How to bootstrap your software startup

Isabel Steiner

Isabel Steiner

1 talk

#bootstrapping

#minimum-viable-product-mvp

How to bootstrap your software startup

by Isabel Steiner

In her talk at the Helvetic Ruby 2023 conference, Isabel Steiner discusses the journey of bootstrapping a software startup, focusing on the platform 'Actively,' which she co-founded. The presentation outlines a series of key steps and insights into how to effectively develop a viable product while remaining independent of outside investment.

Key Points:
- Background in Corporations: Isabel shares her prior experience at Swisscom, where Frustration with corporate processes led her to pursue entrepreneurship.
- Inspiration for Startup: The idea for 'Actively' emerged during the pandemic, stemming from the desire to create a platform for yoga retreats, addressing a market need for stress relief and wellness.
- Lean Startup Principles: She emphasizes the importance of understanding the problem space through thorough research, user interviews, and competitor analysis to define target audiences, specifically busy women aged 25 to 55.
- Minimum Viable Product (MVP): The development of 'Actively' involved creating an MVP after validating market needs through extensive testing and feedback, all while maintaining a low-cost approach initially with tools like Airtable and Mailchimp.
- Iterative Development: The process involved continuous iteration, analysis of user engagement, and adapting the product based on user feedback, to ensure relevance and sustainability in the market.
- Market Insights: By focusing on health benefits and reducing stress rather than performance, the team discovered high demand and engagement with their offerings.
- Challenges and Reflections: Isabel discusses the balance between B2B responsibilities and user-centered features while considering scaling options and the potential for future investments.

In conclusion, Isabel highlights the importance of falling in love with the problem rather than the solution, applying the Double Diamond model—opening and narrowing down the problem space—to effectively develop and launch a product. Her story serves to inspire aspiring entrepreneurs in tech to take actionable steps towards starting their own ventures, emphasizing that the principles covered can also guide feature development within existing companies.

00:00:07.000 Hello everybody. Sorry, I'm a really loud speaker, but I'll try to be a bit softer.

00:00:09.599 I am actually really surprised to be here because when a friend, one of the organizers, asked me if I want to talk at the Ruby conference, he knows that I am not that much into Ruby. But I thought, yeah, okay, and I will do my proposal, and then it got accepted. I'm a little bit surprised, but also hopeful that I can tell you something interesting.

00:00:16.400 So, I was already introduced a little bit. It might be good for you to know that I spent a lot of time at Swisscom, a lot of time waiting for things to be done right. I think this was really good because my frustration grew due to how slow everything was.

00:00:20.680 It wasn't always the developers' fault; it was more about when managers don’t get their act together. In the end, nothing happens, and we were always the ones blamed.

00:00:25.640 At some point, my frustration grew big enough for me to step outside of corporations, and that was a lot of fun. What motivates me to speak here today about how to bootstrap your software company is that I often come across people who have finished business school, and they have great ideas. However, if they just had developed them to implement them, they see us as service providers.

00:01:01.960 Many of them are like, "Oh, I have this great idea that is worth 99% of the shares, and I now need someone to implement it." I have worked with many engineers—hundreds of them—and they also have great ideas. Sometimes I think they just need a little push or a bit more courage to start their own companies or begin implementing their ideas. That is why I'm hopeful I can inspire some of you to maybe start your own thing. And if you're not thinking about starting your own venture, the concepts I'll discuss are also valid for developing new features or deciding on a new app for your company.

00:01:36.200 I’ll be talking about ‘Actively,’ which was actually a Corona project. My co-founder and I got a bit bored at home, so we thought we could build something, and we started to bootstrap it. I will give you a little background on ‘Actively’ as it serves as the example case for today. Then we will delve into how to find out what problems you could potentially solve, what problems are worth solving, and subsequently explore possible solutions and how to develop a minimum viable product (MVP). Finally, once you have launched it, we'll discuss ensuring it gets better and better.

00:02:03.320 The story of ’Actively’ started in October 2021. We gained some insights into the problem. It indeed looked very slow, but we invested half a day a week between the two of us. This meant we were putting in about one person-week, and we got insights into both the problem and the solution. We eventually developed an MVP. 'Actively' is a yoga retreats platform, which had a great deal of relevance during the pandemic. After we interviewed people, we found that many wanted to get out again—this bias influenced our experiments.

00:02:45.760 We had a full launch in April 2022, and by now, we conduct retreats across Europe. We recently implemented marketing automation, which has made my life significantly easier. Importantly, we did not take any investments because we wanted to remain independent. My co-founder and I are both turning 45 next year and have extensive experience with startups, often taking investments in the past, which made us feel bound.

00:03:17.080 This time, however, we decided we wanted to be independent. Hence, this is how our platform looks: we don't have a designer, which may lead to some choices that may confuse some of you, but it still works. We are now the largest retreat platform in Switzerland, just 1.5 years into business. We have around 400 providers, offering 900 retreats. So far, we've generated almost one million in revenue for our providers.

00:03:49.599 As I mentioned, our tech stack does not revolve around Ruby. Instead, we began with a low-code stack. Before we even knew what would work, we used various tools like CMS, Shopify, Airtable, Mailchimp, and Zapier to create something that functioned. Once we saw traction, we transitioned the front-end logic to React and Tailwind while continuing to use Airtable, Mailchimp, and Zapier in the background.

00:04:53.560 One of my favorite quotes, albeit uncertain of its origin, is from product management: ‘Don’t fall in love with the solution, fall in love with the problem.’ This can be a frustrating aspect when working with those from business schools who approach me with their grand ideas. They often consider their fantastic ideas as solutions when they haven’t thoroughly investigated the problem.

00:05:17.159 I firmly believe in the Double Diamond model, which teaches that you should have two phases of opening up and narrowing down to properly arrive at a solution. People usually present their solutions immediately, but it is vital first to conduct a discovery phase where you gain insights into the problem. You then narrow it down to define what the actual problem is. Subsequently, you can broaden your view again to explore all potential solutions, ultimately developing the most effective solution.

00:06:13.479 So, where did we start? We wanted to find a target group with whom we could empathize. Prior to this, we worked on a startup for a friend that revolved around finding doctors for breast augmentation. We created a platform where someone wanting to enlarge their breasts could find the best specialist, but I found it challenging to empathize with that target group. Hence, we determined we needed to work on a project where we could genuinely empathize with the target group.

00:06:57.639 We focused on individuals wanting to be active in their lives, whether they were professional athletes or just casual yogis. We conducted field research, user interviews, competitive analysis, and data analysis. This effort amounted to around 400 Swiss Francs to gain insight into the problem. After this research, we pinpointed our target group primarily as busy women between 25 to 55, balancing careers and family; they want to be active but cannot adhere to fixed training schedules.

00:08:07.679 They do not want sport to be an additional stressor in their lives. We also conducted interviews with men, whose motivations tended to revolve around competition, like preparing for a marathon. Women, on the other hand, expressed that while they wanted to be active, they did not wish to be reminded of the competitive aspects of their daily lives.

00:09:00.640 Our aim was to help women engage with exercise as a sustainable part of their health routine. During this introductory phase, we examined various trends and interview templates, asking participants about their motivation and activities. We took part in competitor analysis, focusing on performance tracking.

00:09:55.040 We discovered that while performance tracking may aid goal-setting, the primary concern for these women was stress relief, health benefits, and overall well-being. Many expressed skepticism towards the need for metrics, preferring just to enjoy their physical activity.

00:10:32.840 Next, we evaluated whether the problems we identified were worth solving. We compared existing solutions and quantified the size of those problems. We determined that a significant portion of women experienced these challenges, enabling us to pursue either niche markets or broader markets.

00:10:46.000 We then identified where we could make the most impact and chose one or two core problems to solve. Our approach included surveys that were largely quantitative rather than qualitative, to validate our hypotheses with a larger group.

00:11:13.720 Our initial business modeling didn't cost any money, but it did consume a significant amount of time as we crafted initial business cases to see if our ideas could be profitable.

00:11:44.560 After extensive analysis, we defined our problem statement: we wanted to create services for busy women aged 25 to 55, allowing them to engage in activities that contribute positively to their self-care routines.

00:12:18.680 With such a broad problem definition, a plethora of possible solutions emerged. This is often frustrating, particularly when someone approaches me with their idea without a clearly defined problem they're hoping to solve.

00:12:56.000 We examined existing solutions and identified gaps in the market, brainstorming various new ideas. Our aim was to think creatively while pitching these ideas to potential customers.

00:13:48.200 In this phase, we engaged in smoke testing—presenting ideas to the potential users without fully developing them. We conducted user interviews and built proofs of concepts while utilizing limited budgets of around 400 bucks.

00:14:31.560 We performed design sprints for inspiration and to discover diverse solutions, testing prototypes with our intended target audience. In our workshops, we collaborated with non-designer experts to refine our concepts.

00:15:21.360 What we discovered during this phase was a wealth of possible ways to resolve defined problems, leading us to realize the difficulty in introducing yet another app into our users' lives.

00:15:50.360 Our next step involved narrowing down our options to identify the true Minimum Viable Product (MVP). This required increased testing, so we allocated more resources for targeted advertisements and landing pages alongside AB testing.

00:16:27.240 During this phase, we dived deep into analytics. Despite my less detail-oriented nature, I found satisfaction in recognizing which ideas thrived and which stumbled.

00:17:26.560 At this point, we conceptualized a solid business case to validate our ideas and observe potential revenue streams ahead of full implementation.

00:18:11.200 We learned that the yoga retreat idea significantly outperformed all other concepts we explored during the pandemic—showing the highest engagement. We entered a phase of iteration and learning. We continually reevaluate our assumptions, aligning our development closely with users’ needs.

00:19:04.960 Having a difficult balance between B2B responsibilities and our priorities for users, we identified that our main challenge remains in prioritizing user-centered features over the operational requests of our business partners.

00:19:52.480 Our target market truly appreciates what we offer, creating an unforeseen demand that compels us to innovate continuously. Now, as we reflect on potential scaling, we also weighed the decision of whether or not to pursue additional investments.

00:20:24.720 That concludes my talk. Thank you very much for listening—I hope you found it insightful.

00:21:29.880 Time

Helvetic Ruby 2023