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Disrupt a longstanding web service from scratch

A detailed account of a Fastlane process...
G

GuestU67047

Guest
I'll journal throughout the weeks so I can hold myself accountable. At first it will be a ton of course work and practice projects. If I fail or something else occurs then I'll make sure to note that here. This will take awhile.

It will be an uphill battle and I'll be that "one Gunstar against the armada". Even in failure I’ll come out with some valuable skills that I can use in other endeavors.

Main Goal:
From scratch, I'll disrupt an internet business that has long running stranglehold on a segment of web users. The newly created company and web service will be competitive and be one that has potential for massive growth. My competitor is seen as untouchable and omnipotent, but their current execution appears to be sloppy and their policies gutter trash. I'll be addressing a need for a better alternative while showing my product as better value.

Timeframe:
2 years - Complete by Summer 2021

Sub-Goals:
- Learn productivity/workflow tools from online courses
- Learn JavaScript frameworks from online courses
- Learn back-end technologies and databases from online courses
- Develop Alpha version of web service
- Name business and file for trademark etc.
- Learn how to get a business license and start business
- Learn how to use payment processing/billing management service and integrate to my service
- Deploy Beta version of web service
- Market and deploy production version of web service
- Learn how to grow revenue
- Learn how to scale web service as needed
- Buy a small office to work in
- Hire developer support and build a team
- Add new features and options to web service
- Learn how to expand support to other countries
- Reach multi-million in revenue
- Sell Company, mic drop, and post a conclusion thread here (hopefully)


Where I am today at thread creation (2019):
- Advanced knowledge of HTML5 and CSS3 (Can build static pages)
- Beginner knowledge basics of JavaScript
- No algorithm knowledge
- No business skills/experience
- No business license
- $1200 in the bank.
- Rent a small room
- Make only $23 an hour on a contract job that lasts only year
 
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Last edited by a moderator:
G

GuestU67047

Guest
7/9/19

No progress. Couldn't muster the motivation to code after 8 hours of work. Sitting in front of a computer and then coming home and sitting in front of a computer is wearing on me even after exercise today.

It's sad that after 1500+ hours of coding after work (2017, 2018, 2019), I have nothing to show for it really. This also affected my mental state. Will attempt to get this going tomorrow.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Sadik

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Hi @Gamefan

Firstly, excellent target. I wish you all the very best. Hope you stick it out and don't give up. The difference between success and failure is often persistence.

7/9/19

No progress. Couldn't muster the motivation to code after 8 hours of work. Sitting in front of a computer and then coming home and sitting in front of a computer is wearing on me even after exercise today.

It's sad that after 1500+ hours of coding after work (2017, 2018, 2019), I have nothing to show for it really. This also affected my mental state. Will attempt to get this going tomorrow.

I have the same problem. Working on your own project after having worked the entire day can get very difficult. I too am struggling with this. I have made up my mind to now shift my personal project to morning. Wake up two hours earlier and work on my project for two hours so that when I am tired at the end of the day it doesn't affect my own work. I suggest you to consider that.

Again all the best!
 
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Mike S

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We did it, became a total disrupter in web-dev in our region and then went national. It was a long hard slog with no pay in the beginning but 10 years later we're at almost $100K monthly revenue. It can be done. I'd be more than happy to share with you how we did it and share our secrets as we've moved on to bigger and better things. I'm blessed to be where we currently are and one of my core motivations has been to give back to others.

Mike
 

Fly master

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We did it, became a total disrupter in web-dev in our region and then went national. It was a long hard slog with no pay in the beginning but 10 years later we're at almost $100K monthly revenue. It can be done. I'd be more than happy to share with you how we did it and share our secrets as we've moved on to bigger and better things. I'm blessed to be where we currently are and one of my core motivations has been to give back to others.

Mike
Hi Mike
I've had graphic design/web agency for a number of years. My trusted designer and programmer suddenly died from a rare heart condition. I'm not sure I want to hire anyone again and am looking for a better model. I have a good brand but my heart is not in doing the design work anymore, I'd rather consult and give strategy sessions. I'm either going to close it down or find a smarter business model to invest in and build it to sell. Curious to know what you suggest . . .
 

Mike S

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Prudent use of outsource partners may be the way to go. You could literally become a Project Manager and use white label suppliers for the work. We grew our company as a white label provider (we are no longer offering these services as we've taken a different direction with our company) The challenge you'll find is finding quality white label providers at a price point that allows you to be profitable. I'm not a fan of Indian dev companies but have had great success in the Philippines. You may choose to find a reputable contractor there as a first step. Keep me posted and let me know if I can offer any more insights
 
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Fly master

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Thanks for the quick reply. What direction have you taken now? Any suggestions where to start for Phillippines white label?
Also what was your client generation method?
 
G

GuestU67047

Guest
We did it, became a total disrupter in web-dev in our region and then went national. It was a long hard slog with no pay in the beginning but 10 years later we're at almost $100K monthly revenue. It can be done. I'd be more than happy to share with you how we did it and share our secrets as we've moved on to bigger and better things. I'm blessed to be where we currently are and one of my core motivations has been to give back to others.

Mike

Ok, I'll message you.
 

Mike S

Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
User Power
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Jun 25, 2019
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Crestview Hills KY
Thanks for the quick reply. What direction have you taken now? Any suggestions where to start for Phillippines white label?
Also what was your client generation method?
There are numerous employment and service providers in the Philippines (google is your friend) As for client generation, I've developed a 10 step process over the course of several years. It requires a lot of discipline but if followed will garner great results. I'm not on this forum to try to sell anything but I have been doing consulting work for agencies and other SMBs looking to grow in the B2B world.

As for what we are doing now, we are a white label provider of payment gateways and invoicing for one of the largest credit card processors in the US and the world. We have built and own the platforms and receive recurring revenue in the form of basis points of every dollar that is processed through our platforms. My partner is currently in the Philippines opening a new office and hiring 10 more developers for a new project that we've been commissioned with. Exciting stuff for a couple of guys that bootstrapped our way to where we are today.

Hope this helps.
 
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G

GuestU67047

Guest
There are numerous employment and service providers in the Philippines (google is your friend) As for client generation, I've developed a 10 step process over the course of several years. It requires a lot of discipline but if followed will garner great results. I'm not on this forum to try to sell anything but I have been doing consulting work for agencies and other SMBs looking to grow in the B2B world.

As for what we are doing now, we are a white label provider of payment gateways and invoicing for one of the largest credit card processors in the US and the world. We have built and own the platforms and receive recurring revenue in the form of basis points of every dollar that is processed through our platforms. My partner is currently in the Philippines opening a new office and hiring 10 more developers for a new project that we've been commissioned with. Exciting stuff for a couple of guys that bootstrapped our way to where we are today.

Hope this helps.

This appears to be well beyond what I'm trying to accomplish by myself as written in my first post. I may need to kill this altogether then.
 
D

Deleted50669

Guest
I'll journal throughout the weeks so I can hold myself accountable. At first it will be a ton of course work and practice projects. If I fail or something else occurs then I'll make sure to note that here. This will take awhile.

It will be an uphill battle and I'll be that "one Gunstar against the armada". Even in failure I’ll come out with some valuable skills that I can use in other endeavors.

Main Goal:
From scratch, I'll disrupt an internet business that has long running stranglehold on a segment of web users. The newly created company and web service will be competitive and be one that has potential for massive growth. My competitor is seen as untouchable and omnipotent, but their current execution appears to be sloppy and their policies gutter trash. I'll be addressing a need for a better alternative while showing my product as better value.

Timeframe:
2 years - Complete by Summer 2021

Sub-Goals:
- Learn productivity/workflow tools from online courses
- Learn JavaScript frameworks from online courses
- Learn back-end technologies and databases from online courses
- Develop Alpha version of web service
- Name business and file for trademark etc.
- Learn how to get a business license and start business
- Learn how to use payment processing/billing management service and integrate to my service
- Deploy Beta version of web service
- Market and deploy production version of web service
- Learn how to grow revenue
- Learn how to scale web service as needed
- Buy a small office to work in
- Hire developer support and build a team
- Add new features and options to web service
- Learn how to expand support to other countries
- Reach multi-million in revenue
- Sell Company, mic drop, and post a conclusion thread here (hopefully)


Where I am today at thread creation (2019):
- Advanced knowledge of HTML5 and CSS3 (Can build static pages)
- Beginner knowledge basics of JavaScript
- No algorithm knowledge
- No business skills/experience
- No business license
- $1200 in the bank.
- Rent a small room
- Make only $23 an hour on a contract job that lasts only year
You got it man. I did the same thing, and it only took 8 months. If you keep at it you will learn faster than you expect.
 
G

GuestU67047

Guest
You got it man. I did the same thing, and it only took 8 months. If you keep at it you will learn faster than you expect.

Are my steps okay? Dont lie to me please. I'm truly learning from the ground up and want to win for once in my current pathetic life.
 
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rynor

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Mar 15, 2019
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Orlando, FL
Not sure if this helps or not, but try to look at the 1% gain per day mentality. Obviously doesn't have to literally be 1%, but the point is to make small gains per day. That could equate to reading a few pages of a book, doing a lesson or two on an online course. That's what I strive to do each day and it amounts to quite a lot of productivity at the end of the month, and so forth. By doing this, I've read more books in the past couple of years than I have in my entire life combined.

Side note - Codeacademy has some great courses on JavaScript, jQuery, etc. I'm currently taking their JavaScript course and it has helped my understanding tremendously. Udemy also has some good content.

Hope that helps and best of luck to you!
 
G

GuestU67047

Guest
Not sure if this helps or not, but try to look at the 1% gain per day mentality. Obviously doesn't have to literally be 1%, but the point is to make small gains per day. That could equate to reading a few pages of a book, doing a lesson or two on an online course. That's what I strive to do each day and it amounts to quite a lot of productivity at the end of the month, and so forth. By doing this, I've read more books in the past couple of years than I have in my entire life combined.

Side note - Codeacademy has some great courses on JavaScript, jQuery, etc. I'm currently taking their JavaScript course and it has helped my understanding tremendously. Udemy also has some good content.

Hope that helps and best of luck to you!

Yeah, Udemy helped me in the past year for web dev. I'll be diving deeper into JS tonight. Thanks for your tips.
 
D

Deleted50669

Guest
Are my steps okay? Dont lie to me please. I'm truly learning from the ground up and want to win for once in my current pathetic life.
On a high level your steps are fine. My only recommendation would be to really understand what problem you're trying to solve before making any specific technology selections.

For example:

The app I build required a denormalized (NoSQL nested documents) structure for the database. When I began building it, I assumed using the standard SQL database would be fine. This oversight cost me about 1-2 months in lost development time to switch the database out. So the takeaway would be; define your problem well enough so that you know what you will need to store in your database (the data model), before developing and committing to backend technologies.

Your general path is fine, and you will tweak it as you go and learn new options for what you're trying to do. A couple thing to consider early on:

1) Is this app better suited to mobile or desktop? While anyone's vision is to provide both, the reality is one will come before the other (unless you have a team of developers who can work on both concurrently, or your name is Jon Skeet). Make sure you develop to the more important platform first.

2) Do not worry about learning every JavaScript algorithm under the sun - that's what StackOverflow and Google in general are for. However, you do need to know the basics (e.g., filtering, reducing, mapping, looping, array manipulation, string manipulation, etc.). These are the building blocks of any JavaScript algorithm. I recommend the book Eloquent JavaScript (eloquentjavascript.net). I started there, and it was a struggle. But when I got done with it, I had strong JS fundamentals.

3) Seek as much feedback from prospective users as possible, as early as possibles. User needs and wants should directly drive your app's design and functionality. I got bit by this one hard. I did the first round of testing and got a SHITLOAD of feedback from my market, and had to make all kinds of changes - some of them nontrivial. Go into development armed with a rock-solid understanding of what the user needs and how they view the problem.

That's it for now, feel free to message me as you go and I'll try to answer questions.
 
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G

GuestU67047

Guest
On a high level your steps are fine. My only recommendation would be to really understand what problem you're trying to solve before making any specific technology selections.

For example:

The app I build required a denormalized (NoSQL nested documents) structure for the database. When I began building it, I assumed using the standard SQL database would be fine. This oversight cost me about 1-2 months in lost development time to switch the database out. So the takeaway would be; define your problem well enough so that you know what you will need to store in your database (the data model), before developing and committing to backend technologies.

Your general path is fine, and you will tweak it as you go and learn new options for what you're trying to do. A couple thing to consider early on:

1) Is this app better suited to mobile or desktop? While anyone's vision is to provide both, the reality is one will come before the other (unless you have a team of developers who can work on both concurrently, or your name is Jon Skeet). Make sure you develop to the more important platform first.

2) Do not worry about learning every JavaScript algorithm under the sun - that's what StackOverflow and Google in general are for. However, you do need to know the basics (e.g., filtering, reducing, mapping, looping, array manipulation, string manipulation, etc.). These are the building blocks of any JavaScript algorithm. I recommend the book Eloquent JavaScript (eloquentjavascript.net). I started there, and it was a struggle. But when I got done with it, I had strong JS fundamentals.

3) Seek as much feedback from prospective users as possible, as early as possibles. User needs and wants should directly drive your app's design and functionality. I got bit by this one hard. I did the first round of testing and got a SHITLOAD of feedback from my market, and had to make all kinds of changes - some of them nontrivial. Go into development armed with a rock-solid understanding of what the user needs and how they view the problem.

That's it for now, feel free to message me as you go and I'll try to answer questions.

Amazing, useful and actionable post. Pure gold. Thank you.
 
D

Deleted50669

Guest
Amazing, useful and actionable post. Pure gold. Thank you.
Sure thing. And remember, I was sitting almost exactly where you are right now on 10/01/2018. Then I started. It will suck at first, and you will need to deal with it. But it gets easier once you understand the fundamentals.
 
G

GuestU67047

Guest
Log #1 - Finally some motivation
Today's Duration: 1 hour

Overall total since 4/19/2019: 173 hours and 16 mins
Total in 2019: 624 hrs and 56 mins

7/10/2019
Today I learned some new JS features. First off was the ES6 arrow functions which is an easier and more compact way to write a function with less code. Also, I learned about template strings which is a newer way of concatenating strings with variables. Looks very similar to C#, a language I dabbled in years ago.
 
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Last edited by a moderator:
G

GuestU67047

Guest
Log #2
Today's Duration: 1 hour 10 mins
Total in 2019: 626 hrs and 6 mins

7/11/2019
More ES6 JS feature learning.
- Default params: Which allows you to have a parameter in a function set to a default value. This is also handy to avoid errors. If a function is called and you don't have the correct arugments, it will error out.
- Spread Operator: Combine multiple arrays ("flatten out") into a single array
- Rest Operator / Parameter: Allows you to input a variable number of arguments to a function. Like *args in Python.

6 more features until I start learning REACT JS framework.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
G

GuestU67047

Guest
Log #3
Today's Duration: 1 hour 5 mins
Total in 2019: 627 hrs and 11 mins

7/12/2019
I made a little practice test and worked on the new ES6 syntax I learned yesterday. Think of it as a refresher course.

// 26. ES6 Arrow Functions
const sayName = (name) => name;
const userName = "No User Name";
console.log(sayName("Roger"));

// 27. ES6 Template Strings
console.log(`My name is ${userName}`);

// 28. ES6 Spread Operator
var companies = ['McDonalds', 'Burger King', 'InNOut', 'Wendys'];
var users = ['Russell', 'Aaron', 'Tom'];
var newList = [...companies, ...users];
console.log(newList);

// 29. ES6 Rest Operator
let printArray = function(...arr) {
console.log(arr);
}
listOfGames = ['Final Fantasy', 'Call of Duty', 'Warcraft', 'Red Dead Redemption'];
printArray(listOfGames);

// 30. ES6 Classes
class Plane {
constructor(model, make) {
this.model = model;
this.make = make;
}
}
// 31. ES6 Default Params
var multiplyValues = (userValue = 0) => 9 * userValue
console.log(multiplyValues());
 
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Last edited by a moderator:
G

GuestU67047

Guest
Ending this today.

My execution has stopped and I wont be completing this goal. I've been coding 1500+ hours after a long 8 hours at work (before I even knew about this forum) and getting nowhere with my skills. Not going to keep wasting my time after work with such a monumental one man show. I did learn a ton and will use that going forward.

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.”

Currently working on a web business and devoting my time there. It's already running and it needs a bunch of tweaking.

So there it is, I'm doing something different. I need to create value. I need to get out of this 9 to 5 slave suck fest. Tired of being discriminated and used. Freaking tired.
 

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