Solo Web Startup

A solo entrepreneur's 1st startup

  • @Refynr
  • My startup: Refynr.com
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      29 Jan 2012

      Help a ColdFusion brotha meet with Kevin Rose!

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      Hey ColdFusion friends,

      Please help me out and vote for me to meet Kevin Rose (Digg, Milk, Oink, etc.), who can help tremendously in my quest to build a successful ColdFusion-powered startup - Refynr.

      [UPDATE]
      Note that the top 5 vote-getters win the meeting with Kevin, so I don't have to be #1 to win this amazing chance of a lifetime.

      http://commonred.com/kevin-rose (vote up on the red arrow below my face [Aaron Longnion]. You may need to sign up for CommonRed)

      Thanks so much!

      Aaron Longnion
      Founder & CTO
      http://refynr.com

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      15 Sep 2011

      10 Chapters of my Startup Book: Free to all!

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      It's on Google Plus: https://plus.google.com/102177534078850027729/posts/JxuP7PVYSyi

      What do you think about this serialized book being written on Google+?

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      18 Jul 2011

      The First 5 Chapters of My Startup Book, via G+

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      We decided on this name for this book:
      "From 9-to-5 Peon to Living the Dream, A Solo Entrepreneur's Journey"

      Chapter 1: Can't get no...
      https://plus.google.com/102177534078850027729/posts/Jf3suGCJbyH

      Chapter 2: Entrepreneurial spirit 
      https://plus.google.com/102177534078850027729/posts/FQUJRt7dBAZ

      Chapter 3: Quitting my Job and Moving in with the In-laws
      https://plus.google.com/102177534078850027729/posts/JiCefKddqZG

      Chapter 4: Deciding on a Startup Idea, and How to do it Cheaply
      https://plus.google.com/102177534078850027729/posts/VjtpQLtL192

      Chapter 5: Finding my Way with the Early Concept
      https://plus.google.com/102177534078850027729/posts/3nDwyhjYfxX

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      2 May 2011

      Loved jumping into the Austin startup scene!

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      A week and a half ago, I finally got out there and met some non-programmers with startups. In Austin.

      For the first 8 months of creating my first startup, I've been working out of my inlaws house, practically hiding from the outside world, near Flower Mound, TX.

      Hiding was great for keeping focus, but horrible for making *real* contacts - I've made a ton of "friends" on Twitter, Facebook, and via my blog, but it's not the same when you don't talk to them in person.

      What did I do, and how did it go?

      I was in Austin for 4 days, but found plenty to do!

      • April 19th - Social Media Club of Austin: a panel discussion - http://socialmediaclub.org/event/april-meeting-social-mobile-go-panel

        A lot of great discussions about Social Media, present and future, from expert panelists with cool companies in Austin. Met the http://helpattack.com guy - very impressed with what they're doing for good causes with Social Networks!

      • April 20th - Intro to TechRanch Austin - http://www.techranchaustin.com/stakeholder

        Austin Gunter went over TechRanch, how it helps startups in general, and how it can help me specifically. Also met another entrepreneur who has a tech and business (MBA) background. He's a great guy, and hope to keep in touch with him, because he really knows his stuff!

      • April 21st - Open Coffee for Startups, Central Austin - http://blog.damonc.com/2011/01/03/open-coffee-austin-rebooted/

        Heard about this on the Austin Startups Facebook Group, and decided to check it out. At first, I couldn't tell who at the coffee shop was part of the group, and so I didn't know what to do. It would be cool if there were signs or something to help new people figure out what to do. Eventually, I figured it out, and met some great people, such as the guy who started the Open Coffee, @Damon. I also met a real veteran marketing expert; I followed up, and we have a marketing meeting over coffee next time I'm in Austin. I soooo need this type of help!

      • April 21st - Met with a potential business customer - private conversations
      • April 22nd - Had lunch with @jdhancock

        This was great being able to meet a fellow Austinite, who's also a coder, social media guy, Refynr user, that even worked at the same Austin company as me (we didn't realize this until our lunch). He's very active with SM, was fun to just talk with, and gave great feedback on how he uses my software to do research. There's nothing more eye-opening than talking to users in person about your startup. Invaluable!

      • April 22nd - TechRanch Austin Campfire - http://www.techranchaustin.com/campfire

        This was really awesome, and was the highlight of my trip! They gave a nice intro to the various programs that TechRanch offers, and then we got in groups (there were about 30 of us) of 5 or 6 - in the groups we each had 2 minutes to give a quick pitch, and then say what we could each offer to the group, and then what help we are requesting. The offer and requests were things like technical skills, marketing, sales, business knowledge, office space, legal expertise, accounting, etc. Wow! In about 20 minutes, I met people that could offer all types of help in many areas that I suck at - web app design, video editing, marketing, accounting, veteran entrepreneurs, and more.

        After those group discussions, they had a social happy hour right in the TechRanch facilities, where I could talk in more depth with the people who had the most useful skills for me. So, that marketing guy I met back on Wednesday did me a huge favor and broke down the best way to approach a business deal with my first potential corporate customer. Some techies gave me tips on improving my software. I met a founder whose company was at a nearly-identical stage as mine. I got to talk with the leaders of TechRanch, and it leaves me hungry for more. Can't wait to get back to Austin - which I'm planning next week!

      Anyone else loving the Austin startup scene as much as me?  ;-)

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    • 23
      14 Apr 2011

      Time to monetize my startup. But how?

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      Whether real or just my own perception, I feel it's time to monetize my startup. There are nearly 700 users, and another 40 on the LaunchRock waiting list, but Refynr needs to make revenue, or I'm afraid it will whither and die...

      Here's the current features (see http://Refynr.com):

      1. Up to 30 custom filters to filter out the clutter from your Twitter Timeline & Facebook News Feed
      2. A web client that works in all the major browsers, plus a mobile web version for iPad, iPhones, & Android devices (probably Win Mobile and BlackBerry, too)
      3. Filtered Refynr Stream is saved permanently, so that you can read/search for any items later (such as after your vacation)
      4. (Optional) Daily Emails, with the latest from your Refynr Stream

      Here's the major features that customers/advisors have suggested for the future:

      1. a Twitter-compatible API, so that feeds could be pulled into other clients/services, such as TweetDeck, HootSuite, etc
      2. support for Twitter Lists
      3. support for Twitter Search
      4. ability to pull in RSS feeds, and add Refynr filters to them
      5. sell Refynr to companies, as a way to let employees keep up with Social Networks, without the distractions. The company admin would be able to set Filters company-wide (or by department), and I could charge a premium for the service

      I'm reaching out to any of you to ask if you can help point me in the right direction. As you may know, I'm a solo founder, first-timer, and bootstrapping Refynr. Getting free customers has gone pretty well, and the technology is solid, but soon I feel I need to move to the next step. The next step could mean getting investments or finding a way to monetize relatively quickly (or other?). I feel it's time for a next major step because:

      • I have about 3 more months of my own money to put into Refynr before I start running low
      • Acquiring more free customers without generating revenue is burning my cash faster and faster (server costs & no income)
      • I have a Minimal Viable Product (MVP), but little marketing skills myself, so need an advisor/consultant to help with sales/marketing
      • If someone could concentrate on marketing, then I could focus on the next set of features: RSS, an API, improved UI, etc.
      • I am a beta tester for the Twitter Promotions ad platform (one of 600), so have a huge opportunity to market, if only I was good at it! :D

      What I've tried:

      • LaunchRock: gets people a little more excited because they are put on a waiting list and can tweet about it, but it hasn't made it viral enough to get the thousands of users.
      • Pulling hundreds of new visitors to the site via Twitter Promoted Tweets - this gives me a lot of traffic, but the bounce rate tends to be above 70%, so I spend too much for a limited number of sign-ups. This may be that I'm not promoting to the right people on Twitter with these tweets...?
      • Charging a one-time $5 fee to sign up. In a week, I was only able to get 3 people to sign up for a mere $5. That was very discouraging!! I know most people don't want to spend anything for Social Network stuff, and that a Trial would be more reasonable, but I figure if more than 3 people won't even pay $5 then the perceived value is not good. Am I not thinking about this right?

      My questions to you:

      1. What steps would you suggest I take next?
      2. Are there current features that I should enhance to make Refynr more attractive?
      3. Which of future features would be best to focus on first, in order to monetize?
      4. Am I at the point where I need a co-founder?
      5. Or should I work on getting funding?
      6. Or should I try to find sales consultants to help?
      7. Other thoughs, ideas, or questions?
      8. I didn't want to put ads (Google) on Refynr because I think it defeats the purpose of de-cluttering your feeds. Should I reconsider?

      Answer in the comments or email me: aaron *at* refynr [dot] com

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      29 Mar 2011

      How I improved my startup pitch with video

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      This is actually the way I've been improving the quickest with everything related to my startup: fail fast, and let embarrassment drive improvement. More on that later.

      First, the bad pitch video:

      The feedback I got via my blog, Twitter, and 2 Startup Groups on Facebook told me how bad it was, even though I worked 5 hours on it and thought it showed off Refynr.com pretty well (shows what I know) -

      • "Useful service. I'm falling asleep watching this. This should be max 1 min. Hopefully less."
      • "I really like the idea as well; but, as [Anonymous] said, it just needs to be shorter. I think I read somewhere that people have like a 3-minute attention span for videos."
      • "You are coming over like you don't believe people will buy into your pitch..."
      • "Recently pitching to a lot of investors, I suggest your first sentence or two just says why they should care for refynr..."
      • "Your goal for the pitch is for the investor to want to know more. Let the investor download Refynr himself and discover how useful it might be. Tell them the problem, explain why it's a problem and focus on how large the market is for the opportunity... Leave the guy excited about the opportunity and wanting to know more. If you want some help let me know, I've pitched VC's before."
      • "I would say that this video needs to be less than 2 minutes, preferably in the 1:30 - 1:45 minute range. People's attention spans are just about that length."
      • "I know that you think that you are not a dynamic speaker, but your passion does show through..."
      • "First of all - your tone is that of a monotone. That's what my husband said, listening to your presentation. Not only that, you have one expression throughout - you need to look more enthusiastic. I don't mean jumping out of the chair, but smile more, for instance."
      • "Ditch the office background - it's distracting and competes with what you're demoing. Tighten up your script so you don't look like you're stumbling around. " (the clutter in the background gave me an idea for the second video)
      • "You are a developer and have a great product. The presentation is nothing nice :) I would recommend getting someone else to do this for you. One of the first things we NEED to do as a start up is recognize our weakness.. You have built a great product and now it's time to pass the torch so you don't miss out. the presentation does NOT match the quality of the app."
      • "...you do need to be more "alert". You want them to get your excitement over this product."
      • "I think you need to start with a passionate elevator pitch for your product for maybe the first two minutes covering the points here: http://www.startupnation.c om/pages/contact/elevator_pitch.asp"
      • "Aaron, ditch the disclaimers [I'm obviously a nerdy introvert, bootstrapping & solo, so this is not my strong point.], as they are a distraction from allowing us to focus on learning about you and your great contribution. Same holds true for your pitch. Break it down into 3 more succinct categories: 1. PROBLEM - Twitter Blows, Unstructured; 2. SOLUTION - Refynr Makes Twitter Your 'B+tch'... and not the other way around; 3. INSTRUCTIONS - Try to deliver your instructions within 10 seconds. This may sound daunting, but the goal is to get us to think the following -- you have created something that we want to use and it can be seamlessly integrated into our lives. Draw inspiration from the definition of refined [with impurities or unwanted elements having been removed by processing] to come up with a clever one-liner that explains Refynr."

      Now, the much improved video:

      The new video could still be more polished and professional, could be shorter, etc. But it's way better than the first one, and I'm quitting while I'm ahead for now. It wasn't scripted because I tried that and it always came off as *fake*. It's my best foot forward for now, but I'll revise it if I get inspired again.

      But the main point here is that when you have a challenge in your start-up that you don't know how to solve yourself, just do something the best you know how, put it out there and get honest feedback. Tell people you want to the brutal truth, and they will give it to you. Check your ego at the door, which is hard to do 100%, but mainly just really listen, respond, and make the effort to improve. There's no point defending yourself, because you wouldn't be asking if you knew the best way in the first place, right? This doesn't just work for videos and your pitch, but also:

      • your minimum viable product (MVP) - just put the earliest Alpha possible out there and get real feedback
      • logo design
      • home page design
      • your tag line / catch phrase
      • demo
      • feature priorities
      • any more?
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      14 Mar 2011

      Cloud Chronicle: Podcast on my web startup

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      Interview Series Ep1 – Aaron Longnion of refynr.com

      Mar 14, 2011
      By Patrick Pushor
      Interview Series Podcast
      View Comments

      Episode 1


      Interview with Aaron Longnion about his social network feed filter startup refynr.com. We speak about his technology, how refynr.com came about, some of the tools used in the creation of the site, and how the cloud enabled Aaron to support his solo startup.


      Links mentioned in the podcast:

      http://hashtags.org/
      http://www.crowdspring.com/
      http://www.gosquared.com/livestats/
      http://getsatisfaction.com/
      http://www.mailchimp.com/
      http://www.rackspace.com/

      Podcast: Download


      Tags: startup podcast

      About the Author

      Patrick Pushor

      Patrick is a critical thinker based out of Western Canada with deep experience in virtualization and cloud computing.

      blog comments powered by Disqus

      via cloudchronicle.com

      Thank you very much, Patrick, for the interview! Excellent questions, and I had a lot of fun!

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    • 13
      28 Feb 2011

      Want to build a startup with CFML? Here's how...

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      Here's the short preso I did at Open CF Summit. It isn't really instructions on how _anyone_ can build a startup in CF; it's just a taste of how I did it so far with Refynr.com.

      I'm an inexperienced public speaker, so I didn't actually say much more than is on this powerpoint. :)

      Click here to download:
      Want_to_build_a_startup_with_CFML_Here_s_how_.ppt (100 KB)
      (download)
      Click here to download:
      Want_to_build_a_startup_with_CFML_Here_s_how_.ppt (100 KB)

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      2 Feb 2011

      What's your priority with your startup?

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      Over the past few days, I had an email conversation with another bootstrapped entrepreneur who works from home and has 2 young kids, like me.

      Like many early-stage entrepreneurs, he's working his butt off and getting things done... often at 80+ hours/week. I never work more than 50 hours per week on my startup. My priorities are different (and that's okay). He isn't a solopreneur like me, so he probably feels like he'd be letting his team down if he didn't work as hard as they do.

      Anyhow, here's the response I sent via email:

      I'm different than most, I'm finding out. For the past 6 years or so, I actually mention in my various job interviews that I'm a committed family man (i.e. "whipped" ;-), and prefer to work 40-45 hours per week, with 50+ hour weeks being the exception rather than the norm. It hasn't deterred people from hiring me, but I do think that I'm not viewed as the hardest working or "career" employee that they want, and partially explains why my average salaried job each lasted about 1.5 years recently. On the other hand, I get much more time with my family than the average employee in similar positions.

      With my startup, I made a similar commitment to my family, and work 40-50 hours per week, even though I'd love to spend more time to get things rolling. Any time I've pushed for more time (a week, alone, coding binge), I could see it would put too much stress on our family.

      I have a good friend (he used to be a family-man and devout Christian), and mentor, who moved his young family to the Bay Area to do a startup. He bootstrapped alone for about 9 months, spent all his money, went into huge debt, even though his wife didn't agree. He dropped that startup completely, moved to a new one, barely hanging on to his marriage and livelihood, and the new venture started taking off. He worked 90+ hours a week, stayed out all nights socializing in bars with his "colleagues", and eventually got outside funding and some big sales. He says he has 1/4 ownership of the company worth $32 million now. But his wife repeatedly threatens divorce, he missed many baseball games and weekends with his 10 year old son, and when I asked him for advice he didn't offer support, but rather said I was doing everything wrong and had no chance of success unless I did my startup more the way he did.

      I guess I define success much differently. I choose my family over millions any day. When we're on our death beds, what will we be thinking as the end comes near: "I wish I had made more money and bought more stuff", or "I wish I had spend more quality time with the people I love..."?

       

      What is your priority, and how does it contribute to your overall well-being?

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      27 Jan 2011

      CFML-Powered Startups your should know about

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      This is a list compiled from the CFML Entrepreneur Group on Facebook. Join here if you're interested. Then, send me your startup info, and I'll add you (I will do a dedicated page when the list gets longer)

      DISCLAIMER: I will only add sites to the list if the owner explicitly asks me to from within the CFML Entrepreneur Group on Facebook or via email, so I'm sorry but I won't be adding sites if you suggest one, but are not the owner.

       

      The List - 

      CodeBass

      http://codebass.net/ - highlights Adobe community folks and their music/sound/broadcasting related efforts.

      http://www.codebassradio.com/  - anything goes. A platform for community folks to try their hand at DJing / hosting / broadcasting both music & tech talk as well as  internet radio related development & collaboration.

      Tech: Promotes Adobe tech and especially loves platform crossover.

      Facebook Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/CodeBass/134071299972313

       

      FunMappr - In startup/development phase. Service that provides local entertainment event listings that breaks the paradigm of the industry standard.

       

      Great Dental Websites - Service offering websites that Dentists can create & update themselves.  http://www.greatdentalwebsites.com/

      Tech: Tomcat, Railo, Model-glue

       

      Homegrown News - Homegrown News (HGN) is a community-driven news platform aimed at small communities and towns. It replaces the dated model of weekly, or no, newspapers in said communities with an up-to-date, always-on news and information service.

      Domain - coming soon

      Tech: Tomcat 7, 'nginx, Railo 3.2, CFWheels 1.1.1, CouchDB

       

      MediaSlurp - A compact AIR-based desktop player bundled with community-driven content including live internet radio streams and well known community podcasts.

      http://mediaslurp.com/

      Tech: AIR/Flex/BlazeDS/ColdFusion 9/CF9ORM - Name it. If it's part of the Adobe stack, chances are.. it's in there!

      Facebook Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/MediaSlurp/140423246011237

       

      Mileage Pad - Mobile / Web App for keeping track of, and reimbursing business mileage

      http://mileagepad.com/

      Tech: Adobe ColdFusion, FW/1, MySQL, jQuery, jQueryUI, jQuery

      Mobile, PhoneGap

       

      Railo - Railo Open Source CFML engine. A very fast LGPL open source CFML engine.

      www.getrailo.org

       

      Refynr.com - Refynr filters your Twitter & Facebook feeds by keywords that you choose, and saves the feeds for you to read later.

      http://refynr.com/

      Tech: ColdFusion 9 Enterprise, MySQL 5.1, jQuery Mobile, CentOS, Rackspace Cloud Servers, ValidateThis, cfUniforms, & various open-source CF libraries/code: Tomcat 7, 'nginx, Railo 3.2, CFWheels 1.1.1, CouchDB

      Facebook Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/refynr 

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  • Solo Web Startup

    Web developer/architect turned solo web entrepreneur

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