Towards an MVP

After identifying the minimum requiremens towards an MVP, the first thing you should do is to write them down. Else, we all may have a very strong tendecy to add too many features to the MVP, streching the design process and increasing the cost drastically. So, the first thing I have done is to write down steps I will make for the initial launch.

At this time, supports I have applied for did not go well. I have not been awarded at the Falling Walls Lab, I could not be third among 10 applicants. It was a true disaster. That gave me a big question mark: should I pivot, should I stop working on this particular project and get over? But when I look back to that night, I realized something: I made connecitons. Two people from two different universities gave me their cards and sad they would like to learn more about the project. I made connections to project managers, R&D managers, and other potential customers. These people all liked the project and want to get a demo, giving me business cards or adding me on LinkedIn.

So if I weigh the opinion of the jury, I should clerly stop working on this idea. I should then pivot or stop. But if I weigh the opinion of potential users, I should continue as is. Of course I did not take his decision by myself. I consuled start-up owners, a business consultant and friends. The decision I came up with was simple: I have no doubt on jury’s competency; they are clearly simultaneously intelligent and exeprienced. But the determinig factor of success for any startup idea is not some intelligent people, it is potential customers. My goal at the very end is not winning some startup evens, it is selling to people. So, I decided to continue.

Next support opportunity was Tubitak and they were still completely silent. No return, no feedback, no meeting, even no e-mails. Total ignorance up to now. I totally do not understand why and what the hell they are waiting, but don’t have much to do really. Former applicants say this is their ‘normal’, however.

The first thing to do is a landing page. A landing page is what people see in the first instance, so it is one of the most important tasks among all. As an MVP should be humiliating enough, the case with the landing page is just the opposite.

The first choice about a lading page is its technology. As I do not -yet- have servers and a high budget, the cost be as little as possible. It should be easy to add content, as things may develop; for example chat box or payment. Besides, safety and robusness is a must. Choices are HTML+CSS+JS, Wordpress, Wix (or the like) and Divjoy. Up to now, I could not came up wih another choice so if you are familiar with one, please mention in the comments or email me.

HTML is the one I like most, because it is in my hands to change everything. EVERYTHING! It is the easiest, the most lightweight and adding anything is very easy. But it has pleny of security problems; it is the easiest to hack and is not so mobile friendly. So I had to discard this soluion. Wordpress is not so easy to modify, but re-making it is always possible. It makes building tha easy. Security apps are available, developing on the template or built site is easy, insalling add-ons is very easy and nearly every service has a Wordpress add-on. Scaling is a big problem on Wordpress but why would you scale a landing page?

Wix and Divjoy are paid solutions. Wix does not let you go and constantly charges you, so I discard it in the first place. Divjoy is a very intelligent solution, it has payment and lots of stuff within but is expensive compared to free solutions. Besides, I am not very sure about safety and where to deploy. So, I picked Wordpress.

When you tell people you are doing something with Wordpress, they immediately begin to talk about somehing called ‘themes’. A theme is a built website and you are expected to only modify the complete website. It is possible to modify the template, but it is not so wise to do so. There are three reasons for avoiding such: You may not succeed and ruin the template. In the best scenario, you reload the template. You may revoke mobile-friendly nature of the site and you may revoke the responsive nature of the site. These are not impossible things to re-do, but take plenty of time. So simply don’t.

This means you have to pick the right template. Free ones are really bad, so everyone I know picks a paid template. The thing about a paid template is simple; they employ freemium regime. You do not have to buy at first insance; you can install, try and then purchase a template. In due course, a free version may comply with your landing page requiremens. So you may not have to pay for one, at least for some time.

As you clearly see, I have to go through all details of the landing page. Next, we will go through how to decide on the conent. Stay tuned…

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