WEBVTT 00:00:28.099 --> 00:00:33.250 So hi. Alright, so welcome to my keynote. 00:00:33.250 --> 00:00:35.300 All right. Apologies for that. 00:00:35.300 --> 00:00:37.170 I've been a Rails programmer for too long, 00:00:37.170 --> 00:00:40.690 and I used Scaffold to generate this presentation, 00:00:40.690 --> 00:00:43.760 and I kind of, I kind of kept this towards the end. 00:00:43.760 --> 00:00:45.190 You know, I'll fix it in the end, 00:00:45.190 --> 00:00:45.790 and I forgot. 00:00:45.790 --> 00:00:48.690 So yeah I'm really sorry about that. But, anyway. 00:00:48.690 --> 00:00:50.659 So my name is Prateek Dayal. 00:00:50.659 --> 00:00:52.379 Unlike Chad, you know, I do need an introduction, 00:00:52.379 --> 00:00:56.079 so I'll introduce myself as I go along. 00:00:56.079 --> 00:00:58.610 So yeah, I'm currently the CEO of SupportBee, 00:00:58.610 --> 00:01:02.390 and I started working with Ruby in 2007, 00:01:02.390 --> 00:01:05.080 when I co-founded Muziboo. 00:01:05.080 --> 00:01:07.000 And Muziboo is a music sharing website 00:01:07.000 --> 00:01:07.770 and we had this idea, 00:01:07.770 --> 00:01:10.420 how cool it would be if you know people had 00:01:10.420 --> 00:01:12.000 a place like Flickr for music, 00:01:12.000 --> 00:01:13.950 where they would go and upload music and discuss it, 00:01:13.950 --> 00:01:16.369 not just share with their friends. 00:01:16.369 --> 00:01:17.369 And we launched Muziboo, 00:01:17.369 --> 00:01:18.560 we worked on it for a few years, 00:01:18.560 --> 00:01:19.179 we grew it to about, 00:01:19.179 --> 00:01:24.100 you know about half a million users. 200,000 uploads. 00:01:24.100 --> 00:01:27.069 And as I said, I started working on this in 2007, 00:01:27.069 --> 00:01:29.369 and it was a great time. 00:01:29.369 --> 00:01:31.250 It just felt like heaven. 00:01:31.250 --> 00:01:34.659 So I did electronics engineering in my college days, 00:01:34.659 --> 00:01:36.860 and this was my first real programming project, 00:01:36.860 --> 00:01:38.979 and unlike the unfortunate people like you, 00:01:38.979 --> 00:01:41.979 you know I never did any PHP or Java. 00:01:41.979 --> 00:01:44.420 So I came to the programming world straight into Ruby, 00:01:44.420 --> 00:01:45.469 and it was so awesome, 00:01:45.469 --> 00:01:46.890 and I could sit and code all day. 00:01:46.890 --> 00:01:49.289 That was the part that appealed to me the most about doing a start up. 00:01:49.289 --> 00:01:51.969 Actually we didn't even call it a start up back then. 00:01:51.969 --> 00:01:53.409 So we just did something, 00:01:53.409 --> 00:01:55.969 and I was sitting and coding all day. 00:01:55.969 --> 00:01:57.820 And the community was still there actually, 00:01:57.820 --> 00:01:59.140 surprisingly even in 2007 in India. 00:01:59.140 --> 00:02:02.380 We didn't have a Ruby meet up but we had Open Coffee clubs, 00:02:02.380 --> 00:02:03.609 and we had some start up meet ups 00:02:03.609 --> 00:02:05.509 and actually all the people talk about 00:02:05.509 --> 00:02:07.909 is programming pretty much, all the bar caps??. 00:02:07.909 --> 00:02:09.258 So I remember meeting Sidoo?? 00:02:09.258 --> 00:02:10.919 and I remember meeting a few other people, 00:02:10.919 --> 00:02:12.489 later I met Hemant. And we would sit 00:02:12.489 --> 00:02:14.790 and chat about Ruby and you know, 00:02:14.790 --> 00:02:15.579 they would give me all these cool ideas, 00:02:15.579 --> 00:02:16.950 I would be like, I would be like hey dude, you know, 00:02:16.950 --> 00:02:17.480 how do I deploy? 00:02:17.480 --> 00:02:19.380 And they would tell me there's this cool thing 00:02:19.380 --> 00:02:20.680 called Mongrel, you should look at it. 00:02:20.680 --> 00:02:22.489 And I would go back and check out Mongrel 00:02:22.489 --> 00:02:24.480 and I would deploy. So that was a really fun time. 00:02:24.480 --> 00:02:26.380 I was having a great time. 00:02:26.380 --> 00:02:28.790 But as you would guess it didn't last. 00:02:28.790 --> 00:02:31.220 It wasn't as bright and sunny anymore eventually, 00:02:31.220 --> 00:02:35.230 because I had to start worrying about making money. 00:02:35.230 --> 00:02:37.500 And I, you know I would just a couple of years out of college, 00:02:37.500 --> 00:02:39.239 not much cash, so I had to really start worrying about, 00:02:39.239 --> 00:02:40.449 OK, how am I gonna make money? 00:02:40.449 --> 00:02:42.530 This is all fun, but you know let's get serious 00:02:42.530 --> 00:02:43.989 about this start up thing now. 00:02:43.989 --> 00:02:45.930 And I had never done a business 00:02:45.930 --> 00:02:48.519 and so I did what you know any sensible programmer would do, right. 00:02:48.519 --> 00:02:49.979 I went to a business guy, 00:02:49.979 --> 00:02:53.169 I went to a few business people to get their advice. 00:02:53.169 --> 00:02:56.609 And all the advice that I got was about SEO, 00:02:56.609 --> 00:02:59.310 about partnerships, people said oh you're a music company 00:02:59.310 --> 00:03:02.150 you should go partner with the music labels, 00:03:02.150 --> 00:03:04.820 you should hire a few sales people, sell music listings. 00:03:04.820 --> 00:03:08.100 Like if, I don't know how long, if you guys remember, 00:03:08.100 --> 00:03:10.120 but in 2007, India was sort of moving from 00:03:10.120 --> 00:03:11.840 the offline world into the online world, 00:03:11.840 --> 00:03:15.120 and the models were just sort of being adapted to the online models. 00:03:15.120 --> 00:03:16.790 And everybody was sort of like, 00:03:16.790 --> 00:03:17.870 everything was a listing site essentially, 00:03:17.870 --> 00:03:21.190 and you could just put ads on it. 00:03:21.190 --> 00:03:24.900 So I, you know I didn't like this obviously. 00:03:24.900 --> 00:03:27.459 I hated doing this work. 00:03:27.459 --> 00:03:28.799 Because I loved doing programming. 00:03:28.799 --> 00:03:30.400 But I still persisted with it, 00:03:30.400 --> 00:03:32.500 I still persisted with it for a few years. 00:03:32.500 --> 00:03:35.269 So I did some SEO, you know I tried doing some sales - 00:03:35.269 --> 00:03:39.650 it didn't work. And, you know, I really felt like this guy. 00:03:39.650 --> 00:03:42.870 I felt like I had all these super powers, 00:03:42.870 --> 00:03:45.959 like metaprogramming and you know all the cool stuff 00:03:45.959 --> 00:03:49.720 that Ruby had to offer, but I would just sit and, you know, 00:03:49.720 --> 00:03:51.139 tweak page titles all day long. 00:03:51.139 --> 00:03:54.530 To get myself ranking. You know I felt really bad. 00:03:54.530 --> 00:03:55.479 And I really felt disillusioned. 00:03:55.479 --> 00:03:57.609 I felt really disillusioned with start ups because, 00:03:57.609 --> 00:04:00.090 I said this is not what start ups should be about, right. 00:04:00.090 --> 00:04:02.709 I should be able to do what I enjoy doing. 00:04:02.709 --> 00:04:05.419 And that's when I kind of started asking myself, 00:04:05.419 --> 00:04:08.669 can I leverage my strengths as a developer to build a great business? 00:04:08.669 --> 00:04:11.290 Can I do what I enjoy doing already 00:04:11.290 --> 00:04:12.380 and somehow build a great business 00:04:12.380 --> 00:04:14.600 and build a company that I'm really proud of? 00:04:14.600 --> 00:04:17.250 And I started sort of looking around to get ideas, 00:04:17.250 --> 00:04:18.529 and that's what my talk is about. 00:04:18.529 --> 00:04:22.070 So my talk is about coding your business. 00:04:22.070 --> 00:04:24.880 And I just want to share some experiences I've had, 00:04:24.880 --> 00:04:26.199 some learnings I've had. 00:04:26.199 --> 00:04:29.710 Some ideas we are even now working on. 00:04:29.710 --> 00:04:32.199 And just get your thoughts, maybe, you know, 00:04:32.199 --> 00:04:34.389 it would be nice if you guys could tell me, like, 00:04:34.389 --> 00:04:36.060 what do you think, what if you tried something similar. 00:04:36.060 --> 00:04:37.509 Or even if later you try something 00:04:37.509 --> 00:04:40.949 and you know just tweet to me. That'd be cool. 00:04:40.949 --> 00:04:44.600 So when I was doing Muziboo, about a year into Muziboo, 00:04:44.600 --> 00:04:45.780 SoundCloud launched. 00:04:45.780 --> 00:04:49.140 And you know they launched in a public data or something. 00:04:49.140 --> 00:04:51.310 And they are a nice product. 00:04:51.310 --> 00:04:52.560 And they started getting some traction. 00:04:52.560 --> 00:04:54.190 But other than working on the core product, 00:04:54.190 --> 00:04:58.260 one thing I noticed was that they had this thing called the API. 00:04:58.260 --> 00:05:00.820 And somehow people were slowly starting to use that API 00:05:00.820 --> 00:05:04.240 and people started writing apps on top of the API. 00:05:04.240 --> 00:05:07.880 And if you go to their app listing now they've got dozens of apps. 00:05:07.880 --> 00:05:11.560 And you know they have apps which help them get new musicians on board. 00:05:11.560 --> 00:05:14.340 These are apps which will allow people to upload directly 00:05:14.340 --> 00:05:18.280 from let's say a music recording program. 00:05:18.280 --> 00:05:20.730 All these are apps that get some new listeners. 00:05:20.730 --> 00:05:24.030 So people have used API to build charts 00:05:24.030 --> 00:05:26.090 that are hip-hop charts, specific charts. 00:05:26.090 --> 00:05:31.440 So I think the API really, really helped them grow their user base. 00:05:31.440 --> 00:05:33.860 And that was a great learning for me. 00:05:33.860 --> 00:05:38.460 In some ways it was you know it was the hard way that 00:05:38.460 --> 00:05:40.810 I was learning, because they were taking off, 00:05:40.810 --> 00:05:44.250 but I mean there was definitely something to learn from them. 00:05:44.250 --> 00:05:46.240 And then I sort of started looking around 00:05:46.240 --> 00:05:48.380 and I realized that API is definitely 00:05:48.380 --> 00:05:49.700 the new business development. 00:05:49.700 --> 00:05:52.330 You know today if you want to grow a product, 00:05:52.330 --> 00:05:54.600 APIs are a great way to do that. 00:05:54.600 --> 00:05:57.480 And it's like, if you look at a lot of other products, 00:05:57.480 --> 00:05:59.530 so GitHub, Twitter, Facebook, Google - 00:05:59.530 --> 00:06:02.280 there are so many examples that wouldn't be the same product 00:06:02.280 --> 00:06:07.060 if they didn't have the API ecosystem. 00:06:07.060 --> 00:06:09.500 And especially most in the last few years, 00:06:09.500 --> 00:06:12.000 a lot of products are actually just APIs. 00:06:12.000 --> 00:06:14.260 A lot of products around are simply APIs. 00:06:14.260 --> 00:06:19.470 So for example, Firebase - I should use a clicker probably, sorry. 00:06:19.470 --> 00:06:22.530 So Firebase is a tool that gives you a back 00:06:22.530 --> 00:06:24.660 and forth mobile of web apps. 00:06:24.660 --> 00:06:27.730 Swifttype for Surge, mailgun for delivering emails. 00:06:27.730 --> 00:06:31.009 Plivo from the streets of Bangalore is computing with 00:06:31.009 --> 00:06:32.400 ?? (00:06:31:06) head on. 00:06:32.400 --> 00:06:34.200 And they both provide APIs for telephoning. 00:06:34.200 --> 00:06:37.490 So there are a lot of products which are simply APIs. 00:06:37.490 --> 00:06:39.630 And I think as developers we are really, 00:06:39.630 --> 00:06:41.630 really well-suited to do these kind of start ups. 00:06:41.630 --> 00:06:43.540 We already understand our target audience. 00:06:43.540 --> 00:06:44.940 We are the target audience. 00:06:44.940 --> 00:06:47.570 We, all of us have been to hack-a-thons, 00:06:47.570 --> 00:06:49.300 we have worked with different APIs, 00:06:49.300 --> 00:06:53.050 we know what it feels like when the documentation is shitty, 00:06:53.050 --> 00:06:54.389 what makes good code examples, 00:06:54.389 --> 00:06:56.660 what kind of libraries do you need to kick start the environment. 00:06:56.660 --> 00:07:00.310 We really understand this stuff really well already, 00:07:00.310 --> 00:07:03.060 and I think if you were to start a company like this, 00:07:03.060 --> 00:07:07.990 you're definitely at an advantage. 00:07:07.990 --> 00:07:10.419 And so you can build a product 00:07:10.419 --> 00:07:11.870 and you know you can get maybe some users 00:07:11.870 --> 00:07:13.740 but what about marketing? 00:07:13.740 --> 00:07:16.300 That's typically the question that I get asked most often from programmers. 00:07:16.300 --> 00:07:18.260 Like how do you market your product? 00:07:18.260 --> 00:07:20.570 How do you get customers? 00:07:20.570 --> 00:07:23.419 And there are several ways to market a product. 00:07:23.419 --> 00:07:24.790 Most of them don't work. 00:07:24.790 --> 00:07:27.220 And are frustrating actually to execute on. 00:07:27.220 --> 00:07:28.770 And what I - personally at least for us 00:07:28.770 --> 00:07:31.800 and our company I've realized that writing 00:07:31.800 --> 00:07:35.340 has turned out to be the best form of marketing actually. 00:07:35.340 --> 00:07:39.639 And what I mean by that is if you look at developer docs 00:07:39.639 --> 00:07:42.699 or marketing copy site or newsletters, 00:07:42.699 --> 00:07:44.990 or even delegating great customer support, 00:07:44.990 --> 00:07:47.710 it all boils down to being good at writing. 00:07:47.710 --> 00:07:51.230 And, I mean that's just how it is. 00:07:51.230 --> 00:07:53.790 For example, this is Mailgun's documentation. 00:07:53.790 --> 00:07:57.210 If you go through it, it talks about setting up SPF records, 00:07:57.210 --> 00:07:58.770 you know how to get to deployability, 00:07:58.770 --> 00:08:01.290 why do you need dedicated IPs, 00:08:01.290 --> 00:08:03.240 it's stuff that all of us already understand and can write. 00:08:03.240 --> 00:08:08.370 We just need to be really good at communicating this to our customers. 00:08:08.370 --> 00:08:09.540 So we already understand this stuff. 00:08:09.540 --> 00:08:10.600 We just need to get better 00:08:10.600 --> 00:08:14.190 at being able to communicate it in writing. 00:08:14.190 --> 00:08:18.199 The same way if you look at Firebase's landing page, 00:08:18.199 --> 00:08:19.740 any of us could sit down and write this 00:08:19.740 --> 00:08:22.010 and we could build this and we could write this 00:08:22.010 --> 00:08:26.410 and you just need to be good at writing again. 00:08:26.410 --> 00:08:28.560 So fortunately there is good news, right. 00:08:28.560 --> 00:08:30.590 I mean it's, as developers, 00:08:30.590 --> 00:08:34.620 I think it's very easy to improve at writing. 00:08:34.620 --> 00:08:38.519 And I'm just going to show you a few examples of how to do that. 00:08:38.519 --> 00:08:41.570 So GitHub. I think one of the coolest things 00:08:41.570 --> 00:08:44.339 that GitHub does is that every time you create a new depository, 00:08:44.339 --> 00:08:46.980 it says add a readme file. 00:08:46.980 --> 00:08:50.130 And that's a great starting point to start learning 00:08:50.130 --> 00:08:51.690 how to write or communicate our ideas. 00:08:51.690 --> 00:08:53.720 How many of you guys have opensource projects. 00:08:53.720 --> 00:08:58.079 Even, or just some bit of code online? 00:08:58.079 --> 00:08:59.490 And have you written a readme for it? 00:08:59.490 --> 00:09:04.350 Oh, quite a few of you have, and quite a few have not. Good. 00:09:04.350 --> 00:09:05.889 One hand stood up very long actually. 00:09:05.889 --> 00:09:08.910 So, there you are, yeah. 00:09:08.910 --> 00:09:10.230 So if you haven't, 00:09:10.230 --> 00:09:12.149 just go back and write a readme for that, 00:09:12.149 --> 00:09:13.999 and if you already have, maybe try to improve it. 00:09:13.999 --> 00:09:15.170 Get some, maybe more feedback. 00:09:15.170 --> 00:09:17.499 It's a great starting point to start writing 00:09:17.499 --> 00:09:19.980 and learning how to write. 00:09:19.980 --> 00:09:22.860 The other cool thing, at least in today's world, 00:09:22.860 --> 00:09:26.550 is that product development involves a lot of writing, 00:09:26.550 --> 00:09:28.170 and this obviously depends on company to company 00:09:28.170 --> 00:09:29.709 but you can become a company like this 00:09:29.709 --> 00:09:32.149 so you can choose to work for a company like this. 00:09:32.149 --> 00:09:36.100 So for example, I'll give you an example from SupportBee. 00:09:36.100 --> 00:09:39.769 So most of our feature requests are enhancement requests 00:09:39.769 --> 00:09:41.399 typically originate in our subcode desk ?? (00:09:41:07), 00:09:41.399 --> 00:09:44.040 so some customer, for example in this case somebody emailed saying, 00:09:44.040 --> 00:09:47.619 can we have search word for word trash tickets? 00:09:47.619 --> 00:09:49.339 And my colleague I asked who is here, 00:09:49.339 --> 00:09:51.860 I asked him you know, do we support this? 00:09:51.860 --> 00:09:53.519 So it turns out we support this in the API 00:09:53.519 --> 00:09:56.009 but we don't support it in the front-end. 00:09:56.009 --> 00:09:59.459 And so what we do is we write this ticket into - 00:09:59.459 --> 00:10:00.959 we have a GitHub app - so the code, 00:10:00.959 --> 00:10:02.910 we would write that into GitHub, 00:10:02.910 --> 00:10:05.040 and we create an issue. 00:10:05.040 --> 00:10:06.720 And other than create, 00:10:06.720 --> 00:10:08.110 other than using the issue to actually 00:10:08.110 --> 00:10:10.300 just review code or attach code, 00:10:10.300 --> 00:10:13.920 what we do is we try to flesh out the feature completely in issues. 00:10:13.920 --> 00:10:15.970 So we are encourage, not only encourage, 00:10:15.970 --> 00:10:17.869 sort of we enforce everybody to just discuss 00:10:17.869 --> 00:10:20.470 ompletely in issues. We don't even encourage 00:10:20.470 --> 00:10:24.490 face to face or voice calls early on. 00:10:24.490 --> 00:10:25.639 If you're not able to communicate something 00:10:25.639 --> 00:10:27.839 in issues then you should probably go to a call, 00:10:27.839 --> 00:10:30.579 and then also sum it up and put it back in the issue. 00:10:30.579 --> 00:10:32.509 What this does it just forces you to 00:10:32.509 --> 00:10:34.839 try to explain to your peers what you're trying to do. 00:10:34.839 --> 00:10:36.389 Sometimes in terms of code, 00:10:36.389 --> 00:10:38.240 sometimes in terms of the marketing copy 00:10:38.240 --> 00:10:39.550 that you think should be there, 00:10:39.550 --> 00:10:41.399 or the subject line of the email. 00:10:41.399 --> 00:10:43.619 It forces you to communicate your ideas. 00:10:43.619 --> 00:10:45.779 And acquiring that skill also helps you 00:10:45.779 --> 00:10:47.559 in communicating those ideas to your customer. 00:10:47.559 --> 00:10:49.860 So it's really the same sort of skills. 00:10:49.860 --> 00:10:52.790 And once we know what we want to work on, 00:10:52.790 --> 00:10:54.999 what we do, we obviously attach code 00:10:54.999 --> 00:10:58.899 and then we go through maybe a sprint or two with that code. 00:10:58.899 --> 00:11:00.899 And then finally once we are almost getting done, 00:11:00.899 --> 00:11:05.170 we post screen shots in the same issue of the finished feature. 00:11:05.170 --> 00:11:06.350 And what that does is, it - 00:11:06.350 --> 00:11:08.600 one thing is that it really helps us review faster, 00:11:08.600 --> 00:11:11.470 so we can, you know, know that this feature is done 00:11:11.470 --> 00:11:13.040 and can be deployed. 00:11:13.040 --> 00:11:13.660 But more than that, 00:11:13.660 --> 00:11:16.459 it's also a starting point for writing a blog post about the feature. 00:11:16.459 --> 00:11:19.470 And we have taken the same GitHub issues process 00:11:19.470 --> 00:11:22.319 and turned it into user for our blog as well, 00:11:22.319 --> 00:11:23.970 you know we power our blogs by JQL. 00:11:23.970 --> 00:11:27.699 We create issues for each new feature that we have, 00:11:27.699 --> 00:11:31.189 or if you want to put out a def post about how we did the feature. 00:11:31.189 --> 00:11:35.199 And we use these assets and we write the block post. 00:11:35.199 --> 00:11:36.339 And because we are already comfortable 00:11:36.339 --> 00:11:37.559 with this GitHub issues process, 00:11:37.559 --> 00:11:39.249 very easy to get feedback. 00:11:39.249 --> 00:11:41.300 So just like code we can comment in-line, 00:11:41.300 --> 00:11:43.360 we can help people if they're feeling a writer's block 00:11:43.360 --> 00:11:45.699 or if they want some feedback. 00:11:45.699 --> 00:11:46.829 It's very easy to give out feedback 00:11:46.829 --> 00:11:48.540 and push out this block post. 00:11:48.540 --> 00:11:52.470 So we really tried to make this process work for us, 00:11:52.470 --> 00:11:56.699 and it has ended up, it has ended in a lot of our developers, 00:11:56.699 --> 00:11:59.069 or people who've worked with us getting better at writing, 00:11:59.069 --> 00:12:02.579 and in fact for the first time even realizing that they enjoy writing. 00:12:02.579 --> 00:12:03.740 And it's worked really well for us 00:12:03.740 --> 00:12:08.410 and I encourage you guys to go and try it out. 00:12:08.410 --> 00:12:09.610 Because the cool thing about this process 00:12:09.610 --> 00:12:10.439 if that you can start tomorrow. 00:12:10.439 --> 00:12:12.079 You don't have to wait to start a company 00:12:12.079 --> 00:12:13.029 to become good at writing. 00:12:13.029 --> 00:12:15.259 You know you can do it in your current job. 00:12:15.259 --> 00:12:17.660 So next time you have a feature release post, 00:12:17.660 --> 00:12:20.309 go out and propose to do it yourself. 00:12:20.309 --> 00:12:21.269 Maybe you have a job opening 00:12:21.269 --> 00:12:22.629 and you're putting up a job on Haskee 00:12:22.629 --> 00:12:25.499 (00:12:23:02 ??). You know, tell your founders 00:12:25.499 --> 00:12:28.170 or tell your CEO that you want to write that. 00:12:28.170 --> 00:12:28.779 And just practice. 00:12:28.779 --> 00:12:30.589 So there's so many opportunities around us 00:12:30.589 --> 00:12:35.829 to practice writing in development. 00:12:35.829 --> 00:12:37.879 If you build a company like this, 00:12:37.879 --> 00:12:40.790 one of the other cool things that happens is, 00:12:40.790 --> 00:12:43.059 it's very easy to recruit a developer. 00:12:43.059 --> 00:12:45.179 Because developers love hanging out with other developers, right. 00:12:45.179 --> 00:12:46.129 That's why we are all here today 00:12:46.129 --> 00:12:47.850 and will be here tomorrow. 00:12:47.850 --> 00:12:51.149 And so it is a very natural fit there. 00:12:51.149 --> 00:12:52.879 And I've been talking to a few developers 00:12:52.879 --> 00:12:54.050 in the last couple of months 00:12:54.050 --> 00:12:57.759 and I realize that most developers hate these block, 00:12:57.759 --> 00:13:01.149 you know, job posts written with the words ninja, 00:13:01.149 --> 00:13:05.300 or, like how many of you are ninjas here? No one? 00:13:05.300 --> 00:13:10.600 What about programming rock stars? No one? 00:13:10.600 --> 00:13:13.160 So yeah, I mean, people kind of hate that 00:13:13.160 --> 00:13:16.410 and if you are a company like this that is developer friendly, 00:13:16.410 --> 00:13:17.119 it will show through. 00:13:17.119 --> 00:13:20.559 You won't have to put an effort to look like that. 00:13:20.559 --> 00:13:26.649 And, so it really does help if you hire better people. 00:13:26.649 --> 00:13:28.999 So what I'm saying is that, 00:13:28.999 --> 00:13:32.519 we figured out that in the end it just falls under two things. 00:13:32.519 --> 00:13:34.329 Doing great work on the product, 00:13:34.329 --> 00:13:36.209 on the ecosystem, and then talking about it. 00:13:36.209 --> 00:13:37.730 I think especially in India, 00:13:37.730 --> 00:13:39.649 where we are really good at doing great work, 00:13:39.649 --> 00:13:42.779 I think we are very, incredibly talented set of developers here. 00:13:42.779 --> 00:13:45.850 But we are not so savvy about talking about it, 00:13:45.850 --> 00:13:47.029 and it's not as much of a skill thing 00:13:47.029 --> 00:13:49.369 I think as much as it's a mindset thing. 00:13:49.369 --> 00:13:52.769 So it's about doing great work and talking about it. 00:13:52.769 --> 00:13:54.470 But obviously, I mean, this is not easy. 00:13:54.470 --> 00:13:55.749 You know building a company like this 00:13:55.749 --> 00:13:57.230 is not going to be easy, 00:13:57.230 --> 00:13:58.449 because it's all about good teams. 00:13:58.449 --> 00:14:00.279 It's all about hiring the best people 00:14:00.279 --> 00:14:03.119 that you can and after you hire them, 00:14:03.119 --> 00:14:07.179 spending a lot of time helping them get even better. 00:14:07.179 --> 00:14:10.160 And empowering them, so they can make decisions on your behalf. 00:14:10.160 --> 00:14:11.179 And obviously this is a, 00:14:11.179 --> 00:14:13.329 this is a very hard thing to achieve, 00:14:13.329 --> 00:14:16.100 and it's very easy to get it wrong. 00:14:16.100 --> 00:14:17.329 And you have to just keep trying. 00:14:17.329 --> 00:14:18.799 And it takes a bit longer. 00:14:18.799 --> 00:14:21.809 So if you are definitely trying to flip a start up soon, 00:14:21.809 --> 00:14:25.049 don't try this. Don't do this. It'll take awhile, 00:14:25.049 --> 00:14:27.199 but I think you'll get a much nicer company in the end. 00:14:27.199 --> 00:14:30.230 And one of the side effects of working like this 00:14:30.230 --> 00:14:32.019 or creating a company like this is that 00:14:32.019 --> 00:14:34.489 you can actually work from the beach, 00:14:34.489 --> 00:14:38.249 because now everything happens on the, online. 00:14:38.249 --> 00:14:39.269 Everything happens in tools. 00:14:39.269 --> 00:14:41.360 Everything is written, everything is documented. 00:14:41.360 --> 00:14:42.369 And you become really comfortable. 00:14:42.369 --> 00:14:43.379 It's like testing, right. 00:14:43.379 --> 00:14:45.309 Before we started testing, 00:14:45.309 --> 00:14:49.629 how many of you felt testing is gonna slow you down? 00:14:49.629 --> 00:14:51.790 And how many of you now feel that, 00:14:51.790 --> 00:14:54.480 oh I can't write something serious without tests. 00:14:54.480 --> 00:14:56.679 Yeah, well same number of people. 00:14:56.679 --> 00:14:59.439 Yeah. Good. Yeah, so it's the same thing. 00:14:59.439 --> 00:15:02.160 It feels like writing is gonna slow your product development down. 00:15:02.160 --> 00:15:04.189 It's gonna take, make decisions longer, 00:15:04.189 --> 00:15:07.029 but it actually helps you get way more structure. 00:15:07.029 --> 00:15:12.189 And you'll definitely see that in a few weeks or maybe a few months. 00:15:12.189 --> 00:15:15.579 And - by the way that is a real picture 00:15:15.579 --> 00:15:17.639 of us sitting and working from the beach, 00:15:17.639 --> 00:15:21.259 so. That's one not-stock image. 00:15:21.259 --> 00:15:25.049 And what's incredible to me personally 00:15:25.049 --> 00:15:28.540 is that I was working on Musiboo for about three years, 00:15:28.540 --> 00:15:30.949 about two of those were miserable. 00:15:30.949 --> 00:15:34.480 Right, there was, I was just banging my head against a wall, 00:15:34.480 --> 00:15:35.910 and I could have figured this out 00:15:35.910 --> 00:15:38.299 and I could have changed my direction, 00:15:38.299 --> 00:15:42.019 but I didn't. And I literally felt like I was stuck 00:15:42.019 --> 00:15:43.350 in a Groundhog Day. 00:15:43.350 --> 00:15:46.110 Right, it's very easy to get stuck in a Groundhog day. 00:15:46.110 --> 00:15:47.970 And what you have to do is obviously 00:15:47.970 --> 00:15:50.360 you have to step back, 00:15:50.360 --> 00:15:52.679 and then you have to get a better perspective. 00:15:52.679 --> 00:15:55.009 And I think the thing that prevented me from doing that 00:15:55.009 --> 00:15:58.149 was that I had no semblance of a work-life balance. 00:15:58.149 --> 00:16:00.959 Nothing. I was just working all the time. 00:16:00.959 --> 00:16:03.100 I was under this assumption that if I am failing 00:16:03.100 --> 00:16:05.069 it's only because I'm not working hard enough. 00:16:05.069 --> 00:16:07.660 How many of you believe that actually? 00:16:07.660 --> 00:16:09.459 That if you are not succeeding at something 00:16:09.459 --> 00:16:12.059 then you just got to try harder? Yeah. 00:16:12.059 --> 00:16:13.999 Quite a few people, right. 00:16:13.999 --> 00:16:16.079 And I think this is kind of true 00:16:16.079 --> 00:16:19.499 but I think it's not about the number of hours. 00:16:19.499 --> 00:16:21.129 So definitely having some work-life balance 00:16:21.129 --> 00:16:24.379 is very important in getting this perspective. 00:16:24.379 --> 00:16:26.709 And the other thing I give thought a lot about 00:16:26.709 --> 00:16:30.299 as a company is that there is simply no way we can outwork our competitors. 00:16:30.299 --> 00:16:33.279 So for example our competitors are companies like FreshDesk, 00:16:33.279 --> 00:16:36.579 which have thirty million dollars, two hundred people team. 00:16:36.579 --> 00:16:39.119 Even if like all of us work two days in a day, 00:16:39.119 --> 00:16:40.869 we would still not out-hour them. 00:16:40.869 --> 00:16:42.209 So it's simply not going to work like that 00:16:42.209 --> 00:16:44.290 and technology companies are not built like that. 00:16:44.290 --> 00:16:45.579 They're built one team member 00:16:45.579 --> 00:16:47.709 and one great decision taken at a time. 00:16:47.709 --> 00:16:50.269 And that happens when you have a fresh perspective 00:16:50.269 --> 00:16:52.420 and a clear vision. 00:16:52.420 --> 00:16:56.359 And it's amazing to me that being in the knowledge industry 00:16:56.359 --> 00:17:00.649 or industry driven so much by knowledge and by creative energy, 00:17:00.649 --> 00:17:04.049 how little at least I did, and when I talked to other people, 00:17:04.049 --> 00:17:06.559 people understand about how our brain itself works. 00:17:06.559 --> 00:17:08.089 And that's I think probably where a lot 00:17:08.089 --> 00:17:10.319 of these misconceptions come from. 00:17:10.319 --> 00:17:12.720 So I highly recognize that you guys 00:17:12.720 --> 00:17:14.619 take a look at this book called Your Brain at Work. 00:17:14.619 --> 00:17:18.619 It's a very quick read. It's gonna take you a few hours to read. 00:17:18.619 --> 00:17:22.549 How many of you have read this book? OK, only two people. Cool. 00:17:22.549 --> 00:17:26.679 So. And both of them have (00:17:26:08) ??, so yeah. 00:17:26.679 --> 00:17:28.549 So yeah, please go ahead and read this book. 00:17:28.549 --> 00:17:32.620 What this book shows you is how to get more out of your work life. 00:17:32.620 --> 00:17:36.899 How sometimes just trying harder is not the solution. 00:17:36.899 --> 00:17:38.139 And it's a very enjoyable read 00:17:38.139 --> 00:17:41.779 and it gives you a very nice perspective. 00:17:41.779 --> 00:17:47.679 Apart from this, I've also lately started using RescueTime. 00:17:47.679 --> 00:17:51.080 So I did a quick survey before the RubyConf 00:17:51.080 --> 00:17:53.049 and I asked people how much they worked, 00:17:53.049 --> 00:17:54.470 and so about twenty people I asked, 00:17:54.470 --> 00:17:56.720 actually about twenty people filled out that survey, 00:17:56.720 --> 00:17:57.990 and I think seventy percent of them said 00:17:57.990 --> 00:18:00.330 that they work about sixty hours a week. 00:18:00.330 --> 00:18:03.830 And I encourage everyone to go back 00:18:03.830 --> 00:18:05.139 and set up this application. 00:18:05.139 --> 00:18:06.710 It's free for about a week. 00:18:06.710 --> 00:18:07.940 And you'll be surprised by the results. 00:18:07.940 --> 00:18:11.320 You'll be surprised by how much time you just lose 00:18:11.320 --> 00:18:12.970 in a YouTube video that somebody sent you 00:18:12.970 --> 00:18:14.360 and you had no idea that you opened 00:18:14.360 --> 00:18:16.120 and watched for thirty minutes. 00:18:16.120 --> 00:18:19.889 So your time is definitely finite. 00:18:19.889 --> 00:18:21.480 So there's no denying that. 00:18:21.480 --> 00:18:24.289 But it's amazing that with that finite time 00:18:24.289 --> 00:18:26.610 how much of it we lose without even knowing. 00:18:26.610 --> 00:18:28.740 So try to use this application 00:18:28.740 --> 00:18:30.360 and free up more of your time 00:18:30.360 --> 00:18:32.720 and enjoy your life as well while you're building a start up. 00:18:32.720 --> 00:18:38.929 I think that's really the key. 00:18:38.929 --> 00:18:45.299 So Bangalore. When Prakash invited me to do the keynote, 00:18:45.299 --> 00:18:46.470 he pushed out block which it said 00:18:46.470 --> 00:18:48.389 I'm gonna bring a unique Indian perspective. 00:18:48.389 --> 00:18:51.730 And I wasn't sure what that was gonna be entirely, 00:18:51.730 --> 00:18:53.860 but one thing I do feel very passionate about 00:18:53.860 --> 00:18:55.389 is being in this city actually. 00:18:55.389 --> 00:18:57.840 So in the last couple of years I've traveled a lot. 00:18:57.840 --> 00:18:59.299 I've been to Chile, 00:18:59.299 --> 00:19:00.799 I've spent a lot of time in Vietnam 00:19:00.799 --> 00:19:03.309 and some other southeast Asian countries. 00:19:03.309 --> 00:19:05.250 And I've traveled a lot 00:19:05.250 --> 00:19:07.860 and I really enjoy living in some of these places. 00:19:07.860 --> 00:19:09.090 But I always come back to Bangalore, 00:19:09.090 --> 00:19:12.820 and I really like spending time here simply for one reason. 00:19:12.820 --> 00:19:15.080 I think this place is full of incredible developers. 00:19:15.080 --> 00:19:16.889 It's just so amazing. 00:19:16.889 --> 00:19:21.460 I haven't been to U.S. Yeah, thanks. 00:19:21.460 --> 00:19:23.440 Thank you. 00:19:23.440 --> 00:19:27.049 I haven't been to U.S. 00:19:27.049 --> 00:19:28.370 But I've been to some of the other hubs. 00:19:28.370 --> 00:19:29.539 I've been to Syngapore. 00:19:29.539 --> 00:19:31.769 But seriously the development activity here is just amazing. 00:19:31.769 --> 00:19:35.120 People are so passionate, they really like the code, 00:19:35.120 --> 00:19:37.250 they like trying out new stuff. 00:19:37.250 --> 00:19:40.350 And in general if you see our English ability, 00:19:40.350 --> 00:19:41.029 everything is really good. 00:19:41.029 --> 00:19:43.139 And I really think that we, 00:19:43.139 --> 00:19:44.840 and especially today if you look around you, 00:19:44.840 --> 00:19:46.600 there's enough money, there's enough resources, 00:19:46.600 --> 00:19:47.950 enough accelerators, 00:19:47.950 --> 00:19:49.230 some may even say too many accelerators 00:19:49.230 --> 00:19:54.559 or incubators around us, to help you launch companies. 00:19:54.559 --> 00:19:57.750 And I really hope that in 2014 a lot more 00:19:57.750 --> 00:19:59.110 such companies get launched from Bangalore. 00:19:59.110 --> 00:20:00.600 I'm totally rooting for you guys. 00:20:00.600 --> 00:20:02.019 If I can help you guys in any way, 00:20:02.019 --> 00:20:04.000 or anybody else, I'm totally up for it. 00:20:04.000 --> 00:20:06.049 Let's build more such amazing companies. 00:20:06.049 --> 00:20:13.049 So yeah. Happy New Year, and thank you so much. 00:20:17.350 --> 00:20:19.769 So I wanted to keep the talk a bit short, 00:20:19.769 --> 00:20:21.620 so you can either use the time for Q&A 00:20:21.620 --> 00:20:23.399 or reclaim your fifteen minutes of life 00:20:23.399 --> 00:20:30.309 and go back home early. It's your choice. 00:20:30.309 --> 00:20:34.850 V.O.: Questions, anybody. 00:20:34.850 --> 00:20:38.460 QUESTION: Regarding the writing of, 00:20:38.460 --> 00:20:40.409 I mean encouraging your team to start writing. 00:20:40.409 --> 00:20:42.710 When you started up, how big was your team? 00:20:42.710 --> 00:20:43.480 P.D.: Sorry? 00:20:43.480 --> 00:20:46.090 QUESTION: When you started off with Muziboo, 00:20:46.090 --> 00:20:47.289 how big was your team when you 00:20:47.289 --> 00:20:50.600 started actually writing in the code and solving issues? 00:20:50.600 --> 00:20:52.090 P.D.: No, no, not really. 00:20:52.090 --> 00:20:54.630 So none of this happened in Muziboo actually. 00:20:54.630 --> 00:20:56.380 And that's why I kind of moved away from Muziboo. 00:20:56.380 --> 00:20:59.220 I realized I'd gone too long, far too long, 00:20:59.220 --> 00:21:00.870 to like, totally change 00:21:00.870 --> 00:21:03.679 and the product had taken like a lot of fundamental decisions. 00:21:03.679 --> 00:21:05.190 QUESTION: OK, one more connecting question. 00:21:05.190 --> 00:21:06.409 So when was the point that, 00:21:06.409 --> 00:21:07.880 how many team members were there 00:21:07.880 --> 00:21:09.639 when you actually started encouraging your 00:21:09.639 --> 00:21:11.380 team members to start doing this? 00:21:11.380 --> 00:21:15.970 P.D.: Right. So that's a cool question actually, 00:21:15.970 --> 00:21:16.769 and you have to start doing this 00:21:16.769 --> 00:21:20.049 when you are just one person actually. 00:21:20.049 --> 00:21:23.720 And you have to start from day one. 00:21:23.720 --> 00:21:27.330 So it's funny but even when I started doing SupportBee, 00:21:27.330 --> 00:21:30.370 I would actually, you know I was the sole developer 00:21:30.370 --> 00:21:31.880 but I used pivotal tracker 00:21:31.880 --> 00:21:34.389 and I would try to document everything, 00:21:34.389 --> 00:21:36.710 and not as much but still. 00:21:36.710 --> 00:21:40.139 Because I think that's the biggest challenge 00:21:40.139 --> 00:21:42.259 in setting any kind of culture, 00:21:42.259 --> 00:21:43.950 that you have to start really early on. 00:21:43.950 --> 00:21:44.789 And when you say early, 00:21:44.789 --> 00:21:46.830 you have to basically start with yourself. 00:21:46.830 --> 00:21:47.889 So the best time to start is 00:21:47.889 --> 00:21:49.549 when you're starting the company. 00:21:49.549 --> 00:21:52.210 And some companies have done a good job of explaining this, 00:21:52.210 --> 00:21:54.799 so recently you know we've been reading the walf?? 00:21:54.799 --> 00:21:55.049 (00:21:54:23) handbook. 00:21:55.049 --> 00:21:57.639 I don't know how many of you guys know about it. 00:21:57.639 --> 00:21:58.500 But there's a company called walf, 00:21:58.500 --> 00:22:02.179 which makes a lot of cool games like Counterstrike I believe, right. 00:22:02.179 --> 00:22:05.820 And, sorry, I'm not a gamer, so, yeah. 00:22:05.820 --> 00:22:07.700 And, so Walf has a good handbook, 00:22:07.700 --> 00:22:08.380 and that's what they said. 00:22:08.380 --> 00:22:10.419 To build a company like this, 00:22:10.419 --> 00:22:13.750 you need a very strong commitment from day one. 00:22:13.750 --> 00:22:14.970 And one of the things I didn't mention 00:22:14.970 --> 00:22:17.860 is that one reason we can do this 00:22:17.860 --> 00:22:19.470 in a lot of companies can do this 00:22:19.470 --> 00:22:20.870 and take longer to build better companies 00:22:20.870 --> 00:22:23.539 is the fact that they don't take any investment. 00:22:23.539 --> 00:22:26.039 So you know you might have to worry about that as well, sometimes. 00:22:26.039 --> 00:22:27.429 QUESTION: Hey, um, Prateek. 00:22:27.429 --> 00:22:28.440 Something that always fascinates me 00:22:28.440 --> 00:22:31.090 with entrepreneurs who have started product- 00:22:31.090 --> 00:22:32.929 moved to a different product is, 00:22:32.929 --> 00:22:35.460 at what time did you decide that, OK, 00:22:35.460 --> 00:22:36.460 this product sucks. 00:22:36.460 --> 00:22:37.730 Or it's not gonna work, 00:22:37.730 --> 00:22:38.950 I need to move on. 00:22:38.950 --> 00:22:40.880 When do you take that decision? 00:22:40.880 --> 00:22:41.769 It could be a lot of factors - 00:22:41.769 --> 00:22:42.929 finance, team, motivation. 00:22:42.929 --> 00:22:44.090 P.D.: Right, right. 00:22:44.090 --> 00:22:46.019 QUESTION: What was your move? 00:22:46.019 --> 00:22:49.659 P.D.: Right. So I definitely had a moment 00:22:49.659 --> 00:22:51.779 where I clearly knew I had to move on. 00:22:51.779 --> 00:22:55.350 And so for awhile obviously I thought 00:22:55.350 --> 00:22:56.519 that you know I should keep trying, 00:22:56.519 --> 00:22:57.980 and I talked to a few more entrepreneurs, 00:22:57.980 --> 00:22:59.880 and given. So we had a lot of traction, 00:22:59.880 --> 00:23:02.500 we had about a million visits at one point. 00:23:02.500 --> 00:23:05.110 And we did have a good amount of traction, 00:23:05.110 --> 00:23:07.070 but the thing that frustrated me the most 00:23:07.070 --> 00:23:09.070 was that over the three years that I did Muziboo, 00:23:09.070 --> 00:23:12.649 I learned a lot of new stuff. And not just in terms of programming, 00:23:12.649 --> 00:23:15.919 in terms of how to go about product design and things like that. 00:23:15.919 --> 00:23:17.940 And in the case of Muziboo it had already become 00:23:17.940 --> 00:23:20.710 too big to sort of start over or to completely change, 00:23:20.710 --> 00:23:23.169 especially with, and we didn't have a big team as well, 00:23:23.169 --> 00:23:24.909 so it was just me and my co-founder 00:23:24.909 --> 00:23:27.840 and I was pretty much the only programmer anyway. 00:23:27.840 --> 00:23:31.100 So it just felt like, with the new experiences 00:23:31.100 --> 00:23:32.620 that we had and the new knowledge that we had, 00:23:32.620 --> 00:23:35.460 it just makes more sense to start something fresh. 00:23:35.460 --> 00:23:36.549 Because one of the things that also happens is 00:23:36.549 --> 00:23:38.130 when you are just starting out, sometimes you 00:23:38.130 --> 00:23:41.000 pick an idea that's close to your heart, or looks cool, 00:23:41.000 --> 00:23:43.289 but may not necessarily make business sense. 00:23:43.289 --> 00:23:44.870 So with all those factors put in it 00:23:44.870 --> 00:23:48.259 just felt that it's better to start over again 00:23:48.259 --> 00:23:51.210 in a domain that I can relate to more. 00:23:51.210 --> 00:23:52.409 One of the other problems in Muziboo 00:23:52.409 --> 00:23:54.190 was I'm not a musician myself. 00:23:54.190 --> 00:23:57.620 So after awhile I couldn't relate to their problems actually. 00:23:57.620 --> 00:24:00.399 And it's, in Support it's been incredible 00:24:00.399 --> 00:24:02.429 because we use SupportBee ourselves. 00:24:02.429 --> 00:24:04.000 And I wanted to get into a domain where 00:24:04.000 --> 00:24:08.049 at least I could relate to the target customers a lot more. 00:24:08.049 --> 00:24:09.759 So even though I wasn't from customer support, 00:24:09.759 --> 00:24:11.769 I could relate to business owners and small 00:24:11.769 --> 00:24:13.639 and medium companies, 00:24:13.639 --> 00:24:15.190 and so it made sense to just switch over. 00:24:15.190 --> 00:24:17.490 QUESTION: OK, so your story is very close to, 00:24:17.490 --> 00:24:20.610 you might like this, ??, he's a ??. 00:24:20.610 --> 00:24:21.450 P.D.: OK. 00:24:21.450 --> 00:24:23.440 QUESTION: But he started with his own service company. 00:24:23.440 --> 00:24:25.800 No, he- yeah. First service company, 00:24:25.800 --> 00:24:27.400 and then he expanded his product (00:24:27:19) 00:24:27.400 --> 00:24:31.140 and then he learned this concept of ??, so. ?? 00:24:31.660 --> 00:24:34.060 P.D.: Right. Yeah I think a lot of entrepreneurs do that. 00:24:34.070 --> 00:24:36.789 I think visual website optimizer are another one. 00:24:36.789 --> 00:24:38.950 Paris ?? tried a couple of ideas. 00:24:38.950 --> 00:24:41.289 In fact he had a music service as well. 00:24:41.289 --> 00:24:44.909 I don't remember the name but it was there for awhile. 00:24:44.909 --> 00:24:46.860 And, so I think even India there are a lot of entrepreneurs 00:24:46.860 --> 00:24:47.980 who have done that actually. 00:24:47.980 --> 00:24:52.179 And I think they've had pretty good success that way. 00:24:52.179 --> 00:24:54.820 QUESTION: Do you think it's important 00:24:54.820 --> 00:24:56.759 for someone who wants to start a start up 00:24:56.759 --> 00:24:58.360 to first work in a desk job, you know, 00:24:58.360 --> 00:25:00.379 with an MNC and then start the start up? 00:25:00.379 --> 00:25:03.299 I mean do you need the experience or can you just, 00:25:03.299 --> 00:25:05.669 you know, finish college and then go straight into a start up? 00:25:05.669 --> 00:25:07.779 This is because I'm a college grad, 00:25:07.779 --> 00:25:10.529 almost, so I want to know. 00:25:10.529 --> 00:25:12.409 P.D.: Right, so obviously this answer 00:25:12.409 --> 00:25:15.929 will come with a disclaimer that, yeah, 00:25:15.929 --> 00:25:19.669 you know, there are always exceptions to the rule, 00:25:19.669 --> 00:25:20.639 and so there are, like for example, 00:25:20.639 --> 00:25:21.820 I think Fractor?? is one company 00:25:21.820 --> 00:25:24.190 that came right out of college and did really well in India. 00:25:24.190 --> 00:25:26.250 I don't know if you know about them. 00:25:26.250 --> 00:25:28.169 But typically what I've seen is, 00:25:28.169 --> 00:25:30.649 it does help to have a few years of experience. 00:25:30.649 --> 00:25:33.259 But at least today you don't need to get that experience in an MNC, 00:25:33.259 --> 00:25:33.769 necessarily. 00:25:33.769 --> 00:25:35.559 You can actually get it in a well-run start up. 00:25:35.559 --> 00:25:38.779 A start up with a certain amount of validation. 00:25:38.779 --> 00:25:40.210 So probably you don't want to join a start up 00:25:40.210 --> 00:25:41.340 that has no validation, 00:25:41.340 --> 00:25:43.500 and you're not sure where the start up is headed. 00:25:43.500 --> 00:25:45.159 But as soon as you think there's enough validation 00:25:45.159 --> 00:25:48.240 or you like the product story or you like the founders, 00:25:48.240 --> 00:25:49.580 you can definitely work with start ups. 00:25:49.580 --> 00:25:50.929 And they can teach you a lot more. 00:25:50.929 --> 00:25:53.000 Similarly because in starts ups you work, 00:25:53.000 --> 00:25:54.049 you have to do what work, 00:25:54.049 --> 00:25:56.470 and your work is always going to be used. 00:25:56.470 --> 00:25:58.100 Big companies have the luxury of just sitting 00:25:58.100 --> 00:26:00.220 on your work or just wasting your time. 00:26:00.220 --> 00:26:02.389 But in a start up that luxury isn't there, 00:26:02.389 --> 00:26:06.379 thankfully. So you're always going to gain a lot more exposure. 00:26:06.379 --> 00:26:08.129 So yes, to answer your question, 00:26:08.129 --> 00:26:11.519 I think it's good to get some experience. 00:26:11.519 --> 00:26:13.370 QUESTION: So hi Prateek, 00:26:13.370 --> 00:26:16.049 I'm going to add a comment, 00:26:16.049 --> 00:26:19.269 and then you can probably add more to it. 00:26:19.269 --> 00:26:21.419 To start up, there's no right time. 00:26:21.419 --> 00:26:25.090 But what I believe is the research that goes into starting up. 00:26:25.090 --> 00:26:28.629 So whether you're out of college or you work for MNC, 00:26:28.629 --> 00:26:31.259 whatever that means, but all your work for any company, 00:26:31.259 --> 00:26:34.269 as long as you do good work and you find a problem you can solve, 00:26:34.269 --> 00:26:37.870 and you validate it, by going, asking, talking to people. 00:26:37.870 --> 00:26:39.419 Then you can start up. 00:26:39.419 --> 00:26:41.210 And then the rest of the start up stuff 00:26:41.210 --> 00:26:44.960 like finances and team and stuff comes through. 00:26:44.960 --> 00:26:46.379 So Prateek it'd be pretty interesting 00:26:46.379 --> 00:26:50.710 to see how you started about the idea about SupportBee. 00:26:50.710 --> 00:26:52.990 Why you thought there was a gap. 00:26:52.990 --> 00:26:56.600 When did you realize that this could actually potentially take off? 00:26:56.600 --> 00:26:58.049 And finally, you know, competition. 00:26:58.049 --> 00:27:01.100 P.D.: Right. Can these lights be a little bit dimmer? 00:27:01.100 --> 00:27:06.299 It's, if it's OK. 00:27:06.299 --> 00:27:08.149 So sorry, so your question was when did I, 00:27:08.149 --> 00:27:11.289 when did I start and why did I think it was a good idea? 00:27:11.289 --> 00:27:13.440 QUESTION: So you, there must have been a time 00:27:13.440 --> 00:27:14.759 when you found there's a pain point, 00:27:14.759 --> 00:27:16.330 and was like hey, man, this is a cool idea, 00:27:16.330 --> 00:27:18.000 then you did your research. 00:27:18.000 --> 00:27:19.110 Then you actually said, 00:27:19.110 --> 00:27:23.110 all right I think there is some app to be found. 00:27:23.110 --> 00:27:24.320 And finally competition. 00:27:24.320 --> 00:27:25.529 P.D.: Right, right. 00:27:25.529 --> 00:27:27.419 So when I was coming out of Muziboo- 00:27:27.419 --> 00:27:29.190 actually in some ways that's the other lesson 00:27:29.190 --> 00:27:32.460 I have learned. It's always easy to learn in hindsight, 00:27:32.460 --> 00:27:36.080 right. You can look back and it's much easier to come up with lessons, 00:27:36.080 --> 00:27:39.080 life lessons. So take it with a pinch of salt. 00:27:39.080 --> 00:27:41.590 But one thing I realized was that after Muziboo, 00:27:41.590 --> 00:27:43.559 I was pretty, like, not really desperate, 00:27:43.559 --> 00:27:45.240 but I was like, in a rush. I was like, 00:27:45.240 --> 00:27:47.440 oh my god man, you know, I've been sitting 00:27:47.440 --> 00:27:49.549 for a whole twenty days without doing anything. 00:27:49.549 --> 00:27:52.759 You know, three weeks. And, so I was like, 00:27:52.759 --> 00:27:54.529 actively looking for ideas, and we've had, 00:27:54.529 --> 00:27:58.779 we had this idea about having a customer support tool before. 00:27:58.779 --> 00:28:00.149 Because we tried to find form to use 00:28:00.149 --> 00:28:01.470 where we ended up using something, 00:28:01.470 --> 00:28:03.929 but it wasn't that great. 00:28:03.929 --> 00:28:06.360 So it was around that time that I came up with the idea, 00:28:06.360 --> 00:28:09.669 all right. And so, one of the first things I did was, 00:28:09.669 --> 00:28:11.999 and we had a few other ideas before that, 00:28:11.999 --> 00:28:14.860 so we tried validating those, and those didn't work with customers. 00:28:14.860 --> 00:28:16.259 So we would just put about, 00:28:16.259 --> 00:28:20.200 put up a landing page and then try talking to people. 00:28:20.200 --> 00:28:22.139 And the one of the first things I did about, 00:28:22.139 --> 00:28:24.340 when I came up with the SupportBee idea was, 00:28:24.340 --> 00:28:25.620 I talked to Valerie from Balsamiq. 00:28:25.620 --> 00:28:27.879 So Balsamiq is a very popular company 00:28:27.879 --> 00:28:28.820 I think most of you guys would know. 00:28:28.820 --> 00:28:31.169 And they were very, very well-known for their customer support. 00:28:31.169 --> 00:28:32.519 So I reached out to Valerie 00:28:32.519 --> 00:28:35.169 and she was kind enough to come on a Skype call 00:28:35.169 --> 00:28:37.259 and talk to me about the idea, 00:28:37.259 --> 00:28:39.320 and we did this with a few other companies like BooFoo ?? 00:28:39.320 --> 00:28:42.980 and Discuss, and actually a lot of those interviews are now online, 00:28:42.980 --> 00:28:46.159 on our blog. And we have also written more about this process, 00:28:46.159 --> 00:28:49.029 it's still on our blog if you guys are interested in checking it out. 00:28:49.029 --> 00:28:50.990 And so with, in a month, 00:28:50.990 --> 00:28:53.230 a month and a half even then we thought, 00:28:53.230 --> 00:28:59.570 OK, we could do this. I think what Coby said in the morning that, 00:28:59.570 --> 00:29:00.190 you basically found it at least as hard 00:29:00.190 --> 00:29:00.570 as you thought it was going to be, 00:29:00.570 --> 00:29:00.909 in my case it was definitely true. 00:29:00.909 --> 00:29:02.639 So I thought OK, so I just need to 00:29:02.639 --> 00:29:04.009 pass an email and then I can get started. 00:29:04.009 --> 00:29:07.220 And that's it. Passing the email too me a night, 00:29:07.220 --> 00:29:09.590 and then ?? (00:29:12:21) a little bit later, 00:29:09.590 --> 00:29:12.379 it took us a whole year or something, pretty much. 00:29:12.379 --> 00:29:13.100 And so we started coding, 00:29:13.100 --> 00:29:14.360 but getting the product out it took us 00:29:14.360 --> 00:29:16.600 about a good eight months or something. 00:29:16.600 --> 00:29:21.680 And in private ... ?? (00:29:27) 00:29:28.840 --> 00:29:31.320 V.O.: Anymore questions? All right, 00:29:36.720 --> 00:29:40.259 thank you Prateek. 00:29:40.280 --> 00:29:44.320 P.D.: All right, thank you so much.