One Doctor's Journey

[GIlman]

I would keep on the partner hard, while there is no real value yet in the company. Get him to opt out, it sounds like he is avoidant to begin with.

 

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[Iwokeup]

I would keep on the partner hard, while there is no real value yet in the company. Get him to opt out, it sounds like he is avoidant to begin with.

While I don't at all believe in the DSM dx, the first part is the plan that I came up with today.

 

[throttleforward]

my .02 so far - cut that deadweight partner, and get a small number (3?) of providers to run the software for free during the alpha. Make adjustments, then do a small (10?) beta, charging bare minimum for those guys (lifetime discount/75% off) in exchange for agreeing to a beta and giving honest feedback throughout the process. Adjust again, then use the alpha and beta customers (at this point around 13, enough for social proof) as a marketing and validation platform to grow at full price.

 

[Iwokeup]

my .02 so far - cut that deadweight partner, and get a small number (3?) of providers to run the software for free during the alpha. Make adjustments, then do a small (10?) beta, charging bare minimum for those guys (lifetime discount/75% off) in exchange for agreeing to a beta and giving honest feedback throughout the process. Adjust again, then use the alpha and beta customers (at this point around 13, enough for social proof) as a marketing and validation platform to grow at full price.

Not a bad idea at all for the rollout.

 

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[tafy]

Sounds similar to what i will do, need to get partners to test the product. They get free and lifetime discount.

Good luck to getting rid of partenr, gotta be done!

 

[Iwokeup]

Had a phone meeting with the partner this morning. Laid out my plan, goals, metrics, and expectations. Did it in a "Let's win together!" manner rather than browbeating.

Also let him know that I'll be working ten night shifts in a row but that I still expected to Get Stuff Done despite this.

That seemed to get good buy in from him. Also set twice weekly meetings starting Thursday. We're running full tilt forward. If he can get it together, so much for the better (thanks to @mikekob for the insight). Otherwise, I suspect that he'll just give up.

So this weekend: going forward with a developer, and alpha done in 4 weeks. Keep communicating with our list. Keep hammering away at the big hospital customers, and start blogging and raising our social presence

 

[Iwokeup]

So it's been a very busy week:

[Developers]

My partner has really come through this week and has been really kicking a$$. Our Elance proposals have come up with some real rockstars. We have one leading candidate, another very closely behind him, and a few others who have yet to really show themselves. Our leading candidate did a code analysis, and as we feared, our original dev was a complete moron. His code structure was terrible, there is no clear flow, and in the words of one candidate, "Looks like a plate of spaghetti" One section of code has a cyclomatic complexity of 1200.

It basically looks as if our original dev had absolutely no idea what he was doing. But at least that was a lesson that only cost us about $500!

(Tip for those considering Elance: follow @healthstatus's recommendations on his INSIDERS call. It's pretty damned valuable)

Anyway, we're looking to have the dev chosen by this weekend and move forward.


[Letting our list know we still exist / expanding our visibility]

o Sent out a campaign earlier this week using MailCheat(Chimp) and got decent open rate of 35%.

o Started writing blog posts and putting them up on the site. Going to start posting articles through Linkedin

o Got a great tip to consider using county Medical Societies as a marketing channel to reach our target audience. I think that this is a GREAT idea, but it has to be approached carefully as they are VERY sensitive to being "sold to." Going to market our product as a patient benefit and awesome product to bring the community together.

o Considering SEO to see if I can drive traffic to our website. Going to plow back through the many threads here to see how to best do this. My GOAL is to start driving traffic to our site.

[The Partner]

Pulling his weight again! SO AWESOME to see. Hopefully this is the last time we have to deal with this issue. I'm excited because it means that I can get back to doing what I need to do, which is SALES & MARKETING.

[READING]

"Ready. Fire. Aim" - I'll admit that I've been feeling lost in the wilderness since this little venture started. Many things that I wished that I had known...anyway, I read one of the many book recommendation threads and Kak suggested this one. Holy crap. This should be required reading right after TMF . Anyway, it's been clarifying and I've realized that I need to work much harder on sales, testing channels, offers, etc until I find something that works....

 

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[healthstatus]

Our leading candidate did a code analysis, and as we feared, our original dev was a complete moron. His code structure was terrible, there is no clear flow, and in the words of one candidate, "Looks like a plate of spaghetti"

Very rarely will you ever find one coder complimentary of another. There is always more than one way to get to the end result, and it could have been a shift in specifications that caused the code to get messy. Watch for these people to want to rewrite large sections of code that works, probably not pristine code, but nonetheless it works. Put your foot down that new code will not replace existing code until a few milestones are hit.

 

[GIlman]

Very rarely will you ever find one coder complimentary of another. There is always more than one way to get to the end result, and it could have been a shift in specifications that caused the code to get messy. Watch for these people to want to rewrite large sections of code that works, probably not pristine code, but nonetheless it works. Put your foot down that new code will not replace existing code until a few milestones are hit.

This is very sage advice...Coders are like surgeons, they all think they are better than the next guy..Some honestly are, but a good part of it is just being particular.

First and foremost, does the code work. If it does than for the time being I probably wouldn't touch it, yet...You can always go back later and recode parts to make them better integrate. Recoding, however is a step backwards and you have to have a good reason to do it.

Also, HOPEFULLY, they should be using some MVC or similar type of framework or coding approach, which should make it easier to use whats there now and go clean it up later.

 

[GIlman]

On the other hand if you are changing to a different stack, then the code probably isn't that useful as it will be build around that languages functions. I know we had talked about you thinking of switching to something else such as PHP or RoR. If you are going to do this (and you've only spend $500), I would just cut your losses and start over again. But, I am biased, I really dislike .net.

 

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[GrensonMan]

Have you considered using Java and an MVC like struts? I may be biased as I know Java well but I have always been a fan since it's good at heavy lifting. My recommendation might be late in the game since you have a lot of progress but here are my two cents if you are considering a rework.

Get a good UI library like Kendo or Sencha that has integration with Java (or whatever language you use for the backend). It has built in UI's that will be generated for you, saving time on the front end.


Is it assumed that the application will be used on desktops or have you planned for integration with mobile devices, tablets, etc?

 

[Iwokeup]

Very rarely will you ever find one coder complimentary of another. There is always more than one way to get to the end result, and it could have been a shift in specifications that caused the code to get messy. Watch for these people to want to rewrite large sections of code that works, probably not pristine code, but nonetheless it works. Put your foot down that new code will not replace existing code until a few milestones are hit.

Yeah, I had this same thought and it's a great thought. But game theory suggests that since no one knows what everyone else is doing, best to be professional. And so far multiple proposals have come in and they've all said basically, "WTF was your original dev thinking?"

 

[Iwokeup]

This is very sage advice...Coders are like surgeons, they all think they are better than the next guy..Some honestly are, but a good part of it is just being particular.

First and foremost, does the code work. If it does than for the time being I probably wouldn't touch it, yet...You can always go back later and recode parts to make them better integrate. Recoding, however is a step backwards and you have to have a good reason to do it.

Also, HOPEFULLY, they should be using some MVC or similar type of framework or coding approach, which should make it easier to use whats there now and go clean it up later.

No. The code does NOT work. So it looks like they're going to have to start from scratch.

 

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[Iwokeup]

Is it assumed that the application will be used on desktops or have you planned for integration with mobile devices, tablets, etc?

We're starting with desktops and mobile web for the alpha, and apps later.

 

[tafy]

Great its good to start again, try and use a proper framework like Rails or Python, with maybe Angular frontend.

My advice is to make one application that works for all screen types "responsive"

That's what I would do

 

[Iwokeup]

Okay. Time for an update.


I finally met with the Partner yesterday (first time that we had seen each other since November (!)) to go over various things and for me to assess him and whether this partnership has legs going forward.

Let's just say that I left that meeting with the overwhelming feeling that this isn't going to work out anymore. It was exactly like one of those times when you knew at a gut level that you were going to have to break up with someone. The issues:

* We were ostensibly meeting to choose a developer. But he kept confusing the names of the devs involved and the shops that they represented. We agreed on a shop and I woke up this morning to see that he had emailed one of the worst candidates out there and not the rockstar that we had wanted. And just parsing the conversations that we've been having, I'm not sure at all that he realizes it.

* Also at the meeting, I had asked if he had thought about other product lines, marketing ideas, direction of the company, ANYTHING that said, "I think about this all of the time too (Or at least when we're not meeting)." Crickets.

* He suggested paying $2500 for a "clickable demo" that was basically a power point with premade graphics in order to market test? What??? We already have that.

Bottom line is that the Partner adds NO VALUE to this entity anymore. He probably has given up somewhere mentally but it's clear that this relationship is over. Anyway, I've started the unwinding process this morning via email.

GOOD NEWS: I had what I think is a good idea and talked about it with a forum member here. Would line up with the mHealth field and be a good product. We may have a licensing deal in the works.


Stay tuned

 

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[Iwokeup]

Done. Haggling over the bones right now, but done nonetheless. Not much of a fight from him at all.

 

[GIlman]

Congrats. Baggage will kill a business.

 

[Iwokeup]

So today will determine whether I am able to go forward on this idea, or if I'm going to kill it so that no one can work on it. My soon to be ex-partner is trying to get what basically amounts to a royalty on all profits. Hahaha!!

No.

So this morning my strategy is to offer one of the following:

* Pay him a small flat fee and I get all of the IP

* He pays ME the fee and he can try to make it run (doubt that he has the chops or the ability to do it)
[Bonus: I make a profit on this endeavour!!]

* We bury it and I go on to the next idea.




TBH, I'm really favoring either 1 or 3. I've already got other ideas and as many others and Stephen Key said yesterday, ideas aren't your children.

I have learned a lot from this forum (and Shark Tank, and The Profit, and the numerous books that I've been reading) since joining last May:

* Ideas are worthless. It's the execution that matters.
* Most people aren't willing to execute.
* That until you have SALES then you have no idea if the Market thinks that your product is as rad as you do.
* It's ridiculous to give a six figure (or more) value to a company that has never made a sale! (Thanks, Kevin O'Leary!)
* You shall know a Wantrapreneur by the obsession with setting up a MailBox, a Website, filing DBAs and LLCs, and wondering What Color Ferrari he should purchase?
* That you can die from analysis paralysis
* That all the hot air in the world cannot replace ACTION!

Used ALL of these arguments yesterday and basically won the battle.

Either way, it's done today! Can't wait!!

 

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[Iwokeup]

So.

I let him buy me out. Realized that I did not want to pursue this any further. Getting a cash lump sum, plus the above mentioned royalty. We'll see how he does on his own. But I'm free and I made a profit on my first business venture. And I learned a TON. Very worthwhile lesson.

In talks now with another FL'er and going to market test another product for a different (but related space). Stay tuned for that.

Thanks for all of the help and advice folks. The Fastlane Forum University is pretty rad.

 

[tafy]

I let him buy me out

You are so damm lucky!!

 

[Iwokeup]

You are so damm lucky!!

I don't know if I would call it "lucky." Maybe I sold him on the long term value of the idea...

 

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[tafy]

Lucky to get out, and with cash in your pocket. Good work

 

[Iwokeup]

Lucky to get out, and with cash in your pocket. Good work

Thanks. Yeah. I feel really at peace with it all.

 

[jon.a]

You are so damm lucky!!

That's also used as an inside joke sometimes here

 

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[mikekob]

So what color ferrari are you gonna buy? Ha ha just messin!!!

 

[throttleforward]

Congrats! As they say in flying, any landing you can walk away from is a good landing.

I'd say you more than just walked away from this situation - making any money off of it is better than 80% of most ventures, plus you learned a lot of valuable stuff not just about business and the medical/business niche, but yourself.

 

[Iwokeup]

So what color ferrari are you gonna buy? Ha ha just messin!!!

Hahah. Funny man.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Getting a cash lump sum, plus the above mentioned royalty.

You know this is really something. While your project didn't turn out as you expected, you kinda ended with a Fastlane result... a nice lump sum and a potential for big things later, even residuals. I think that's a win, not to mention everything you learned.

Strong play. Glad to have you here with us as I look forward to hearing about your next run.

 

[Iwokeup]

Congrats! As they say in flying, any landing you can walk away from is a good landing.

I'd say you more than just walked away from this situation - making any money off of it is better than 80% of most ventures, plus you learned a lot of valuable stuff not just about business and the medical/business niche, but yourself.

Glad that you feel that way man.

Yep, it's been a pretty tough, brutal, and rad 9 months. I love this place