My favorite learnings from the book "Getting real" from 37signals.

1. GETTING REAL

2. Remy Blaettler
 Certified Geek from the HSR Rapperswil
 After 6 years in the Land of the evil Texan back in
Switzerland
 Now since 1st of Jan fulltime with my own
Company Supertext

3. Getting real
 A book from 37Signals (Basecamp, Highrise)
 Founder of Ruby on Rails
 Made more money from the book than most
other startups with their business model
 Contains lots of unconventional advise for young
companies
 No, I don’t’ have shares and I don’t get
commission

4. Less is more
Claim: Underdo your competition
 You cannot outrun Microsoft with more
features. Try it with less.
 Use the 80/20 Rule. 80% of the users need
only 20% of the functionality.
Build for the 80%.
 Leave out what doesn’t matter
 Ask people what they DON’T want

5. Feel the pain
 Put developers into support
 Make them use the system they built
 Move everybody into the same room
 Scratch your own itch

6. Release early and often
 Point: Race to running software
 It just doesn’t matter
 Start with No
 Half, not half-assed
 Don’t wait until you have the perfect product,
put it into the wild as early as possible.
Everything you have planned will then change.

7. Delete your To-Do List
Claim: Forget Feature Requests
For: Against:
 Really important  Sometimes the best
items will bubble up ideas only come only
again and again. No once
need to track them.
 Customers are not
always right

8. The Blank Slate
Point: Don’t forget the first run
 During design and testing, you normally have
your app full of data, but what a new users
sees is a view without any data.
The first impression counts.
 Opportunity for tutorials, examples, first-
steps, demo-screenshots, etc.

9. Easy On, Easy Off
Point: Let customers come and go easy
 Signup and cancelation
 Data import and export
 No long term contract, signup fees, hidden
charges
 Don’t scare them away, build trust instead

10. Bad news are good news
Point: Don’t fear bad news
 Don’t hide your mistakes, explain them
 Bad press? Use it
 Price increase? Announce and justify it early

11. Where is the fire?
Hint: Google Alerts
 Who’s talking about you?
(Blogs, Digg, Press, Newsgroups)
 Someone cloning your business?
 Talk back, be an active member of the
community.
 Monitor and learn from your competition.

12. Your idea is worthless
Idea Execution
 Awful = -1  No = $1
 Weak = 1  Weak = $1k
 Good = 10  Good = $100k
 Brilliant = 20  Brilliant = $10,000k
The most brilliant idea, with no execution, is worth $20.
A weak idea with brilliant execution is worth $10,000.
 Don’t hide your idea
 Don’t wait until you invent the wheel

13. Move in with your parents
(or stop drinking early)
Claim: Don’t get VC Funding
 Spent over 100k for parties in the last 10 years
 Could survive for 2 years on that now instead
of giving up shares in the company!
 On the other hand, VC money brings a lot of
experience and good networks with it. That
can be very helpful too.

14. Just do it
Don’t
 wait for the perfect idea
 waste time writing a business plan
 make a logo
 build the perfect website with a great design
 wait for a partner
 Build something useful and put it out there

15. Links
 Getting real (The book in HTML)
 Remy.Supertext.ch (My blog)
 Web 2.0 Logo Creator
 Basecamp