Matt Warren

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Category: Entrepreneurship

Founder journey, startup lessons, and business strategy

  • White Shoe Syndrome

    You know what you need to do to launch your business, you have the skills, you have the idea, and yet progress is slow. Maybe you have White Shoe Syndrome.

    The problem with white shoes is that they are always dirty and need to be cleaned. When it is time to sit down at your desk to do some work that pair of white tennis shoes is in the corner of your office just screaming at you to clean them. Even in the dead of winter when you are months away from lacing up those white shoes for some reason now is the right time to clean your shoes.

    Of course it doesn’t have to be white shoes. If you are sitting down to do some work and minutes later you find yourself tidying your office, or mowing the lawn, or re-organizing your stamp collection then you are a victim of white shoes syndrome.

    The tricks to overcome this is:

    • Isolation – close the office door, put on some headphones or anything else you can do to physically isolate yourself from visual noise and disruption
    • Minimize clutter – clear your desk, minimize your office, move files off your desktop, run your software full screen
    • Turn off notifications – turn off auto-email checking, disconnect from chat, turn off calendar alerts
    • Turn off the lights – working in the dark can help you focus on what’s on your computer screen
    • Before or after hours – try working early in the morning, or late in the evening when other people are not around.
    • Go somewhere to work – you won’t be inclined to clean the counters at the coffeeshop

    White Shoes can be a real roadblock to your success.  Try to do what you can to avoid it.

  • Think Weeks

    One of the things Bill Gates did was to take a semi-annual ‘Think Week’ retreat. During this week he would extract himself from all obligations and hole up in a hotel somewhere with a stack of books to read. To Bill Gates these retreats were critical to his ability to stay ahead of big picture trends in industry that might have otherwise surprised Microsoft. Sometimes these retreats resulted in major strategy shifts for the company.

    The rules for these retreats were simple, he was not to be contacted except for emergencies. And presumably he had amassed a reading list recommended to him by his peers over the previous 6 months.

    Bill Gates is not alone in the practice of going into seclusion to fully focus on important things.

    Religious people have been practising seclusion for centuries as a way to deeply explore their beliefs. Many writers are known to use retreats, or hotel rooms as ways remove distraction and get a burst of productivity.

    I know many software developers that find they get a lot done on long flights, and have heard of more than one developer that swears by trans-atlantic cruises as a way to avoid the numerous distractions and become productive.

    Taking time to really think about a problem deeply can often benefit from some isolation. When you are alone in your thoughts and have the time to fully develop your ideas it puts you in a unique position. There are so few people who think deeply on topics. Most decisions are made by impulse and intuition – which often is good enough – but for difficult problems which require new concepts or unique approaches we need to invest a bit more time to read, learn and think.

    As an employee your ability to take these sorts of retreats is severely restricted. Bosses want to have something to show for the money they pay you to sit and think quietly can be a difficult sell.

    This is just one of the things that makes being a contractor/consultant so appealing. When you can make your own decisions about how to spend your time, then it’s possible to invest in taking a week to isolate yourself and regroup, or produce something.

    A think week is also something that is difficult to justify when you’re living paycheck to paycheck. Using up a week of precious vacation days, or taking unpaid leave presents a risk, especially given that when you come back to work you may not have the time to follow through on what you did during your retreat.

    Based on the effectiveness of a think week, as reported by several high profile people, it’s unfortunate that they can be so difficult to execute on yourself. Time is a tight commodity and obligations can be hard to wiggle out of. However if you can manage to schedule one there can be good payback.

  • Strategy Adjustment

    Despite my amazing singing, Birds can fly had a less than stellar first week in the store. Invader Crush essentially saw no downloads.

    It seems that there are just too many games in the store. It’s nearly impossible to get noticed with simple games (outside of pure luck).  I thought that the laughable graphics and sound in Birds Can Fly would be enough to create some word of mouth buzz (at least with my friends it has).  But for a wider audience I need to step up my game.

    So my next attempts at publishing a game will raise the bar.  The things I put out there will be better than the current competition in at least one of these things:

    • unique (no competitor)
    • better graphics
    • better gameplay
    • better social integration
    • better use of mobile

    So no simple clones, or re-skins.  I’m going to go back and attempt to follow through on some of the bigger plans I had to expand on my previous games.  In particular I have some good ideas to take the slot machine game to the next level with some features not yet seen in other games.

    That said, if anyone want to pay me to finish (and brand?) this game called Fantastic Voyage I’m open to offers.

    iOS Simulator Screen shot Apr 5, 2014, 9.30.54 PM

  • Creating More Apps

    One of the goals of Halotis is to create and launch a number of robust webservices for Mobile Apps.  However, before we are ready to launch those to the public for use we want to make sure they work at scale and prove that the ideas are useful.

    To that end we have set an ambitious goal of launching a large number of apps and games over the next few months in order to gain the scale we need to dog food our own services.

    A game we have been working on which will be coming out soon is a match-3 type game called Invader Crush:

     

    Another game which will be released shortly is our hilarious take on the Flappy Bird phenomenon.

     

    With the help of tools like SpriteBuilder we are producing a stream of new games as quickly as possible all of which will be used as a test platform for refining our backend services before they’re ready for public use.

  • Launching Stuff

    A friend an I are on an ambitious schedule to release a lot of new games into the App Store this year.

    Last night I submitted my first game of the year for review to Apple.  It’s the first game I’ve released under the Halotis brand in 7 months.  Invader Crush should be on the App Store in a week or two

    IMG_0548

    The strategy is to follow this launch up quickly with a few more simple games.  The next game is going to be a classic Flappy Bird game with doodle style graphics.  I’m hoping to have it finished and submitted this weekend.

    IMG_0547

     

     

  • Game Designing

    My current side project is a match 3 game like Candy Crush Saga.  They are super addictive games that work great on mobile because they are so nice and casual to play.

    Problem is the competition on these types of games is stiff. Differentiating my game from the crowd is difficult. Originality adds a level of risk, but a complete clone needs to be more refined, and better advertised to stand up against the competition.

    When you start creating games you think about them differently. Originally my game was supposed to be endless – you could match 3 until you ran out of moves to make. What I found was that it dragged the game on and got boring. If you ended your game and had to start over it felt like you didn’t accomplish anything.

    So at the moment I’m working on adding components to the game that up the fun factor. Things that make the game more sessionable with a shorter game loop and better progression feedback.  There are so many psychological triggers in creating a good game.  I think that’s what is the most enjoyable part to work on.

  • Top Grossing Apps Has Stabilized – Keeping you out

    I like to keep an eye on the top grossing apps in the app store.  They are the ones killing it, and rolling in much of the money players spend, they are the games that I look to for ideas to model in my own apps.

    The big games have it mostly figured out, and now, it seems they have cemented their positions at the top. Ever since SuperCell launched Clash of Clans and Hayday roughly 6 months ago the top grossing list has been remarkably stable.  What’s going on here that allows these same games to dominate the store for so long despite the legions of developers worldwide releasing lots of new games?

    I believe that there are several things these top apps do that effectively creates an impenetrable wall that keeps these games at the top and pushes others down.

    First,  all the games at the top are addictive and have game mechanics that continually bring players back to the game.  The resource management games are obvious examples of this, but the hearts in Candy Crush are doing the same thing. Hook a notification to something that will keep a player regularly opening the game multiple times per day is key. The time consuming nature of these games naturally leaves players with less time to look for and try new games and it gives players more time to spend money with the top games.

    Monetization in these apps is perfected.  In order to be on the top grossing you need to out monetize the competition.  Considerable effort has gone into these games to ensure that people are motivated to spend money often.

    These first two things any developer with time can reverse engineer and add to their own games. These are just the first level to getting to the top grossing list – having a game with the ability to make money.

    What keeps the top guys at the top is:

    A critical mass of players that is both hooked to the game, and are referring new players. For new games that don’t have critical mass this is extremely difficult to get.

    Constant paid promotion is also creates a barrier. The top games are tying up a huge percentage of the advertising inventory. Due to their high revenue per user, and reduced acquisition costs that come from free referrals (due to players referring new players, or being visible on the App Store) these games have massive ad budgets that push cost per click higher than most new games can afford spending.

    Create a community around the game. The top games all have attracted a community of loyal players. The community deepens the level of engagement, and reduces costs associated with support. The best players also help direct new features in the game and identify areas for improvement.

    These last 3 points are not possible for a new game to create or afford.  To get to the top then is extremely difficult and requires an unconventional or lateral attack.

    Looking at the most recent addition to the top list gives a hint at how one might crack the top.  Puzzles and Dragons is a hit breakout game that was initially released to just the Japanese market. Starting with a smaller market allowed them to take time to perfect the monetization, test and scale their backend infrastructure, and focus their advertising dollars on market they could afford to buy into.  Restricting the release also had the effect of creating anticipation for the game, that made new releases much more impactful.

    Unfortunately it is no longer possible to launch a new game to the market with a chance of making  money from it without a sophisticated marketing strategy.  For the indie developer, riches on the app store are just an illusion – a dream with not much better odds than winning the lottery.

  • App Kontrol

    My next project has got underway and it will be launching as App Kontrol sometime in the next month.  This app will be a business dashboard that can be used to pull together download and advertising revenue numbers from various mobile services into one place.  With this information gathered we can produce metrics to help mobile business owners determine their profitability.
    There are plenty of other services that track app events, such as flurry and mixpanel but they don’t help with the financial side of running a business. App kontrol will help you determine your ROI and therefore allow you to figure out how much you can spend on advertising.
    It will save you time from having to jump from site to site as and compile spreadsheets for your business

  • Announcing AffiliTunes

    I’m happy to say that the first service under the new Halotis.com is open now for it’s first users. Affilitunes is a simple service to geo-target iTunes affiliate links. You provide your affiliate keys for PHG and Trade Doubler and AffiliTunes will redirect clicks to the correct affiliate program depending on where the click came from.

    It does one thing, and is trivial to use.

    The service is 100% free, and I use it myself so you can count on it sticking around for a long time.

    What you might not know is that iTunes Affiliates are currently run through two different affiliate tracking networks that operate in different global regions. Trade Doubler handles the European iTunes stores and PHG handles most of the rest.  To get the most revenue from your iTunes referrals you need to have your clicks tracked by the appropriate company.

    AffiliTunes redirects your links to the appropriate tracking agency so that you can get the most from your referrals.

    Curious? Sign up and try it out.

  • Minimum Viable Sale (MVS)

    One of the big things about running a business is managing risk.  As an entrepreneur I know that 25% of businesses fail within the first year, 60% have failed by year 4 and 71% have failed or closed by year 10. Given that most businesses are started with the best of intentions and usually with all the time and equity the business owners can provide these failure rates are indicative of the tremendous amount of risk.

    One of the most effective ways to combat the risk and reduce the chance of your own business failing is to seek validation of your business idea early.  Very early.

    Lets say you have a great innovative idea for a business. To start with you’d probably ask around to your friends to see if they think it’s a good idea or not. Chances are your friends, not wanting to hurt your feelings, will agree.  “That’s an amazing idea” they’ll say.  With the positive feedback, you’ll probably feel pretty confident about starting to build your business right away.

    Unfortunately that is a false sense of validation.  Your friends are probably not your target market, they are motivated to maintain friendship rather than stomp on your dreams, and they didn’t have to put money where their mouth was.

    To really get a sense of whether or not your business has legs start with getting some commitments on sales from real customers, if possible negotiate full or partial upfront payment. This happens before you’ve built anything, before a line of code has been written, before prototypes have been developed. Validate that the idea has merit from actual customers and confirm that they’re willing to put real money on the table for your solution.

    Only after having made your sales and having financed the bootstrapping of your business do you actually go ahead and create what you’ve promised. With customers in place you have eliminated one of the biggest and most stressful risks in business  – the struggle to find new customers.  The remaining risk is to actually deliver what you promised below cost.

    Making that initial sale is almost never easy, and getting the marketing message correct from the start is nearly impossible.  Investing the minimum possible money and time into an idea so that you can market test it can be critical.

    So here’s a new acronym for you: MVS (Minimum Viable Sale). MVS refers to the absolute minimum amount of effort and money required to craft a compelling enough marketing message to land your first sale.

    The MVS probably includes a presentation (Keynote/PowerPoint), perhaps a website, it might require a business plan, some mockups or even a faked version of your product. For example: a mobile app could be convincingly created in something like Fluid UI without writing a line of code that could be used as a demo in a sales meeting.

    Even for a free service, the MVS is worth creating.  In some cases the MVS for this could be simply posting on reddit if people would be interested in it, or linking to an opt-in form on a website to build an initial customer list.

    In other cases the Minimum Viable Sale might be a production run of 100,000 widgets in which case something like a kickstarter campaign might be a good option to reach as many people as possible.

    The concept for creating that MVS is to do the absolute minimum amount of work before getting paid to actually work  on your idea. By making that first sale you’ve validated your marketing message, you’ve identified your customer base, and confirmed that your idea meets a need that someone is willing to pay for.

    I’ve worked in places where the business had a good idea, identified an underserved market and put heads down for 4-5 months working on building a product only to find out after the fact that the potential customers were happy with their existing system, or the cost to change their current system was more work than it was worth.  Month’s of wasted effort and tens of thousands of dollars in development costs down the drain. Alternatively they could have started by trying to sell the solution they had in mind with the intent of getting enough cash commitments to pay for the 4-5 months work upfront.  The added benefit of getting customers before development starts is that they can help refine the features required for it to meet the needs of the market. Win-Win.

    Starting a business with an MVS before you develop your MVP (Minimum Viable Product) is a simple way to get off to a lower risk start and help ensure that there is a market for your MVP when it’s finished.