(Part 2) Top products from r/startups
We found 45 product mentions on r/startups. We ranked the 256 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the products ranked 21-40. You can also go back to the previous section.
21. Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist
Sentiment score: 2
Number of reviews: 2
Wiley
22. The Entrepreneur's Guide to Business Law, 4th Edition
Sentiment score: 2
Number of reviews: 2
23. Do More Faster: Techstars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup
Sentiment score: 1
Number of reviews: 2
NewMint ConditionDispatch same day for order received before 12 noonGuaranteed packagingNo quibbles returns
24. Mastering the VC Game: A Venture Capital Insider Reveals How to Get from Start-up to IPO on Your Terms
Sentiment score: 2
Number of reviews: 2
Portfolio
25. Don't Make Me Think, Revisited: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability (3rd Edition) (Voices That Matter)
Sentiment score: 1
Number of reviews: 2
New Riders Publishing
26. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change
Sentiment score: 2
Number of reviews: 2
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change
27. Predictable Revenue: Turn Your Business Into a Sales Machine with the $100 Million Best Practices of Salesforce.com
Sentiment score: 1
Number of reviews: 2
28. The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers
Sentiment score: 1
Number of reviews: 2
The Hard Thing about Hard Things Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers
29. Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd Edition
Sentiment score: 4
Number of reviews: 2
test
30. The Art of the Start: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything
Sentiment score: 1
Number of reviews: 2
31. Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products
Sentiment score: 1
Number of reviews: 2
Portfolio
32. The $100 Startup: Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, and Create a New Future
Sentiment score: 2
Number of reviews: 2
Paperback285 PagesCrown Publishing
33. Nail It then Scale It: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Creating and Managing Breakthrough Innovation: The lean startup book to help entrepreneurs launch a high-growth business
Sentiment score: 1
Number of reviews: 2
34. The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you
Sentiment score: 2
Number of reviews: 2
35. The costs of higher education: How much do colleges and universities spend per student and how much should they spend? (The Carnegie Council series)
Sentiment score: 0
Number of reviews: 2
Used Book in Good Condition
36. Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant
Sentiment score: 0
Number of reviews: 2
Used Book in Good Condition
37. The Partnership Charter: How To Start Out Right With Your New Business Partnership (or Fix The One You're In)
Sentiment score: 1
Number of reviews: 2
Used Book in Good Condition
38. Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business
Sentiment score: 1
Number of reviews: 2
Benbella Books
Cost? - FREE
Here is the info but if you need more than that, you can always pm me your questions and if you want me to actually help you as in actually putting together pages and configuring settings, then we can talk about a fee but for now the following info should help a lot.
First you should know I am advocating using wordpress. Some people are not good with it and are worried about that factor. So here are some guides and stuff to learn it.
WordPress Guides
Some guides are created for helping people out. Some are free and some are not. Some are actual manuals and some are video tutorials that get embedded into the dashboard of the website, which I find to be pretty handy.
Free
Paid
Now that you have that here is some info on how to build a website.
This is in answer to people consistently asking how to get a website built.
Validate Your Skill Level
Are you currently a web programmer? If no, please do not attempt to become one to code your own dynamic website as security is a huge issue and it will take you years to catch up. It is not a reasonable effort to put forth if you want to keep your sanity, not burn your spare time, etc. Not saying you can't learn it, just saying it takes a lot of work and time that most entrepreneurs don't have to use and in some cases waste.
You can learn how to do html and css within a few months but using a CMS system is much cleaner and easier and if you need something dynamic, you will probably need a developer.
You generally need to know at least php and mysql for dynamic websites unless you want to get into the confusing worlds of joomla and drupal (non exhaustive list of alternatives: Python & Django, Node and ExpressJS, Python and Flask, Python & Pylons, Ruby & Sinatra). I hear decent things about Ruby on Rails though on par with php and mysql learning curve I think.
Want to Learn Web Programming Anyway?
Try CodeCademy for interactive programming learning.
No Coding Skills Start Here
Get / Use the following:
Need Something More Dynamic?
You have a few options. This list goes from least expensive to most expensive. Just know that most things you want to do already have a plugin or theme designed for them for WordPress. There are however a lot of exceptions to that guideline and that is why you look at the following options.
The reason why WordPress is mentioned a lot is because it is a CMS aka Content Management System which allows you to manage a ton of the pages and posts and various other aspects of the website. If a developer really needs to, they can modify the core parts of WordPress. Rarely will you need someone to build you a brand new website and honestly you really do want a CMS or you are going to have a hard time.
Some developers can be found here: Elance (freelancers), Matchist (freelancers), and Glowtouch (dev company vetted by Bluehost)
Things to remember with website development
I am actually putting together a series on how to build a website that will be fairly extensive. If you would like to be notified of that you can sign up here and I will send you a message when it's ready.
i'm not quite a CFO but i do work in tech / at a startup / in finance. i can give a quick list of stuff I'd recommend to someone making the jump:
i think great CFOs for early stage can run the finance side but also kick in with the Ops stuff and have a good handle on product. You're more of the grease, and your job is to keep things humming and get out of the way to let people build.
So the things you're pointing out are completely normal for any business owner, particularly a startup. That doesn't make them feel less painful -- I empathize with you and I'm sure this feels discouraging.
Let's hit on a few key points:
Some next steps for you:
To the latter point, you really need to get into the mind of your user and remove any excitement you're feeling around your app. What I mean by this is that the answer to the question isn't, "Because the app's amazing and it does so much for them!" That's what you think. It's clearly not what your users think. So how do you figure out what your users are thinking? A lot of times this means simply asking them for their honest feedback. This can be direct communication or as you scale, it can be something as simple as a survey that gets sent out to users who haven't used the app in X days. I always prefer the former, but that's also my communication style.
A book was recommended here a while back -- I've since read it and appreciate it's perspective. It's called The Mom Test, take a look at it here: https://www.amazon.com/Mom-Test-customers-business-everyone/dp/1492180742
I also have a podcast episode on this topic. I don't self promote but if you want it let me know and I'll DM you where you can find it.
Best of luck. Hang in there!
A couple great books to read:
Steve Blank's Four Steps to the Epiphany and Guy Kawasaki's Art of the Start are both pretty good books on the subject.
The Mixergy podcasts are helpful as well, they're interviews with entrepreneurs in all sorts of different businesses. They usually have pretty good information on their whole business process from start to finish.
Other than that, depending on the business you're starting check out blogs of companies/people in similar areas of business. Startup Digest curates news from various startup blogs every week and sometimes they have pretty good information.
As always, the best advice is to consult a lawyer and CPA. I am neither, but I can share my personal experience.
As a solo-founder, setting up an LLC will involve less paperwork up front, less paperwork annually (C Corps have extra requirements, such as quarterly meetings/filings), and less cost. It also makes taxes much simpler, as in an LLC you can do owner withdrawals with passthrough taxation (i.e., you just do your personal taxes with a Schedule C) instead of dealing with salaries, W2s, dividends, double taxation, etc in a C Corp (which has to file its own taxes). If you find a co-founder, you can easily amend your LLC documents to give them part ownership. The C Corp only becomes advantageous when you want to hand out ownership of the company to non-founders. That is, if you want to raise money from investors, take on a board of directors, or give employees equity, then you can convert your LLC to a C Corp. For a good intro to these topics, check out The Entrepreneur's Guide to Business Law.
Venture Deals is a great reference.
There is no shortage of discussion on various blogs, Fred Wilson and Mark Suster are two of the best.
For actually drafting up terms...get a lawyer. Preferably one that deals with companies at your stage and investments on a regular basis.
Valuations are market driven, it's the price that you and the investor can agree upon. Convertible notes and SAFEs do not avoid this, read this outstanding post as to why. Active investors are setting your price based on their other options.
Honestly, check out The $100 Start Up. It's pretty straight forward and has some cool stories of people starting up businesses with little to no capital and experience, just doing what they love. I'm about half way through and I find it really interesting and refreshing from other business books I've read.
A few books that I absolutely love are; Good to Great, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (this isn't exactly a business book, but a lot of the principles in it help you be a better leader/person which is extremely important when running a business) and Rework
Check out "The partnership charter" by David Gage. There are some interesting insights, and he suggests something that always helps we avoid wrong partnerships. Try to create an agreement between three of you about shares, responsibilities, how to buy out someone's shares and what happens when one of the partners wants to leave by himself.
If partners don't trust each other or someone tries to get advantage of others it becomes obvious because in agreement it has to be clearly written who does what, how much, what he gets in return and what happens if he doesn't do his part.
Venture Deals is great and I'd also strongly recommend Mastering the VC Game by Jeff Bussgang. It's a really easy read and brings a lot of clarity to the subject of equity financing.
Amazon link
Welcome to the big leagues. It's very, very, very hard to make a successful business. There's no shortcuts.
From reading your posts it sounds like you're making the classic mistake of over-investing in technical development before you've validated your value proposition.
You should NOT be relying on internet traffic to get your first customers. You should be doing in-person interviews and good ol' fashioned telephone sales.
Search and paid search work once you've established what the people you are selling to want, and that your product delivers that. You'll never get good data just relying on the internet.
Check out the book Nail it, then scale it" -- it has a lot of great advice, and talks about how to do this kind of validation early and at low cost.
>This article (in it's entirety) was taken from my blog.
So you'll attribute your article back to your website, but will make no mention of the fact you are using the Hooked model from the book Hooked by Nir Eyal and Ryan Hoover? No, putting their book under "recommended reading" after liberally borrowing their ideas and even their iconography doesn't count. Later, in the comments here you say this article was "inspired" by Hooked. No, it wasn't inspired by it, you jacked their ideas and are trying to pitch them as your own.
Now, obviously Hooked isn't the first book about building products from a behavioral approach, but you've taken their phrases, their images, and even their examples and attempted to pass them off as your own.
At least produce something original. It's fine to write an article about Hooked, about habits, and about building habit-forming products, but it isn't alright to borrow other people's work without attribution.
I'd highly recommend people read [Hooked (non-affiliate link)] (http://www.amazon.com/Hooked-How-Build-Habit-Forming-Products/dp/1591847788/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1419945470&sr=8-1&keywords=hooked) and read more of Nir's work. [This] (http://www.slideshare.net/nireyal/hooked-model) slideshow is a pretty good starting place, as his blog
I recommend a book by Brad Feld,
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1119259754/ref=dp_ob_neva_mobile
It would also be wise to read the SAFE primer. As a founder of a semi-successful seed stage startup, I wouldn't use a convertible debt note to raise money.
https://www.ycombinator.com/docs/SAFE_Primer.rtf
Plug: https://www.fastcompany.com/3068575/will-ride-hail-be-free-by-2021-the-startup-ad-platform-vugo-says-yes
I'm in the same boat. Product Hunt surge, now need to work on marketing. I just read a book called "Traction" that is interesting. It lists out 19 different channels and provides recent examples and case studies. I'm not going to follow the book verbatim, but there are definitely some good takeaways.
http://www.amazon.com/Traction-Get-Grip-Your-Business/dp/1936661837
Obvious answers for engineers are tech infrastructure --
Web App: AWS/Heroku
iOS: Developer Account
Have you guys run a company/startup before? The best thing you can do is invest in mentorship and advice. Generally accelerators seem to be heavy on pitch building and raising money but light on actual 'how to run a business' advice.
How about 10 hours of legal consultation from a firm in town and basic incorporation fees? Supplement with your local Small Business Administration office for more general business advice.
Some great startup textbooks:
Startup CEO - Matt Blumberg
The Hard Thing About Hard Things - Ben Horowitz
Venture Deals - Brad Feld
Do More Faster - David Cohen
Just bought this book-- may be of some help:
http://www.amazon.com/The-100-Startup-Reinvent-Living/dp/0307951529
With free webframes, you can start a web business for almost nothing. Check it out!
Focus on point 1) only first. Read the Mom Test and preferably some more literature (/blogposts/listen to podcasts/etc.) on idea validation. Do the interviews.
For 2) after: do a competitor analysis on a wide range of competitor & substitute products, preferably look at a similar product line where similar need & trends showed up. Draft up your first idea of a business model (e.g. with Business Model Canvas).
Return here after with a better idea and understanding in your mind and better questions.
I am looking to hire a long term writer, offer to pay and incentives based on CTR. [LeadArk] (http://leadark.com) partners with the top 1% of Real Estate Agents to do marketing for their clients, people like you and me who are buying homes. Very captive audience, who will be making a decision in the next 60 days. 13,000 people a day buy homes.
I opened [LeadArk] (http://leadark.com) 6 months ago, signed up 250 users in the last 3 months and already have a 6 figure contract. Working with Oren Klaff the author of [Pitch Anything] (http://www.amazon.com/Pitch-Anything-Innovative-Presenting-Persuading/dp/0071752854) to make it sizzle. Are you looking for a long term partnership, or just portfolio work? What's in it for you and how do we get our goals in line?
Before you even get a partner, get this book, lock you and your potential partners in a room and go through every section. This is a must-read for any partnership.
The Partnership Charter
I learned the hard way that an operating agreement will not cover and protect you from all the potential pitfalls that comes with partnerships. If I read this book before I went into business with my friend, I would have never gotten into business with him.
Do More Faster
The startup bible. Written by the founders of TechStars, one of the biggest startup incubators. Has a great section all about finance, and everything else under the startup sun.
I am new to this, but here is one book that has been very helpful so far - The Entrepreneur's Guide to Business Law.
Hi Jawilson2, here's a few books I've read in the past that helped prime me. I guess at the minimum these books helped me understand who was a bullshitter and who wasn't when they claimed they "knew the business side."
Raising Venture Capital for the Serious Entrepreneur - Fund raising basics. Key if you ever plan to raise money. You'd be stupid to try without reading this first.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0071496025/
Business Model Generation - This book helps you think through the business model issues most "hacker" type entrepreneurs skip. Makes you think more holistically.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0470876417/
The Entrepreneur's Guide to Business Law - Basics about legal issues you should be aware exist. I haven't read through it all at once, but it's a good guide when I run up against areas I'm murky on.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Entrepreneurs-Guide-Business-Law/dp/0324204930/
Great points. I remember reading "Don't Make Me Think" when I was in school and it was invaluable to me when doing user testing. It's focused on web UI etc but I think the lessons carry over.
https://www.amazon.com/Dont-Make-Think-Revisited-Usability/dp/0321965515/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=don%27t+make+me+think&qid=1558558875&s=gateway&sr=8-2
It's a pretty simple yet tricky thing to do. I found Predictable Revenue (a book) to be a solid summary of how to go about this problem:
http://www.amazon.com/Predictable-Revenue-Business-Practices-Salesforce-com/dp/0984380213
This one? https://www.amazon.com/Hooked-How-Build-Habit-Forming-Products/dp/1591847788
I'll order it now, thanks!
I was in this exact spot a couple months ago. Then I picked up a copy of Blue Ocean Strategy, and it's given me a new lens to look at markets and problems. I'd definitely recommend giving it a read if you're stuck.
Maybe this book would help out:
http://www.amazon.com/Costs-Higher-Education-Colleges-Universities/dp/0875894852
I recommend:
You should also check out founder coffee clubs in your city. I learned a ton of stuff from just chitchatting with local founders in different phases of their startups and just picking their brains. I made this (http://founders.oakenspoon.com) for folks in Austin, Texas to be randomly paired for a coffee date once a month.
The Art of the Start - Guy Kawasaki
Raising Venture Capital for the Serious Entrepreneur - Dermot Berkery
Mastering the VC Game: A Venture Capital Insider Reveals How to Get from Start-up to IPO on Your Terms - Jeffrey Bussgang
And not specifically about the "money part," but an absolutely invaluable book:
Four Steps to the Epiphany- Steve Blank
And don't neglect reading Paul Graham's Essays, Fred Wilson's Blog, Ask The VC, and Feld Thoughts.
> http://www.amazon.com/Costs-Higher-Education-Colleges-Universities/dp/0875894852
Was that book written in 1980? I'd imagine the landscape has changed a bit since then.
Don't Make Me Think for anything needing a UI, and general Customer Experience.
Read the book Pitch Anything by Oren Klaff
https://www.amazon.com/Traction-Get-Grip-Your-Business/dp/1936661837
Read this book
Nail it then Scale it
a book by Paul Ahlstrom
http://www.amazon.com/Nail-then-Scale-Entrepreneurs-Breakthrough-ebook/dp/B0055D7O1U/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1453711535&sr=1-1
Step 1) Determine who you think your customer is.
Step 2) Find those customers
Step 3) Contact them
Step 4) ask them, "how do you go about doing _insert_the_problem_you're_looking_to_solve"
How to conduct customer development interviews: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KECAM98/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
Also, do some rigorous competitor analysis: https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Ocean-Strategy-Uncontested-Competition/dp/1591396190
The simplicity is nice. I think you could use some more work on the "profile" page. It's very useful to have everything there, but the visual hierarchy of the page is off. And it's difficult to figure out where to click / how things are structured. Read the book "Don't Make Me Think" if you haven't - it has been so helpful over the years (http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Make-Me-Think-Usability/dp/0321344758).
Your site is wicked fast. What's your stack and who's hosting your code?
What's the aim of creating this app and how do you plan on developing it in the future?