leanconf 2014 from simple facebook page to viable business by rossa shanks
DESCRIPTION
The idea was to create a market/audience before building a product around them, in the leanest, quickest, cheapest, low-effort way. Our Facebook page got 40,000 likes in 2 weeks. Now we have over 500,000 Facebook followers around the world, early on we crowd funded £10,000 from those fans to build our initial website and have now raised a £300,000 seed round to go 100% mobile / international. The long story of the talk walks through: How to create a brand through understanding your 'why' (the reason you exist) - this enables initial traction. How we started with an MVP (in this case what we would call a Minimum Viable Proposition: our Facebook page). How we took that MVP globally through social (across 100 cities by leveraging the community and power of an idea). How we developed an MVP (our initial blog to start taking data (e.g. user emails) and understanding our user preferences). How we crowd funded £10,000 for free to build our next MVP (Minimum Desirable Product): our website www.greatlittleplace.com. How we are going about building our mobile MVP (what we would call our Maximum Desirable Product). And how we're turned a simple Facebook page into a viable business.TRANSCRIPT
Humble beginnings
Rossa Shanks @rossashanks
Start with why*
Why
How
What
*Simon Sinek
Why we exist:
To help people discover remarkable places and unforgettable experiences.
Start with why*
Why
How
What
*Simon Sinek
The traditional long and hard road…
We built our start-up a little backwards…
Minimum Viable Proposition
Glasgow 48k Amsterdam 46k Edinburgh 33k
Toronto 25k Melbourne 23kDublin 29k Newcastle 19k
Copenhagen 11k
London 248k
Utrecht 14k Manchester 11k Rotterdam 10k
Proposition/market fit
500,000
Minimum Viable Product
Minimum Desirable Product
An idea, still in search of the perfect product… A maximum desirable product.
Foursquare Time Out Yelp
A mobile matchmaker for the places you’ll love and things you’ll love doing.
Maximum Desirable Product
We’re testing our mobile MVP in
Dublin
UK & Ireland Bath
Birmingham Bournemouth
Bradford Brighton
Bristol Cambridge
Cardiff Chester
Edinburgh Glasgow
Lake District Leeds
Liverpool London
Manchester Newcastle
Nottingham Oxford
Sheffield Southampton
York Rest of Europe
Amsterdam Barcelona
Berlin Copenhagen
Madrid Moscow
Rome Rotterdam
Paris Utretcht
North America Austin Boston
Charlotte Chicago
Dallas Denver
Houston Indianapolis Jacksonville Long Beach Los Angeles
Memphis Miami
Montreal Nashville
New Orleans New York
Ottawa Philadelphia
Phoenix Portland
San Antonio San Diego
San Francisco San Jose
Seattle Toronto
Vancouver Washington
Australia Brisbane
Byron Bay Calgary
Melbourne Perth
Sydney etc.
How do we make money?
Community to Commerce
Embracing lean…
Avoid stealth mode Involve Customers IterateTest assumptions
The last city guide
Takeaways
Start with ‘why’. Find your raison d’être before your ‘what’. Brands are build on missions not minutae.
Think Leaner. An MVP doesn’t need to be a product. Great ideas know no bounds.
Be your first customer. Build something you’ll love and stick by brand principles you respect, and your first customers will become your marketing department.
Thank you
Rossa Shanks @rossashanks