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Clarity

Conroy Whitney

Juneau, AK

My 15+ software engineering career has involved working with dozens of startups. But my personal and professional mission -- the thing that gets me out of bed in the morning -- is helping early-stage, bootstrapped, solopreneurs like yourself to get your idea(s) out of your head and into the real world.

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Entrepreneurship Ruby on Rails Start-ups Startup Consulting Lean Startups Agile Development Founder Early-stage Startups Lean Software Development Extreme Programming

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Lean Startup // Picking a Modern Tech Stack

I've worked with many languages and frameworks over my 15+ year career, and I keep up with the ever-changing landscape of options. I would be glad to have a discussion with you about the pros and cons of different tech stacks in the context of lean software development -- starting quickly, and growing as needed later.

Lean Startup // Agile Project Management

It's impossible to predict ahead of time all of the bumps and detours that are inevitable in a software project. Using an Agile Project Management process is important to ensure that you can respond to new learnings and re-prioritize the remainder of the development roadmap.

Lean Startup // MVP Feature Set

Knowing what to build is important, but knowing what *not* to build is even more crucial. I've seen too many startups take on too many features that don't directly serve to test their core hypothesis. By determining what to include in the MVP vs. what to postpone till v2, not only can you ship sooner and get feedback from your customers, but you eliminate the waste of realizing after the fact that some of your features have zero value.

Lean Startup // Customer Discovery Interviews

Having customer interviews at the beginning of the Lean Startup process is seriously one of my favourite things. There's a magic moment where you realize you're onto something and you get chills. But there's a right and a wrong way to do it. If you ask the wrong questions, you will get misleading responses. The book "The Mom Test" is a great place to start.

No Code // Picking a Platform

The year is 2020, and it's no longer strictly necessary to hire a developer to launch a software product. With the introduction of platforms like Bubble, Adalo, Webflow, Glide, DraftBit, and others, it's now possible to create software using drag-and-drop tools. They each have their best uses cases and their own pros and cons which we can discuss in the context of what you are trying to create.

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Conroy Whitney answered

Can you be the founder of a saas startup if you're not a tech person?

Yes, yes, yes -- a million times yes!

Throw the idea that you "don't have the skills to create the product" out of the window. These days, you don't have to know how to code to build software.

There are a whole slew of "No-Code" and "Low-Code" tools available to help you build your tech startup -- and a whole community of solo founders to ask questions of. Check out these two resources:

https://www.makerpad.co

https://www.indiehackers.com

I'm a software engineer and have been building startups for 15+ years. I'm making the transition into No Code for two reasons: first, to build faster and launch my own products with less work; and second, so that I do a better job helping non-technical founders launch their startups on thier own.

The ecosystem isn't 100% there yet, but it will be in the next few years. Depending on which tool you use, you may run into feature limitations and/or find vendor lock-in when you reach a certain scale.

But that still meshes with the ethos of a Lean Startup MVP: you're eventually going to throw it all away anyway and start over from scratch. And when you do, you'll have customers, you'll have money, and you'll be in a better place to hire developers without worrying about them stealing your idea.

Let me know if I can do anything to help. You got this!

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