Most Popular
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How did you come up with the idea for HootSuite?
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HootSuite came out of an agency I founded called Invoke. Invoke does a lot of services work and we were managing a lot of twitter campaigns. We needed a better tool. Very often scratching your own itch leads to some great products.
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What are the most important attributes you should be looking for in new hires at a early stage bootstrapped startup?
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Swiss army knife adaptability, and energy. You need to be surrounded by can-do type people who share your vision and are willing to help put in the hours.
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Do you test new features with real users before launching them?
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Yes, briefly with a small focus group. We develop pretty agile/lean and would rather get a 95% bug free product out vs a 100% one that will take 50% longer.
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What's the best way for early stage startups to manage their finances? We dont have payroll yet because we're still bootstrapped, but have small contract work (<$300) (e.g. design a button, infographic, logo, etc..) from time to time.
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Services/product hybrid is great, and what invoke did for many years as we rolled out products.
for tools i would highly recommend freshbooks.
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What do you look for when hiring someone to work at Invoke or HootSuite?
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Swiss army knife skills, passion, high work ethic, good character, fun personality, team fit.
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How do you approach iteration?
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We run pretty agile, so we try to do 2 releases per month and adjust on feedback. This is pretty frenetic and will be slowing down in future months, as the product gets more mature.
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How did you decide on your pricing model at Hootsuite?
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Gutcheck, A/B testing and surveying.
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I have bootstrapped my company to date. I am the only founder and have put in a chunk of my savings. I am in the process of talking to investors and wondering if I should structure the cash I contributed in the form of a note (either convertible upon first round or non-convertible). I am guessing investors will say that non-convertible will be need to be forgiven, but I think that means my basis in the shares will be higher. Don't want to make things complicated though. Any recommendations?
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Structure it how you can sell it, but don’t get caught in the details. Investors should be ok with you taking money back out, but you’re going to have to convince them of that.
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I hired a developer as a consultant to build my website (integral part of business) who has built the entire site. I've been paying him but far below market rate. He is an important part of our team with good business sense and I think he is important going forward (though he doesn't have a lot of experience). I told him I would give him some equity as part compensation. Should it be options or restricted stock and what percentage? Some people say less than 1%, others say 10%.
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Every situation is unique, so it’s very hard to say. I would give them options 1-10% is a good range that mature(vest) over 4 years. That way you know you are aligned for the long haul.
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We are currently running a software company (6 employees) that does client project. But we are started to think to build our own product. What the best practice to manage both client & our product development? do we need to separate the team?
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This is a real balancing act. it helps to put up firewalls and you have to be disciplined. The biggest risk is pulling people to work on cash projects and loosing momentum.
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What advice do you have for someone thinking about launching their own company but unsure where to start?
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Just do it. So cliche, but you have to jump in. Trying to figure out all of the issues before moving ahead is impossible. The second you sign a rent lease, or make a hire, you’ve burned your boat and now you’re committed.
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How do you collect customer feedback?
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Uservoice.com rocks our world.
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