Startup Diary

Startup Diary: Before Launch, You Only Have One Competitor

Last week, I benchmarked our private beta site vs. our largest competitors.

I suspected we had a minority of the industry-standard features, and I wanted to evaluate and prioritize what remained. Surprisingly, we were closer to 80% than 20%, if I had to quantify it. Clearly our niche is not competing on functionality, as much as optimized advertising buys.

However, before I feel good about our accomplishments, I must acknowledge that every one of these sites has a critical feature we do not: they have all gone live!

Thus, until the day we go live, none of these sites are competitors.

Until the day we go live, the only competitor we have is ourselves.

re-focus, re-energize...

Startup Diary: Before Launch, You Only Have One Competitor (0)
Posted by Sean O'Rourke on April 19, 2008 at 1:38 PM
Archived at Startup Diary

Startup Diary: How Long Does It Take To Start a Comparison Shopping Engine?

Sometimes, I get asked by people who want to get ino comparison shopping, what do you think of shopping mashups, or what do you think of my site, etc. I am hardly an expert, but I have been logging untold hours on a niche comparison engine the past year. So for anyone thinking of starting their own comparison shopping engine, here is an example timeline. Your mileage may vary.

+ + +

pre-startup - ideas

How many failed comparison websites do you see where the point of failure was the initial idea? From what I've seen at this blog. I'd say most of them. We want to get the idea out of the way and start on the fun stuff. It is only natural. But when you think about how much time you'll spend afer commiting to an idea, this part of the process is intense.

So I analyzed what felt like every industry on the Internet. Not all at once, but over time. The details are too boring to include in this post. Summary: I knew I would not be satisfied with incremental improvements, for reasons both creative and practical. If you only add 10% value to an online market, that gap could be gone tomorrow.

I'm not sure when exactly, but after a search that was more "Peter Lynch" than Web 2.0, I settled on a niche market to compare.

May '07 - mockups

With the idea in mind, I created a couple mockups that were — and still are — a departure from what I have seen in the comparison space. Is that a good thing? While going against the grain creates excitement, it also creates plenty of challenges in wrestling with data. So before getting deeper into business considerations, I wanted to see if all the ideas could co-exist on a computer screen. I created a Category page and a Product page, and the results were compelling. To me, anyway.

June to Sept - partner

By now, my ideas were getting more dynamic, but my skills were still static. Luckily, back in 2005, I met Mike, a developer in St. Louis. We kept in touch as he dabbled with APIs and social shopping. The only thing he did not have was a niche. Eventually we met up and decided we could accomplish more together than individually.

October '07 - Basecamp

We got a paid account at Basecamp. I had not used it, but quickly got hooked. Before you know it, there were messages, mockups, spreadsheets, DB schema, etc.

November '07 - database

The first round of data was loaded in the database. Thus begins a long stretch where you spend all your time on input, with little to show for it in the way of output.

December '07 - grinding

I wish I could say building a comparison engine is glamorous. But that would be a big fat lie.

January '07 - the flu

You win some, you lose some. I got sick as a dog in January, and productivity took a big hit.

February '07 - loose ends

We hoped to launch the private beta, but there were too many loose ends. We had to re-think what went into the first release, and what would wait for future releases.

March '07 - private launch

After what felt like an eternity, we launched the beta and started getting feedback. But for all the code lurking beneath the surface, the site still looked very basic.

April '07 - first revision

Spring is in the air and progress continues. With the addition of a couple features, our site went from barebones to ahead-of-the-curve. Not overall, but in ways I feel will be significant. The feeling of turning the corner is a huge morale boost. We are also getting around to little things, like the logo. Finally, a task we can outsource! However, even with the recent progress, I would not be surprised if we are a few months away from going live.

+ + +

I apologize that this is way too high-level and scratching the surface. We will get much more in-depth, soon.

Startup Diary: How Long Does It Take To Start a Comparison Shopping Engine? (0)
Posted by Sean O'Rourke on April 13, 2008 at 10:30 PM
Archived at Startup Diary