This afternoon I met with a local startup founded by two recent UGA grads. Impressively, they’ve had a great startup progression so far. Here’s what they told me:
- Spent three months working on a business plan only to realize it was a waste of time
- Spent the last three months building a fully functioning web app
- Didn’t know web design so they taught themselves PhotoShop, HTML, and CSS
- Hired a local programmer to build a working site with PHP and MySQL
- Raising a small seed round to launch their sales and marketing
There were a few items I didn’t agree with:
- Going to roll out the product to their main market and then focus on several related markets (I think they should stay laser focused on their initial market until the business is profitable)
- Going to invest in 10-30 hours of programming per month (I think they need to innovate faster than that)
- Don’t have a programmer as a co-founder (a technical co-founder is critical)
My recommendation is to launch early and often (within 60-90 days of start) and solicit feedback from the market. These guys are well on their way.
David Cummings on Startups 
Hi David.
We met very briefly when you visited Bronto in Durham several years ago…and I had a convo with Adam Blitzer fairly recently. Congrats on all of the success with Pardot! I enjoy the daily posts. 🙂
Eric
Thanks Eric! Congratulations on your recent funding.