The Web Startup Success Guide (Books for Professionals by Professionals) [Paperback]

Robert Walsh (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 29, 2009 | ISBN-10: 1430219858 | ISBN-13: 978-1430219859 | Edition: 1

If there’s a software startup company in your developer heart, this is the book that will make it happen.

The Web Startup Success Guide is your one-stop shop for all of the answers you need today to build a successful web startup in these challenging economic times. It covers everything from making the strategic platform decisions as to what kind of software to build, to understanding and winning the Angel and venture capital funding game, to the modern tools, apps and services that can cut months off development and marketing cycles, to how startups today are using social networks like Twitter and Facebook to create real excitement and connect to real customers.

Bob Walsh, author of the landmark Micro-ISV: From Vision to Reality, digs deep into the definition, financing, community–building, platform options, and productivity challenges of building a successful and profitable web application today.

What you’ll learn

• How to define the value your web app will deliver to its users
• Evangelizing your startup via social media—from Twitter to Facebook, from YouTube to your own social network
• Which web app pricing strategies work, and which don’t
• What alternatives to traditional business structures will let you launch and run your startup without all the legal mumbo–jumbo
• What services and web apps exist today to help your startup succeed
• How to get meaningful online press for your web app

Plus, interviews with David Allen (Getting Things Done), Rafe Needleman (CNET), Marshall Kirkpatrick (ReadWriteWeb), Guy Kawasaki (Garage Technology Ventures), Dharmesh Shah (OnStartups, HubSpot), Joel Spolsky (Fog Creek Software), Eric Sink (SourceGear), Pamela Slim (Escape from Cubicle Nation), and 40 others whose advice can help your startup succeed.

Who this book is for

If you are a software developer (web, desktop, or mobile—it doesn’t matter) who wants to create successful, revenue–producing web businesses, The Web Startup Success Guide is for you. And if you’re just curious about how someone goes about creating an online business from the ground up, this book is an excellent choice.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: What Was Is Not What Is
2. Value Is the Core of Your Startup
3. So Many Platforms, So Many Options
4. Tools and Groups for Startups
5. Money: Raise, Manage, Make
6. Social Media and Your Startup
7. Clarity Matters
8. Getting It Done
9. Six Wise People
10. What's Next?

Editorial Reviews

From the Author

If your startup is web-based, get this book. If you are creating Windows or Mac OS X desktop software, get my other book Micro-ISV: From Vision to Reality amzn.to/eThgUs. --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

About the Author

Bob Walsh is the founder of 47Hats, a consulting firm/blog/startup dedicated to helping startups succeed, the author of Micro-ISV: From Vision to Reality, podcaster-in-chief of the Startup Success Podcast, co-moderator of the Joel on Software's Business of Software forum, and creator of StartupToDo.com, a online productivity app and community for startup and microISVs.

At his company, Safari Software, Inc., Bob was a contract software developer for more than 20 years before launching, selling and ultimately selling off a Windows personal task manager commercial application. Before getting into information technology, Walsh was a reporter for several news organizations, the most worth bragging about being United Press International (UPI).

Product Details

• Paperback: 440 pages
• Publisher: Apress; 1 edition (July 29, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1430219858
• ISBN-13: 978-1430219859
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.9 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #645,162 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

My name is Bob Walsh ([e-mail]), and I believe that startups and microISVs (one-person software companies) represent the future of the global software industry and of the billion-person Internet to which we are all now connected. I believe this so strongly that this is my fifth book on the subject.

My previous books are Micro-ISV: From Vision to Reality (Apress, 2006), Clear Blogging (Apress, 2007), MicroISV Sites That Sell! (ebook, 2008), and The Twitter Survival Guide, with Kristen Nicole (ebook, 2008).

In addition, I do a podcast with cohost Pat Foley (The Startup Success Podcast, at http://startuppodcast.wordpress.com) and write a blog (47 Hats, at http://47hats.com). I also comoderate Joel Spolsky's Business of Software forum (http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?biz).

My day job is consulting with startups and microISVs on how to increase their sales by better explaining their software on their web sites. But my real job since 2007 has been to recreate myself from a Windows desktop developer into a Rails web developer so that I can build and launch a superior way for startups to succeed: StartupToDo (http://startuptodo.com).

Before getting into all of the foregoing, I was a custom software developer for 20-plus years, and before that a reporter. I like what I'm doing now a lot more than either of those past careers!

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 51 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Badly written with little useful content September 13, 2009

By Tarun Upadhyay

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This should be a couple of blog entries in a B+ blog, not a $20 book.

The book is not only badly written, it does not hardly any useful content either. Everything said here should be obvious to any person who has lived for any time near any web business. The author has unnecessarily made the book fat by having many long interviews with his friends - most of them add little to the content .

If you find this book useful - you should ask if you are the right person to run a business and perhaps spend sometime learning "basic business stuff" first.

Here is my recap of content:
* Chapter 1: Introduction: Funding a web startup today is easier than ever and many options exist including self-funding (duh!!)
* Chapter 2: Create value. There is no shortage of just "ideas" (duh, again !!)
* Chapter 3 & 4: There are lot of tools available to you like SaaS platforms, open source cms and local meetup groups (duh, duh ,duh !!)
* Chapter 5 is about raising money. It is filled with meaningless generalizations ("raising money is like falling in love") - none of them of much use.
* Chapter 6 is about social media. More generic stuff. Nothing said here is so remarkable that you cannot find it online - just google "how to market on social media" and just read the top 5 links. you will be WAY AHEAD of this book.
* Chapter 7 - The summary is - You need to be clear about what your USP is (duh !!)
* Chapter 8 - A long chapter on GTD methodology. There is no reason for it to be in this book. If GTD is your way, read a book on GTD.
* Chapter 9 - a needlessly long chapter about author's recommendation of 6 blogs to read.

Throw this book in fireplace - that will be more useful.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Ads for various online tools November 1, 2009

By Anton

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I bought this book based on excellent reviews in hope that it would help me to know what and how to do to start my own web business. But "Web Startup Success Guide" turned out to be just a list of general and obvious recommendations with a vast amount of ads of various on-line tools, including author's own "Startup To-Do".

No real help, too long to be read in a spare time, typographic quality is too low. I'm deeply disappointed with this book.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Not so much information February 14, 2010

By Josua Partogi

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I don't find this book really useful. Why? Because everything written in this book can be easily searched from the internet. The information is not covered in depth. I also find that the book does not offer new thoughts or concept that I will need to start a web startup business.