mission critical builds. You’ve got to stay focused and continue to ask “Is this needed for the core product?”
Now get out there and launch a startup! When you do, please share it with me. I’d love to hear that you did it for even less than I did.
Disagree? Agree? Comments? Comment below, please.
--------------------
This piece was written by @gregmuender and edited by the lovely folks of @SpareSquare.
I discovered that SocialBro had partnered with Twitter to offer $50 in free advertising, which I could use to get some buzz. While this particular promotion may be over, I recommend conducting a brief search for ad credits before committing any funds. Facebook, Google, and Twitter seem to always have a first timer promotion of some kind.
Cost $0
Summary
Until user data supports that a product change will drive a key indicator of growth, the change isn't worth pouring cash and time into. Elements that you think will look good or are cool are nothing more than your opinion until your users tell you otherwise.
You may have grand visions of what you want and what your product/company could become. While nothing is wrong with this in the long run, this needs to be kept in check in the short term. I found myself continuously having to stop from embarking on non mission critical builds. You’ve got to stay focused and continue to ask “Is this needed for the core product?”
Now get out there and launch a startup! When you do, please share it with me. I’d love to hear that you did it for even less than I did.
Disagree? Agree? Comments? Comment below, please.
--------------------
This piece was written by @gregmuender and edited by the lovely folks of @SpareSquare.
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