Idea to Execution and Beyond

A presentation at All Day Hey! in April 2018 in Leeds, UK by Ashley Baxter

➤ Solo founder ➤ Bootstrapped (funded with money from freelancing) ➤ Company of one

I mean business Some of this can apply to personal projects, but I’m talking about business

What problem are you trying to solve? ➤ Lack of trust. 73% of consumers don’t trust their insurance provider

What problem are you trying to solve? ➤ Lack of trust. 73% of consumers don’t trust their insurance provider
➤ Insurers don’t invest money into their technology. 74% of insurers see technological innovation as a challenge

A customer-focused insurance company with design and technology at its core

The original post-it note when dreaming up With Jack December 2013

“ “After a while you realise how much your habit’ s costing. You let a few go with pangs of regret and doubt but clutch on to others.”
Someone on Twitter

“ “Only dulled when you realise 6 months later you’ve yet to do a thing with them. ”
Someone on Twitter

“ “That buyer's remorse takes a while to kick in. Speaking from bitter, bitter experience. ”
Someone on Twitter

Ideas need commitment to become great projects

We all have a limit of time, attention and focus—where are you going to spend it?

Pick one idea. Commit to it, give it the resources it needs to become a great project. C ull the rest

What did With Jack’s validation look like ?

What did my MVP look like? ➤ Signed up as an affiliate ➤ Didn’t need to convince insurers to give me their products to sell ➤ Didn’t need to become authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority

I had zero control over the design and technology

What did validation look like? ➤ People gave Insurance by Jack their money ➤ 55 paying customers ➤ £14,000 premium written

What’s the tiniest version of your idea?

What’s the tiniest version of your idea? ➤ Twitter poll / survey ➤ Spreadsheet (Nomad List started as a spreadsheet, now has $30K MRR) ➤ Email list (Product Hunt started as an email list) ➤ Landing page

Idea validation ➤ Are people paying you money for it? ➤ Can you profitably acquire new customers every month?

“ Money is the only validator. The key is to pinpoint the problem you're solving and build the solution as quickly as possible. Then you start selling it and see what happens.
Jo sh Pigford

The various stages of building something ➤ This is a good idea. I’m so going to do this

The various stages of building something ➤ This is a good idea. I’m so going to do this ➤ Huh, this is kind of hard. I’m not so sure about this

The various stages of building something ➤ This is a good idea. I’m so going to do this ➤ Huh, this is kind of hard. I’m not so sure about this ➤ This totally sucks. I suck.

The final 20% of any project is the hardest to complete

“ …It gets harder and less fun, until it hits a low point - really hard, really not fun .

What did The Dip look like for With Jack?

What did The Dip look like for With Jack ➤ Regulation was a barrier to entry

What did The Dip look like for With Jack ➤ Regulation was a barrier to entry ➤ Insurers didn’t want to work with me

It felt like I was putting in a ton of work in exchange for nothing

The Dip is when successful people don’t quit!

“ Quitting, starting over, and other avoidance strategies won’t keep you from hitting a difficult point again, it’ll just delay the inevitable. Instead, just figure out how to work through it .
Andrew Chen

Use The Dip to measure how serious you are

Embracing transparency with the build process

Benefit #2: It’s how I got my first customer 3 weeks before I launched

Benefit #3: Get ideas from a range of people

Benefit #4: It can set you apart from the competition

Expectations ➤ A suite of insurance products
➤ A dashboard to manage your insurance
➤ Instant quotes and cover
➤ Referral program
➤ P olished customer journey

Reality ➤ One product—professional indemnity ➤ Manual quotes ➤ No dashboard ➤ Unpolished customer journey

Why was With Jack’s launch successful? ➤ Involved people in the build process ➤ Was transparent about the journey ➤ Focused on doing one thing well ➤ People had the same frustrations with insurance as me

Shipping anxiety ➤ Avoid spending time and money on pixel perfect products that nobody will buy

Shipping anxiety ➤ Avoid spending time and money on pixel perfect products that nobody will buy ➤ Launch with one, useful feature (do one thing well)

Shipping anxiety ➤ Avoid spending time and money on pixel perfect products that nobody will buy ➤ Launch with one, useful feature (do one thing well) ➤ It doesn’t matter when you launch—it’s always going to feel incomplete

➤ Idea to $20,000 MRR in 5 months ➤ How we got 300,000 users in 24 hours ➤ How I made $70,000 in 48 hours from self-publishing my book

AirBnb launched with 6 listings. Only 2 of them became bookings

(And one of those bookings was from the co-founder)

Everything in your business is a hypothesis, so get in the trenches and speak to your customers

August, 2016 With Jack launched with just one product—professional indemnity insurance

February, 2017 Rolled out two new products—public liability and contents insurance

April, 2017 Improved onboarding based on feedback. The biggest friction was the risk questions.

June, 201 7 Added support for more professions.

Coming Soon Instant quotes and account creation.

Have your customers tell you what they want

“ Customer development has been the most valuable thing we’ve done when it comes to moving our product and company forward, and I wish we would’ve done more of it in our early days.
Groove

My assumptions ➤ More people will buy insurance if we offer them rewards

“ It devalues the brand and cheapens the service. Also, the rewards don’t fit my business.
With Jack Customers

My assumptions ➤ More people will buy insurance if we offer them rewards ➤ Freelancers buy insurance because it’s contractually required

Real entrepreneurship is launching something that solves a problem for people and getting paid to do it again.

Actual stuff for you to do ➤ Pick one idea and give it the resources it needs to become a great project ➤ Forecast your misery. Do you love what you’re building enough to get through The Dip? ➤ Focus on launching with one polished feature. Set a date and ship it ➤ Do customer development and test your assumptions

“ You can do whatever you want once you realis e one secret: everything big starts small.
Daniel Gross

Ashley Baxter
@ashleybaxter

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A high-level run-through of what it takes to execute and launch a project. Ashley covers the idea stage, build process, launch, and what to expect post-launch. Idea validation, shipping anxiety, and customer development are just a few of the themes covered.

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Here’s what was said about this presentation on social media.

Some of the resources I mentioned in my talk @hey_stac.

* https://t.co/JhHnvPm5UD (h/t @igniteaccel)
* https://t.co/EJrBfKpdhw
* https://t.co/OAxe5M1POU
* https://t.co/c15uGBE88U
* https://t.co/iaTMU2u5fe
— Ashley Baxter (@iamashley) May 1, 2018
Great talk Ashley! A lot of your points really chimed with my experiences over the last few years. Articulated excellently 👌
— Ben Barnett (@benpbarnett) April 30, 2018
As a self learning code newbie found your talk amazingly insightful. Great job 👌🏽
— Dameon Sumpton (@dameon_sumpton) April 30, 2018
Your talk was fantastic! You've made me realise that I need to focus on one (or maybe two) things, so thank you.
— Craig Smith (@craigsssmith) April 30, 2018
Thanks @iamashley for the walkthrough of your idea journey! Feeling quite inspired to start something I threw away for a while ✌️ @hey_stac #AllDayHey
— Ruxi (@ruxi_ang) April 30, 2018
I've been sitting on an idea for almost 5 years now, I needed this#AllDayHey pic.twitter.com/H3amx965ab
— Joe Bell (@joebell_) April 30, 2018

Idea to Execution and Beyond

“ “After a while you realise how much your habit’ s costing. You let a few go with pangs of regret and doubt but clutch on to others.”

“ “Only dulled when you realise 6 months later you’ve yet to do a thing with them. ”

“ “That buyer's remorse takes a while to kick in. Speaking from bitter, bitter experience. ”

“ Quitting, starting over, and other avoidance strategies won’t keep you from hitting a difficult point again, it’ll just delay the inevitable. Instead, just figure out how to work through it .

“ Customer development has been the most valuable thing we’ve done when it comes to moving our product and company forward, and I wish we would’ve done more of it in our early days.

“ It devalues the brand and cheapens the service. Also, the rewards don’t fit my business.

“ You can do whatever you want once you realis e one secret: everything big starts small.

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