The Web Startup Success Guide (Books for Professionals by Professionals)

If there’s a software startup company in your developer heart, this is the book that will make it happen.

The Web Startup Success Guide is your one-stop shop for all of the answers you need today to build a successful web startup in these challenging economic times. It covers everything from making the strategic platform decisions as to what kind of software to build, to understanding and winning the Angel and venture capital funding game, to the modern tools, apps and services that can cut months off development and marketing cycles, to how startups today are using social networks like Twitter and Facebook to create real excitement and connect to real customers.

Bob Walsh, author of the landmark Micro-ISV: From Vision to Reality, digs deep into the definition, financing, community–building, platform options, and productivity challenges of building a successful and profitable web application today.

What you’ll learn

• How to define the value your web app will deliver to its users
• Evangelizing your startup via social media—from Twitter to Facebook, from YouTube to your own social network
• Which web app pricing strategies work, and which don’t
• What alternatives to traditional business structures will let you launch and run your startup without all the legal mumbo–jumbo
• What services and web apps exist today to help your startup succeed
• How to get meaningful online press for your web app

Plus, interviews with David Allen (Getting Things Done), Rafe Needleman (CNET), Marshall Kirkpatrick (ReadWriteWeb), Guy Kawasaki (Garage Technology Ventures), Dharmesh Shah (OnStartups, HubSpot), Joel Spolsky (Fog Creek Software), Eric Sink (SourceGear), Pamela Slim (Escape from Cubicle Nation), and 40 others whose advice can help your startup succeed.

Who this book is for

If you are a software developer (web, desktop, or mobile—it doesn’t matter) who wants to create successful, revenue–producing web businesses, The Web Startup Success Guide is for you. And if you’re just curious about how someone goes about creating an online business from the ground up, this book is an excellent choice.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: What Was Is Not What Is
2. Value Is the Core of Your Startup
3. So Many Platforms, So Many Options
4. Tools and Groups for Startups
5. Money: Raise, Manage, Make
6. Social Media and Your Startup
7. Clarity Matters
8. Getting It Done
9. Six Wise People
10. What's Next?