A review of “The Web Startup Success Guide”
This is a review of the book The Web Startup Success Guide by Bob Walsh, who is also the author of Micro-ISV: From Vision to Reality, published previously. Mr. Walsh is also the creator of the The Startup Success Podcast, and a moderator of the notorious The Business of Software (BOS) discussion forum. This book is aimed at developers who intend to create a new product and are ready to do all that is needed for getting to sell the product, so not only development, but also marketing, selling and collecting feedback.
I am writing a review of this book because I believe it fills a need which has been there for a while; I fantasized writing something similar myself, but luckily Mr. Walsh has come out with this, which spares me of the effort, which was unlikely to succeed anyway as writing something of this kind requires a total commitment. Before this book, to collect something similar to the information reported in it, you had to painfully go through the discussions in the BOS discussion forum, find links to other blogs and books from there, parse what was outdated, what is wrong and so on (this is particularly painful also because for unfathomable reasons those discussing the business of software are not provided with the quality of service that developers get with Stackoverflow and all that family – though it is from more or less the same source, and of course we should be grateful anyway for the service as it is all free). But the book is not a mere anthology of old and new information, it gives you a structured path to follow (a guide), divided in 10 chapters. The advice and references is further supplemented by interviews with about 50 guys from startups who have already gone through (sometimes several times) what the reader is about to start; the interviews are a great way to get informally in contact with what happens once you are “out there”.
Roman mask at Teutoburg.
This book is not “invaluable”, but actually concretely valuable for startups, as it can save hours of search and months of wrong paths taken; you will avoid several common blunders right from the start. Something I believe is a key to success is to choose a product idea with which you will find yourself in what may be called a good strategic position – GSP – my company is developing two new online services ideas which we evaluated along these criteria. When you are in the idea selection process (frequently referred to with the not-so-beautiful term “brainstorming”) considerations such as those of chapter 3 (“So many platforms, so many options”) will give you first criteria for selection, which won’t be sufficient, but are a good starting point: on top of that, what real user need your application solves will be crucial. Starting in a GSP will not make success certain, but at least possible. It is particularly important to start by asking you such questions before being fascinated by development in itself, which is a mistake to which we developers are prone. If you start in a bad strategic position, no amount of effort and quality of product is going to take you out of there – you’ll be the Romans in the Teutoburg forest. Solving marketing problems by sheer effort is a bad habit that many developers acquire in custom development, where they are rented by the hour – more hours, more pay. That does not apply neither in product marketing nor in product development. Unfortunately I still see product proposals on BOS which are in a really bad strategic position, like a client app for URL collecting (!), the painful proposal of a “new” Twitter client, and similar ideas; read this book!
I would like also to point out that much of the advice from the book is good also for the evolution of an existing software house, and for the launch of every single new product, not just for startups. My own software is just an example of the latter. But much is implied about how the software house should be organized for the production and launch to work if you want to follow the book’s implicit philosophy, and its assumption about company “transparency”; you can get further information starting from reading the long early articles of http://www.joelonsoftware.com.
Reviewing a book that gives advices on how to operate in a productive activity could hardly be done without experience in the field; and my review of this book is positive also because many of the findings to which we unfortunately got by trial-and-error are here reported as advices. And proceeding by trial-and-error in such time-consuming activities as software development often is not a viable solution.
Criticisms
The title part “success guide” seems to suggest that closely following the book, success is inevitable, which is false, and actually this is clearly explained in the book; I know that authors sometimes do not have the last word in picking a book’s title, and that marketing considerations get in the way, anyway I would have preferred a more cautious title. Better though unlikely would have been a simple English translation of “Some sparse ideas for web startups valid in 2009-2010″. But as said before, the startup scope too is too restrictive, so a revised title would be “Some sparse ideas for product-launching software houses valid in 2009-2010″. Ok, its horrible 
In this (positive) review the title is further criticized again for being too restrictive, for the “web” word. Ok, maybe, anyway enough bantering on the title.
The part concerning Venture Capitals (VCs) and “angel” founding (chapter 5) is almost useless for European startuppers, as money lending is handed mainly by banks and European Union (EU) programs, and not by private founders; also American VCs are interested only in European software houses that already sell at least one million dollar/year (I know that for direct experience, as when my software house won a Jolt award we started to receive calls from American VCs), and so may be out of the scope of the readers of this book. So my personal advice to Europeans startups is for example to check your local universities engineering departments for joint applications to EU founding, instead of running after American VCs.
The worst sin I can find in the book is reprinting the word “dollarize”, which may be the ugliest expression ever selected in the (countably) infinite spectrum of possible English words.
Counter-criticism
I’ve read in other reviews that a weak point of the book is the lack of a “chapter about marketing”; this makes me wonder whether the other reviewers have read the book cover to cover, because one of the main points of the book (and one I found most interesting) is that traditional marketing is getting replaced by activity on social media: chapter 6, page 211: “social media replaces traditional advertising”. And the most interesting chapter 6 details the point further, just read it (I read it twice to be sure I got the points). Of course one may disagree, believe that it is a wrong idea, but an idea of marketing is indeed in the book, and quite articulate.
Mr. Walsh implicitly takes the position that effective marketing of software product and services is one that should appeal to a conscious, reflecting and informed user, quite differently from the unreflected stimuli on which traditional marketing relies. This thesis can hardly be held in general, in particular if one is considering business-to-consumer low cost products; but for other categories, direct and selective access to information from users has increased in time. I know that even one of the comparatively slowly evolving industry, the automotive one, is paying a lot of attention to what bloggers and other social agitators say about new car models released, so maybe its time that you too pay attention to them.
Then chapter 7 gives detailed criteria for the composition of a unique selling proposition (USP), which I believe can be useful even at the very beginning of your start-up. Try this: when you are “brainstorming” on a candidate product idea, try putting together a USP for it. Is this feasible? If not, this may show you that what you are considering maybe is not such a good idea: probably you are not solving some really felt need of the users.
Getting Things Done
Chapter 7 is about personal productivity: personally I’m a bit allergic to this topic, as it evokes images of “self-punishing solipsistic puritan bigotism”; but actually in the book it is not at all treated in this perspective. If one bears in mind that spending too much time and concentration on priority lists and things of the sort can actually damage your meeting the main problems of your startup, the advice given in this book can reduce time wasted. If you simply get to concentrate your “social marketing” activity in definite periods in the day, instead of getting and searching continuous distractions, you’ll surely get more and better work done (I’m actually doing that for my “social” online activity). Still in my experience the key for getting things done is not as much lowering distractions, but is not working alone: write your code in pairs, discuss your specifics in general meetings, select your USP and brand images by showing them to as many people as possible, test your application with as many people you can (also with low cost testing like http://www.usertesting.com), and so on. Anyone’s energy levels change in time: the day you are feeling tired by coding, you can be a good pair partner; and you’ll probably need more energy than you can imagine you have to get your startup to succeed. Not to speak of the countable but non computable number of advantages that a mixed-gender and mixed-skill pair and group of developers / designers has by default. You can’t do it alone!
Other reviews
http://bzkicks.posterous.com/the-web-startup-success-guide-review-0
http://blog.businessofsoftware.org/2009/08/the-web-startup-success-guide—a-book-review.html
http://www.amazon.com/Web-Startup-Success-Guide/dp/1430219858
Final considerations
Putting together what written above, I strongly suggest any startup and company that wants to launch new software products and services to get this book and then read it twice 
We are applying many of the ideas from the book for both an established product (Teamwork) and for developing and launching our two new online services. I’ll post here updates on our progress.
An “office exchange” opportunity in Florence – Italy
Open Lab's office
Many people use “home exchange” services, such as HomeExchange or HomeForExchange, in order to travel abroad comfortably and somehow “introduced” in the local community. Many of Open Lab have decided to generalize this to an “office exchange” initiative: we are willing to coordinate a temporary exchange of several apartments and part of a working place in Florence, Italy, with a modality similar to that of home exchanges. You will get houses with WI-FI, cars, bicycles, computers, usually also filled with books, some in Florence center town, others in the suburbs.
Our software house is presented here:
Three of the available houses:
http://pupunzi.wordpress.com/where-i-live/
http://homeexchange.com/show.php?id=111560
In total currently there are 8 apartments available of various sizes.
For the office part, here are some pictures:
http://jblooming.blogspot.com/search/label/office%20space%20pictures
We would extend insurance to cover your stay there, and we expect the same from your company.
The period would be in 2010, when is to be determined (not the first half of June), and the length – we were thinking from one to two months. For the location we are open to offers, would prefer to exchange in an English speaking country, but it is not necessary.
We will supply all the details to candidates – just write to ppolsinelli at gmail dot com.
Zeppelins (English version)
This is a short story for which I got the idea seeing the Loris Cecchini work which is in the picture below. For me it is clear that the opera is a sort of challenge for the observer; my answer follows. This short story was first published in Italian here, thanks to Alex Gillan for the translation.
Work by Loris Cecchini - Monologue Patterns (illegal), 2003 Giulio di Gropello Collection. Picture by Carlo Fei, Firenze
The stretch of road was a bridge amongst the rocks that tumbled down to the sea. On the crown of the road, the Citroën DS pointing the wrong way, and an open trapdoor in the tarmac.
The commissioner had arrived alone. He brought the motorbike to a standstill before the bridge, and concealed it amongst the rocks. Keeping his gloves on, circled the vehicle, inside the DS there were no keys. The car was in the middle of the road, he pushed it to one side of the bridge in neutral, sweating. Night-time, the sea could be heard panting.
The report had reached him that morning from the services, “from the honourable correspondent”, anonymous. By now he was a police commissioner, but was still registered as a passive agent. First a parachutist, Algeria, now the police. Never overly convinced, a mediocre professional. Only secondary information or suspicions passed through his hands.
He had to enter, and close the trapdoor; he thrust the torch inside, armed with a pistol. An iron ladder descends, down a few rungs, close the trapdoor behind you, go down as far as a platform, open, with a low parapet. It was the upper part of an inhabitable structure hanging below the bridge.
He looked at the sea; then leaned over the parapet to see underneath, the walls of the three cylindrical rooms hanging there seemed to be of glass, a feeble glow coming from inside. He drew closer to the entrance below, a perfume, new. Need to go down. Yet more metallic stairs, panting at every step, inside the first zeppelin. A table, with labelled glass containers, some small bottles, pipette stands, the rest of the space occupied by glistening green plants in a transparent vase. Nobody.
He could see through semi-opacity the contents of the second and third habitable cylinders, these two also occupied by plants. Proceed inside the second room.
Here, a body on the ground. He noticed it all of a sudden, from the hair sticking out from behind a plant, it was the last thing he’d expected; he hunkered down, it would have been easy to hit him from outside; gripped the pistol. Rose to his feet, they could already have shot him as many times as they wanted; by now, he was back to being an amateur. This wasn’t some silly affair, it had come to his notice by an error of judgement, some mistake…
Moved round the body, which was a copse: they’d shot him, little blood around. He’d been turned onto his back, pockets already emptied by others; one arm between two vases. Paused: he was there for the services, not as a policeman; so whatever had happened was unimportant, nor did it matter exactly who had killed him. What was important was to discover what they were looking for.
To and fro amongst the plants, without the foggiest; outside only the wind. The signal from the honourable correspondent didn’t indicate what to look for.
Where was the treasure? There had to be a treasure. Josef’s service didn’t kill in France, they must have missed something, and had wound up the game using extreme measures. A game played so badly, just had to have a treasure.
What was the bottom line. He passed amongst the plants; the soil perhaps? The plant pots, in thin plastic, transparent. As soft as rubber. That maybe? Goodness knows.
On one of the equipment-strewn tables was a magazine, an Humanité from some months earlier. The rule was to always leave the surroundings as if he’d never been there; he opened the magazine out on the floor, took the base of the first plant, laid it in the centre, extracted it gently from the pot. Crumbled the earth, isolating the roots. In this one, nothing; he was going to have to pull them all out.
Manoeuvring the plant to put it back in the pot, the leaves; it was a plant with roots, a stalk, normal, alive, he didn’t know its name. Yet the leaves had a peculiar consistency. Shiny and thick like those of a cheese plant, but the texture pliable; he tried denting the surface with his nails, couldn’t, it wouldn’t tear. He tried tearing the side of the leaf, managed; now the perfume which already filled the cylinder could be smelt more intensely from the leaf. Intense. A little giddy, the plants and the corpse, wheezing.
He looked for a way out leading to the sea, underneath, he didn’t want to come out onto the road again, to avoid reopening the trapdoor. The third room had a lower opening, without any stairs apparent, giving onto some metres of emptiness down to the rocks underneath. He unblocked it, there was a rope ladder tied below, loosened it, climbed down to the rocks. Tripped over a gas mask. Left it there. Walked to the sea, sitting down on a rock bordering the restless waters. A sudden sleepiness, not even the chilly sea air rousing him, the circumference of his head felt soft, ready for rest. Lay down on his side, to sleep.
Dream: struggling, slithering, he had gone back into one of the zeppelins, which was however made entirely from a rubbery/plastic material, white, like latex. The plants had been absorbed by the walls, swathed in the latex, the tips of the leaves were jutting out, then nothing. His body too began to be absorbed by the walls, he began to sink; by degrees his feet became immersed, his legs, torso, only the head remained; there he began to flounder, he couldn’t breathe. Stretching himself, he managed to return to the surface, but even so, more slowly, he was sinking… .
By sheer dint of will he woke up, whimpering, shaken by the nightmare. He rose to a sitting position, tailor-fashion, slowing his gasping. He turned, the glow from the zeppelins was still there. He felt cold, difficulty standing up. Not normal; he crouched, the plants. The plants, it had to be those plants, the consistency, the perfume. The gas mask. Must have been dazed before. He returned beneath the trapdoor, a deep breath, more than once. He climbed back up, entered the third room.
He looked at them, touched them, hurriedly: the plants were living, living with an intermediate life, between vegetal and plastic. That was the treasure, the others hadn’t understood. A different skin; the human one is so inefficient, so much so that the clothing that covers it is an important part of identity, a way to stay alive. A man stripped weakens, he’s ready to lose himself; at the end of the day, he can but cry. Images from Algeria, blurred by time.
Without warning, he was overcome by torpor, found himself on all fours, returned to the third room, collapsing, dragging himself along the floor, pushed his head and shoulders out of the lower exit, taking breaths, better. Again he dropped down the rope ladder, and then taking the long way round the outside, clinging to the rocks, hurting his hands, his legs, returned to the bridge, where he had arrived. Pushed the DS next to the trapdoor, which he reopened. Disconnected the petrol pipe from the engine, began to let it trickle out. Then a ribbon of petrol, moving some metres away. He lit it, the fire took hold slowly, then suddenly blazed, the various kinds of plastic, from the rooms and the vegetal seeds burned swiftly, a lethal smoke. Mounted the motorbike, took off in the glare, chuckling to himself, silently.
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