1. How to Start
Up
How to get your ass up and make
something or practical advices for
lunching your first web startup

2. Hello
My name is Grigor
I do software engineering for living.
Also I'm wannabe entrepreneur and
make web apps on side.
grigy.com grigor.yeghiazaryan @grigy

3. The Story
I have a dream, to see 1000 tech startups in Armenia
So I started one. It is not successful yet but it grows
and there is potential. So we need the other 999
Today I came here to tell my story and share what I
have learned so far...
... hope that some of you will start to make something

4. Our Startup
Inspection2.com
Still in Private Beta
Email Signups: 180
Registered Users: 80
From Armenia ~ 20

5. Web Startups

6. Why should you start a startup?
• Solve your money problem at one shot.
• Work on what you love.
• Learn new things every day.
• Get experience to support future success.

7. How to come up with ideas?
• Solve your own problem.
• See what’s broken in other apps and fix.
• Pick a business niche and research demand.
• Think big, make it international.
• Armenia is too small market for most of ideas.
• Idea is not secret. Tell friends.
• Execution is the key, not the idea.

8. Time Management
• Do you already have a full time job? Me too.
• Make it side job. Consider it as a pay job.
• Plan your day. Dedicate a few hours a day to your
“night job”.
• Get motivated to make it easy getting into zone.

9. Pick a Co-founder
• Difficult to start alone. Get a friend or two on board.
• Ideally better than you in something. Diversely skilled
works best.
• Decide on your intents at the beginning.
• Divide shares up front.

10. Funding
• There is good news. You don’t need money (or need too
little) for starting a web startup these days.
• But don't try to go all free.
• Fund yourself.

11. Naming
This is separate topic itself.
• Everything else can be easily changed, but not the name.
• Take your time to choose a good name.
• Discoverable vs. brandable
• Start with finding a domain name
• Get .com domain, or at least as part of name .io .ly
• Don't get cheap or free domains .tk
• This can be helpful domainjig.com

12. Design
Don’t make crappy design.
Hire a professional designer or ask designer friends to help.
Design is the third deciding factor of the product success
1. market
– marketing
– aesthetics
– functionality

13. Landing Page
• Start with landing page
• Pitch in your ideas
• Collect emails
• Show a demo or prototype
• Get Google to know you

14. Blog
• Communicate your ideas
• Keep notes about important events
• Share your stories
• Give helpful advices, tips, links
• Eventually advertise your product and get users

15. Launch Fast
• Get something done while still motivated
• Launch fast and iterate
• Create minimum viable product (MVP)
• Learn from user feedback and improve
• Try Hollywood Lunch

16. Fail Early
• Your first startup will probably fail.
• Realize failure early.
• Distinguish “give up” vs. failure.
• Learn from failure and start over.
• Real entrepreneurs fail but don't give up.

17. Web Services
• Bug Tracking FogBugz
• Code Hosting Assembla
• Collaboration Yammer
• Email Marketing MailChimp
• Online Forms Wufoo
• User Feedback UserVoice
• Screencasts Screenr
• Email Service SendGrid
• Web Server Amazon EC2

18. Reading
• Start Small, Stay Small: A Developer’s Guide to Launching
A Startup http://www.startupbook.net ($20)
• How to Start a Startup, Essays by Paul Graham,
http://www.paulgraham.com/articles.html (free)
• Getting Real, http://gettingreal.37signals.com (free)
• Do More Faster: TechStars Lessons to Accelerate Your
Startup, Brad Feld, David Cohen ($20)
• Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days, Jessica
Livingston ($15)

19. What's next?
Let's create a community and discuss local issues
• No community (startup culture, founders, angels, VCs)
• No startup incubators
• Technical problems, for ex. payment gateways
I've created a blog startups.am as a first step.

20. Thank you
Any questions?