Rashmi Sinha,SlideShareFast, cheap and barely in control: 10 lessons from SlideShare

SlideShare... best place in the world to share presentations

Taking over the world (one PowerPoint at a time!)

1. Make your app useful

Solve one problem really well

Make app socialSlideShare as non social appNo virality

2. Speed is imperative

Why startups need speed?

Small & fast

Set the tone for speedIn development, design

Be agile(worry about scaling later)

3. Ideas are dime a dozen

Focus on executionCan we execute on this?How fast? When can we start work?What will first version take?What metrics to track progress?What will we push back to work on this?

4. What to build

We build products we use ourselves

37signals: Build less

Add complexity for right reasonsStart with lessAdd complexity (if needed)Remove features Get people used to change

To build a feature or not toListen to loudest?Watch metrics?

How to double traffic?

Anatomy of a feature launch

5. How to Launch

The AlphaFeedback to the embedNo publicityBrowser compatibility issues

How developed should a Beta be?(Enough to get point across)

SlideShare launchInvite only: Before or after launch?AlphaStealth modeOpen to allLaunchInvite only

Year 1 Open to allLaunchInvite only

6. Focus on your users, not your competition

7. Dont spend too much time on Biz Dev

8. Use metrics to make decisions

What metrics?Performance: page load times, errorsTraffic: Web logsDatabase tracking: No. registrations, login, uploads, contactsCustomer feedback emails

How metrics?A/B testingMetrics Dashboard: Shadow AppDaily Email reports

Get team buy-in for metrics

Metrics and the danger of local minima

9. Hire Design Engineers

10. Find your community

Community is a great way to growReduce marketing costs, users evangelize

11. Outsource what is not your core competency

Outsource complexityAmazon S3, EC2Dedicated servers instead of colocationGoogle AdsGoogle SearchDifferent widgets (Gigya, AddThis)

My slides at http://www.slideshare.net/tag/w2e

Find me at www.slideshare.net/rashmiwww.twitter.com/rashmi

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7210687@N08/3042350908/*Fast, Cheap and Out of Control is a 1997 film by documentary filmmaker Errol Morris. It profiles four subjects with extraordinary careers: a lion trainer, a topiary sculptor, a mole rat specialist, and a robot scientist.**Why choose

Describe three popularity methodsStart May 06 > Beta > Launch Oct 06 > Grow > Grow more > Angel funding Dec 07 > Series A Apr 08 > Grow more

*Natual advantage**What type of hostingDevelopers love itIts good for fast, agile teamsWe hit scalability issues, but Twitter hitting them first!So far, its been solvableNot enough CPU. Doubled spend on machines.Split Web servers from App serversAs system gets load, some parts of system get used more, code needs to be optimizedDatabase scaling issues currentlySolving problems as they arise, but architecting for scaling

Dedicated hosting provider is compromiseHaving tech resources outside organization you can call onReduces initial expenseGood sys admins harder to find than good devs

MindCanvas: Could sell into marketSlideShare: Understood market

*Customer requests?At any given timeList of 15 to-do featuresMany bugs to fixCustomer requests

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slidecasting*http://rashmisinha.com/2006/08/08/my-slides-for-webvisions-designing-for-social-sharing/*Engineers and designers can both resist for diff reasons *