Climbfind
Summary:
Climbfind is my second go at a web start-up.
The idea is to create a niche social network for rock climbers
that fills the gaps / needs which facebook is too general to supply
for the rock climbing community. The idea is not to go head to head
with facebook, but supplement it.
Here's is the pitch:
Looking for climbing friends?
www.climbfind.com
helps you meet climbers at your local climbing centre, find places to climb outdoors and share you passion for climbing.
Features include:
- Sophisticated partner searching to find people climbing at a certain gym on a certain night.
- Information about indoor climbing gyms and outdoor rock climbing locations in your area.
- The ability to create groups which can be used to organise trips and keep your peers informed of news in
your climbing community.
The revenue is to come from advertising in the Sponsors column down the right hand side of the site layout and
at a later stage when the site lay reaches critical mass, we hope to on sell climbing equipment and
adventure holidays from 3rd parties.
Preparty
Summary:
Preparty is my first go at a web start-up.
The idea is to create a one-stop portal
(www.preparty.com)
for:
- Event planning tools and resources.
- Social networking features like RSVP, comments & photo sharing.
- Customable news feeds / e-newsletters displaying events related to
a user's interests.
The goal is to offer a range of superior free services for the event organiser in order to get them to
invite guests to view details of their event on Preparty and hence generating traffic whilst build a reputable brand.
The revenue comes from giving event-related suppliers and event marketers access to advertise and promote their
services or tickets to this audience.
Skills I Developed:
Preparty is a large and highly scalable web app build on top of Sql Server, C#, ASP .net, and JavaScript technologies.
Throughout the project I have had exposure to emerging technologies, design patterns, performance tuning,
code maintenance and restructuring. Altogether, I have proven that I am able to self educate in any area of technology.
At the beginning of the project, I had no experience in sales or acquiring clients.
The Australian venues and entertainment industry has been bamboozled almost on a weekly basis
with new websites promising to bring them business. In an over populated and highly competitive market
I was able to get over 100 high profile venue and entertainment clients listed
on Preparty. I now have complete confidence in my ability to champion and sell any idea I believe in. Here are
a few example clients:
A Few Lessons I Learnt:
Release fast and release often. I knew it the whole way
through product development but as a young entrepreneur, I was just
not disciplined enough to put the theory into action. In the time I spent
developing, other products like facebook,
with more people, backing and resources, overtook much of Preparty's
intended market in a matter of months.
Target Target Target. You heard me. Don't try and conquer the whole of
Europe it a day. You have to cross the chasm at a single point of entry (like Normandy).
Research and choose a profitable and responsive market segment even though you may
feel like your product is suitable for everyone, marketing it is a whole different
story!
Act on gut feelings sooner than later.
About 6 weeks before Preparty was to go live, I was having
an early morning shower. I felt in my stomach that my PR
Company, who I had been dealing with for many months,
were not going to get their act together to prepare
Preparty's launch party/event. With four weeks
until launch date, they had still not done anything so
I had to let them go (and they happily kept my deposit!).
I had wasted two critical weeks stressing over
trying to continue to deal with the situation when
my gut had already told me what I needed to do.