I’ve read before about Basecamp and its founder story about how to build a company outside the startup mainstream culture of “being the next unicorn”. I really like building web stuff and my goal always was to build a product profitable enough to work on it full time. Most of the startup ecosystem is focused or destined to this kind of big goals of becoming the next big thing. Almost none is focused on just creating small companies profitable enough for their team to live a happy and fulfilling life. A world full of small companies and associations would be so much better than having a handful of companies owned by billionaires, wouldn’t it?
Anyway, last week I finished their book Getting Real which actually I think I started before, but maybe never got to finish it. I really recommend that book and kind of all the Basecamp philosophy. So I decided to start (yet another) project but this time trying to follow the approach described in the book.
- I have a simple idea, not revolutionary.
- I’m holding my hands not to start by just coding it, but focus on the user experience first.
- Trying to ignore any other feature that comes to my mind to keep it simple, launchable in two months.
- Roughly sketching the screens and start by building them.
As I said in a previous post, everything will be built in a way that is costs free until users start using it. But the UI/UX side is still a problem. Since I’m not a designer, usually I just use some template from which I start modifying or adapting as needed. But I think this time (and this is something that the book emphasises) I should invest more on that side.
I’m talking with a friend that may take that part, but I’m wondering if maybe I could start shaping it with some html/css.
Anyway, this may be the least useful post for anyone. Just some random thoughts written. But read that book if you haven’t yet.
