Make Money and Enjoy Freedom Creating a Software Business

Ryan MacInnes

Ryan MacInnes

@goddamnyouryan

#startup

#entrepreneurship

#minimum-viable-product-mvp

#ruby-on-rails

Make Money and Enjoy Freedom Creating a Software Business

by Ryan MacInnes

In the video titled 'Make Money and Enjoy Freedom Creating a Software Business,' Ryan MacInnes shares his journey in building successful software businesses, focusing on his experience with Juicer, a social media aggregator. He discusses the benefits of owning a business compared to traditional software jobs, emphasizing the freedom it provides. Key topics include:

Freedom and Earnings Potential: MacInnes highlights the lifestyle benefits of business ownership, such as flexible work hours and locations, and emphasizes that the effort you put in directly correlates to your income potential, unlike typical salary jobs.
Starting Juicer: He recounts how he began his journey in programming out of a desire to create products, leading to the inception of Juicer in response to client needs for social media integration on websites.
Idea Generation: MacInnes outlines several methods for generating business ideas:
- Solving personal problems as a developer
- Addressing issues experienced by others, particularly in underrepresented markets
- Validating ideas through existing client requests
Building and Launching: He advocates for starting small with a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) to quickly validate ideas. MacInnes stresses the importance of launching early to gather user feedback and explore customer needs.
Marketing Strategies: MacInnes shares techniques that aided Juicer's growth, including SEO optimization, content marketing, and leveraging platforms like Product Hunt and Reddit to reach target audiences. He particularly found success with long-tail keywords and by offering a free tier, allowing users to experience the product firsthand.
Customer Engagement: Throughout his journey, engaging with customers proved crucial. MacInnes encourages founders to handle customer service personally to understand users' needs better and iteratively improve the product based on feedback.

In conclusion, Ryan MacInnes's talk aims to inspire developers to consider entrepreneurship by sharing practical insights gained from his own experiences. He stresses that building the product is just the start; understanding the market and effectively acquiring customers is where the real challenge lies.

00:00:32.630 Juicer is an embeddable social media aggregator. Essentially, what it does is connect all of your brand's or personal social media accounts and automatically pull in any new posts. It provides you with a code snippet you can embed in your website to display all of these posts in a beautiful feed. For example, this is actually from the Golden Globes website, but it's still very popular. Juicer makes it really easy to connect all these accounts and embed them into a website, and it’s often used for live events and concerts, especially through hashtags.

00:01:16.979 So why would you want to start your own business? As William Wallace said, the freedom is number one. I spent the last two months of the past six living in Los Angeles, and during the other four months, I traveled around the world. I never set an alarm, I get to work whenever I feel like it, and I can live wherever I want. Secondly, another obvious reason is that the amount of effort you put in directly correlates with your pay. At a full-time job, there’s no incentive to work to the best of your ability, other than the fear of getting fired. Generally, you work at a level that keeps you employed, but there’s no motivation to exceed expectations. Additionally, your salary is significantly less than the value you provide to your employer.

00:02:25.829 This is especially true for developers, who can easily generate millions for the businesses they work for. No one ever got rich working for somebody else. While not being rich isn’t everything, it's nice to realize that your earning potential is limitless compared to the meager five percent annual raise you can hope for at a traditional job. Prior to starting Juicer, I had a degree in microbiology and began programming because I wanted to build a product. I couldn’t convince anyone else to do it for me, which led me to learn Rails and eventually build the product.

00:03:04.230 As I improved my skills, I launched it and shared it with my friends. To my surprise, one of the users who signed up was someone I didn't know, which pushed me to broaden my approach. I started developing lucrative side projects as a freelancer while maintaining a full-time job. I gradually began in consulting and built various random products whenever inspiration struck. This talk will focus on how Juicer was founded, where I came up with the idea, and how I built it.

00:04:37.800 The first, and arguably the hardest step, is brainstorming ideas. The way Juicer worked was that for a long time, I had clients who consistently requested social media feeds for their websites. The first client asked me to implement this feature while I was using a specific plugin that charged $10 a month for it. I realized I could easily sign up more clients since I was providing them with value, and this approach continued until halfway through 2014.

00:05:19.640 At that point, one of my clients raised the price from $10 to $250 a month and subsequently increased it even higher. I was asked if I could build a similar service for them, and instead of just fulfilling the request, I proposed creating a service that others could also subscribe to. That’s how Juicer was born. Now, I want to discuss different strategies for generating ideas. The most obvious one is to solve your own problem. As developers, you've encountered products that address issues you face, making it easier to understand what the solution could look like.

00:06:43.000 However, a crowded market can present challenges since many developers are looking to solve their own problems. The second way is to solve a problem for others, which might be a market you’re not directly part of. For instance, if you decide to build a restaurant reservation management tool, it may not be a challenge you face personally, but you can tap into a market that often gets overlooked, like restaurant owners. The last path, which I followed with Juicer, is to identify problems that multiple clients share. I had numerous clients asking for social media feeds, signaling a market need.

00:08:03.220 When developing an idea, aim small; begin with a minor idea that a select few genuinely require. You don't need to create a product that everyone in the world must have; just ensure that those few who need it truly want it. It’s about quality rather than quantity – it's better to create something that a few people love than something that many like. Remember, Microsoft started by creating a basic interpreter for the Altair computer, indicating how small beginnings can lead to significant outcomes.

00:09:16.560 Don’t be deterred by competitors. Seeing someone else doing something similar often leads to the conclusion that it's not worth pursuing; instead, consider it an indicator that there is an existing market. For instance, when I began Juicer, there was only one competitor, but I later discovered many others. I could have been discouraged had I researched extensively at the start, but luckily, I was somewhat lazy and didn’t dive deep into competitors. As it turned out, there’s room for multiple players in the market.

00:10:42.580 Once you have your idea, it's essential to give it a name. This may seem counterintuitive, but naming your product makes it more concrete in your mind, and it will require you to refer to that name frequently while programming. Additionally, having a domain name secured upfront helps facilitate a quick launch so you won't be caught up deciding on a name later. Completing these simple tasks early on can set a strong foundation before you even write a line of code.

00:11:22.330 Next comes the part where you excel: building your product. I should note that I don’t consider myself an exceptional developer, but I’m adept at starting a project from scratch and guiding it to launch. Many developers working for large companies specialize in specific tasks and might not have experience building entire applications. Thus, I recommend starting small – focus on creating minimum viable products (MVPs) that deliver the smallest unit of usefulness. Defining this 'atomic unit' depends on the nature of your product, but keeping it minimal is crucial.

00:12:56.240 When I built Juicer, I utilized Rails and JavaScript and emphasized basic design concepts like whitespace and alignment, which allowed me to make something presentable. It’s advantageous to design the product yourself as this gives you insight into user experience, flow, and functionality, helping you to connect with your customer base.

00:13:21.480 Setting deadlines is vital. It’s easy to get sucked into adding features, delaying the launch, and never actually releasing your product. As developers, we often feel most comfortable programming, and putting off actual deployment can be tempting. As a rule of thumb, if you’re working full-time on your startup, give yourself two weeks for your initial product. If you maintain a full-time job, extend that to four weeks. Beyond that time, if you can't put something together, it may not be vital to your MVP. Focusing on a tight launch timeframe will aid in keeping your product lean.

00:14:55.800 Launching your product is the next significant step. Aim to release it to users quickly to understand their reactions, whether they decide to use it or not. Initially, I launched Juicer, acquired my first client, and swiftly integrated it into their site. I turned to Reddit, focusing on relevant subreddits to find users who needed my solution.

00:15:33.650 My target audience included those tasked with integrating social media feeds at businesses and social media marketers themselves. Once I shared my platform on Reddit, it gained traction, and someone posted about it on Product Hunt. At the time, I was unaware of Product Hunt, but it proved to be an excellent platform for reaching new users.

00:16:07.220 To successfully engage with your customers, understanding who they are and locating them is crucial, forming part of the foundational steps of generating an idea. Subreddits catering to different user bases serve as great insights into your demographic. Additionally, platforms like Hacker News can connect you with audiences interested in opportunity-driven tools. However, be cautious, as the community can be harsh. Moving forward, if your customer base isn’t heavily online, consider offline strategies like attending conventions or contacting businesses directly.

00:17:36.720 Post-launch, we experienced modest early success with a few sign-ups, but I quickly recognized the need for consistent engagement. As new users trickled in through SEO and WordPress, I realized crafting avenues for sustainable connections with our client base was essential. We built SEO into our strategy, focusing on the optimization of keywords and longtail keywords that potential users are searching for.

00:19:06.510 I knew little about SEO initially, but I learned quickly what was necessary. Using tools like Google’s Keyword Planner, I started honing in on specific keywords related to my service aiming for low competition and high search frequency. Another key insight for growth involved providing a free plan; Juicer’s foundational offering allowed users to sign up at no cost, testing the service while including our branding. This approach provided valuable backlinks to Juicer, contributing to our overall visibility in search results.

00:20:58.010 Content marketing played a crucial role as well. I began writing blog posts associated with our product, such as guides that helped users integrate Juicer into their sites. This type of content not only improved our SEO but also served to educate potential users on social media strategy, leading to dual benefits for Juicer.

00:22:25.170 Another successful tactic was building plugins, starting with one for WordPress. The plugin directory is an effective visibility tool, so once we launched our WordPress plugin, it showcased Juicer naturally to businesses whose websites were already being built, leading to a surge in user acquisition.

00:23:50.080 Engaging with customers is an essential ongoing process. After launching, I closely monitored user interactions, which provided essential insights. It’s better to manage customer service yourself initially to understand the user experience first-hand. While responding to inquiries took a lot of time, it was crucial for gathering feedback and observing areas needing improvement.

00:25:58.280 The trick is to ensure you’re attentive to customer feedback. If multiple users ask for features or express difficulties, these requests should guide your future development plans. If you find you’re frequently dealing with the same request, that’s a strong signal that it’s time to integrate it into your product.

00:26:50.260 Additionally, continually reiterating this step is vital as part of your growth cycle. As awareness grows, you will likely encounter recurring requests. This means you need to prioritize and address these needs to keep improving your service.

00:27:40.100 Over time, as Juicer evolved, I began to gain insights into our customers' actions and the reasons behind them. It's essential to understand your costs and processes, ensuring you generate a product aligned with market demands.

00:29:40.760 Today, Juicer boasts about 17,000 customers, with approximately 10% being paying clients. I average between one to four hours of work on Juicer each day, depending on how much I’m developing. Our early growth also required us to test various pricing structures. Initially, we began with a flat subscription of $10 per month offering a free 30-day trial. However, when no early sign-ups materialized, we launched tiered pricing and varied the free offerings, which proved more effective.

00:31:56.330 I haven’t pursued venture capital funding at this stage despite some outreach. I believe it’s crucial to validate your product effectively first, ensuring a market demand through your MVP before seeking outside funding. Ultimately, building the business is the hard part.

00:32:43.460 Reflecting on my journey, having previously worked a full-time job as a software engineer provided me with invaluable learning experiences, shaping my entrepreneurial path. Many of my peers are following similar trajectories, having transitioned to entrepreneurship after gaining experience in larger companies. Although I still use platforms like Stack Overflow for resources, the transition towards building my own business has been fulfilling.

Rails Pacific 2016