Yogev Ben-Tov's Blog

Israeli, Husband and Father, Enjoy entrepreneurship, Founder @ Joyinapp, Founder @ Pixit. These days working on Searchin.

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Here's to new beginnings

(see how you can help me at the bottom of this post)

It's been 1 month and 3 days since I officially closed Joyinapp.

During these few weeks I took my time to relax a bit, spend more time with my wife and son and think about what's next.

It didn't take long until what always happens to me when I have too much time in my hands happened again - I created something new. But this time, I'm doing it differently. Meet Searchin.

Searchin is developing a minimal-involvement-required solution to find and match positions to people based on semantic and quantitative analysis of different data-layers while keeping high privacy standards. Sign-up once and only hear from us when a really great opportunity becomes available and the employer shows initial interest.

So.. what am I doing differently this time? well, a few things:

Coding whatever I can by myself

I always liked to play with front-end and make some cool stuff on my own but the back-end was a grey area I hated. Always called it "the brains in the code" and left it for my partner or paid someone to do it. This time, because I decided on a $0 cost until funding, I had to sit, read a lot online and make lots of trial-and-error loops until something finally started working. I must say I kind of enjoying it now.

Keeping it minimal

It took me 2 weeks to build the foundations of Searchin (mostly because I learned the hard way - see last paragraph) but I only built whatever it is that matters for now, created some nice functionality that can't be achieved this easily elsewhere and explained what it is we are starting to develop.

Keeping it focused

While with Joyinapp I took my initial idea and let it grow too much, this time I'm focused on a basic yet useful and unique functionality that is available in the private beta and defined the full future functionality as a ten points excel sheet. These ten points were curated from a long list I created after talking to recruiters and job seekers (see next paragraph) and then compared to whatever the competition offers today.

Talking to people

Although Searchin is a consumer oriented product, I knew that in order to build it right, I need to look at it from another point of view - the employer's. So I talked to all kinds of recruiters in Israel and abroad. From small placement companies and up to huge international companies with tens of thousands of employees. The recruiters' insights were very helpful and with every conversation / meeting I did, the feeling that they're not happy with the current situation grew stronger. This is a good "go-ahead!" sign for me.

Focused team search is in action

Searchin requires a very specific set of skills to be developed (things like machine learning, natural language processing, algorithms, data mining, data processing, etc.) which means that I'm looking for people who are experienced in that. So I hit Linkedin, Angelist and Facebook on a daily basis and reaching out to whoever I think is suitable. This might take some time but I move forward on my own in the mean time.

Want to help me?

Sign-up to Searchin, get an invite to the private beta I'm opening in the coming days, share your feedback and spread the word to whoever you think that may benefit from using this service.

As always, you're invited to reach out to me on my Linkedin, Facebook or Email.

Until next time,

Yogev.

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I'm closing Joyinapp.

Over the last two years I dedicated myself to building Joyinapp, a way for people with ideas for apps to make them a reality.

I started alone, throwing an ugly MVP into the air to see if there was any interest. There was. People posted app ideas. Some of them were good, some of them weren't, but it showed me that there are many people out there with app ideas but no way to execute them.

After a short while, Gil joined me and over more than twenty months, we've built a fully-functional web platform to be the home for people with app ideas.

Today, I sadly announce I'm closing Joyinapp.

While most of us are hearing about successful startups, I want founders and co-founders of failing startups to know they are not alone and this is why I'm going to share my experience and thoughts as to what didn't work out and what I'm going to change in my next venture.

Joyinapp failed because:

1. No Team

Investors are right when looking for a strong team to work on a startup together. Running a one-man show startup is hard not just because of the highs and lows you experience by yourself but mainly because it's very easy to lose focus while handling too many things at once. Sure, you can prioritize, you can be great at multi-tasking but for the long run, you either slow your own progress or split your attention over too many things.

Don't get me wrong—Gil was awesome and we're good friends but he joined to help with development until we raised funds, not to be a full time co-founder, something we both understand today was a mistake.

Besides Gil, I worked with two other people for a short time but one gave birth and couldn't keep working without a salary and the second did the best she could but it didn't work out.

Finding good co-founders at the bootstrap phase is not easy but it's worth your time and if you see that you still can't find anyone after a while, ask yourself, “Why aren't they joining? Am I working on something that is not interesting enough? Am I working on something that will take too long to build and raise money?”

Not finding a team is a red sign—don't ignore it.

2. Building Too Much

Understanding what the ‘lean startup’ method is, believing in it and practicing it are three different things. I was good at the first two but failed miserably with the third.

So I talked to a lot of users, collected feedback, analyzed onsite behavior and tried to build minimally. But then, when I characterized whatever it is I wanted to build, I went too far and built too wide—added obsolete features, acted upon feedback which came from one or two users sometimes.

So we created a really big, beautiful monster that could do many things and offered a lot of features. What a mistake that was...

First, we wasted a lot of time working on stuff that wasn’t important enough at the stage we were in. Second, it slowed us down with every change we wanted to make because we had to go wide and consider many things that might be affected due to that change.

Build as minimally as you can, never let one or two users dictate a change and always ask yourself the following questions before you act: - Is it necessary? - Will it bring more users? Or, if not - Will it increase retention and usage significantly? Only after you are totally sure, go ahead and do it.

3. Bootstrapping with a family is hard

I read stories about entrepreneurs who are sleeping in their cars, living on coffee and cornflakes and wait tables to keep their startups running. I adore these people and every time I read such things I wish I was a bit younger when I first started, but today I have a wife and a two-year-old toddler who I love and therefore can't live like these guys. 

So I invested quite a lot of money (which, looking back, I realize could have been saved) and have reached a point where I can't invest anymore and need to start wrapping things up.

4. Lack of a clear technological value

When I first started Joyinapp, all I wanted to do was build a B2C product to serve people. I didn't think about the fact that investors want to see a clear technological advantage over the competition nor did I think about raising the entry bar high to make it harder to compete with us.

This was wrong.

It's OK to build simple solutions as long as you have a compelling USP that is not UX related because, most of the time, UX can be copied quite easily.

Most of the investors I met along the way wanted to hear about a technical edge that will make it work, something they can believe in, something that will intrigue them. If you don't have it, they will ask you to simply prove to them you're on to something. How? By getting very high traffic and even higher conversions.

Today, I agree with them without a doubt.

So these are the main reasons why I'm closing Joyinapp. Of course, there were many other things along the way, but if you get the above right, the small things won't matter.

As for me, I'm not going to give-up entrepreneurship because of this failure. I can tell you that I'm moving forward to the next thing with the full intention to improve myself by implementing the lessons I learned over the last two years on my way to creating something great.

You're sincerely invited to reach out to me on my Linkedin, Facebook or Email.

Cheers, Yogev.

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It started with a piece of paper...

It all started with a piece of paper... exactly like the classic stories out there.

As written in my post about the story behind Joyinapp, I came up with the idea of Joyinapp while taking part at an entrepreneurial meet up in the Silicon Valley.

We were 20-30 people listening to an experienced entrepreneur on a sunny Saturday morning. When a few people started asking him about their own startup problems, he said "You're an entrepreneur, aren't you? You'll figure it out."

And that's when I took my notepad and sketched the initial idea of Joyinapp - a place where the AVERAGE Joe can turn his ideas into reality:

As you might see, my initial thoughts were to create a market place that will result web apps in 72 hours.. yep, quite ambitious!

But today, 14 months later, I'm proud to show you what we have created according to that vision:

By now Joyinapp serves users from more than 25 countries, contains hundreds of ideas for apps and thousands of ratings and comments.

To all of you who love what we do, if you have the right skills and spirit - we're looking to expand our team these days - check out opportunities.

Come check us out at https://joyinapp.com

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fixation vs. innovation

Ever thought of what would have happened if Zuckerberg had held a solid opinion saying that connection between people could only exist on a personal basis? Or if he had assumed that people won’t share their personal experiences with others?

No Facebook.

Or what would have happened if Kevin Systorm had held a solid opinion saying that people like the pictures they take as they are and that they will definitely won’t like to share it with others?

No Instagram.

Innovative solutions are created because great people recognize a need before most people even know it exists.

Now, when I look at the apps out there I see 3 categories:

The present (soon to be the past) - Web apps Most of us still use the web from our laptops/computers because it’s more convenient to work on a big screen, it allows us to use more features and mainly - because we’re used to it. I find it hard to believe we'll be using web apps in 10 years from now.

The present - Native mobile apps / Mobile web apps Most of us have smartphones and we all use apps either for fun or to simplify our everyday lives. More and more apps are being uploaded to the different app stores on a daily basis (current numbers are suggesting about 2K apps are uploaded to the different app stores daily - VB). Some of them are great and some of them are not. I see us using mobile apps for as long as phones exist as separate devices.

The future - Wearable apps Take three minutes and enjoy this inspirational video: Infinity AR  As you can see, the future of apps is here. Imagine the possibilities of building apps that will be smarter, more useful, and more personal than ever, with a connected-to-reality user experience.

As devices are changing, I personally think it’s about time to change the fixation we have as for how apps should be born.

Who says it has to be someone who pays someone else to create it? Why can’t we create apps in a way from which two sides can stand to gain?

Of course we can! And this is why Joyinapp was brought to life. In my mind, I see people with ideas collaborating with professional teams for a one joint purpose - make the best app they can out of the idea so all parties will benefit.

Mutual interest. Same high level of motivation. High professional curiosity as for how people will use/see it. Top-notch professionals who complete each other.

This is how I personally see the future of apps creation.

Do you agree? Disagree? Please share your thoughts.

Image courtesy of Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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What if anyone could create an app out of his idea?

Here’s my personal point of view:

Anyone should have the ability to create apps out of his ideas for 2 main reasons:

It will make our life richer and easier as people who use apps.

It will create a new age and a new kind of entrepreneurs.

Imagine yourself that your sister or wife, your friend or his cousin could take their ideas and without any professional skills, create a working app.

(If you’re too curious about how it works, read this post)

What will happen then?

It would have been a chaos of apps. I agree.

Now imagine the same but add a small thing called crowdsourcing filter as follows:

Only ideas that people rate as good enough are moving to the next step.

Only ideas that professionals see potential in, will be created.

Now what will happen?

It’ll become an amazing, open world where normal people who have day jobs and families can do something with their idea without taking risks. 

It’ll become a time where you can answer your friend “I have the perfect solution for you!” the next time he’ll tell you about his great idea over beer.

It’ll become a time where students who are still in college focusing on acquiring their education with hope to get a great job after, will be able to still take their awesome ideas and turn it into reality. Who knows what will come out of it?

What do you think? Should anyone be able to create apps out of his/her ideas? Is it good? Is it bad? Share your thoughts.

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Naivety? I think not.

Build an app without being paid. Would you do that?

I guess not.

But this is exactly what we offer for professionals at Joyinapp.

Some smile and say - "Are you serious?!?" and my answer to them is "just wait and see".

So why do I think how do I  know our model will work

1. People are looking for a way to take part in creating awesome apps.

2. People are looking for continuance passive income.

3. People want to CHOOSE the projects they're working on.

4. People want to keep their stability and financial security but still try out new things.

5. People want to gain experience in working with international teams.

Joyinapp allows professionals from all over the world to enjoy all the above and more, while not getting instantly paid up front but getting a passive, long term revenue share out of their creation's future income.

Now, does this sounds better?

Not yet?

Here's how it works

1. Someone posts and idea for a web/mobile app on Joyinapp and check it out (using tools we provide).

2. Once a decision has been made to develop an app out of the idea, we let the idea owner pick a Product Manager from our pool of professionals.

3. The chosen Product Manager communicates with the idea owner and gets all the details he need.

4. The Product Manager chooses a team for this idea:

Graphic Designer

Programmer

Integrator

5. Once a final team has been approved, the Product Manager starts giving tasks to each member while overseeing the development process.

6. When the app is finished and goes live, the team members are entitled for a revenue share out the app's income over a long time period.

7. While getting their passive income, every team member is encouraged to start working on the next app development.

8. Every professional in Joyinapp is constantly building his/her "Apps Portfolio" that is not used for "show-off" only, but for getting a passive income as silent partners in every app they've helped build. (Check out our short video regarding creating your apps portfolio.)

Now, what do you think? Starting to get the idea?

One more thing and with this I'll close this post

I look at our "Apps Portfolio" as a “Stocks Portfolio” where you have the stocks you believe in, you invested your money in it with hope their worth will increase and you’ll have a nice cut. So “Apps Portfolio”  is quite the same, but instead of investing money in companies you don't know, you’re investing your time and skills in apps you are part of creating.

We aim for every professional to have 10-20-30 apps in his/her portfolio with hope that each of them will bring a monthly income.

So, our model is not naive but innovative. Based on collaboration and new world rules. Where people help each other create beautiful apps that bring joy an easiness to the world.

We invite you to join us either as an Idea Owner or as a Professional.

Cheers.

  P.S.  In case you're worried about marketing the app after it goes live, read how we deal with it on my post "Marketing for the people"

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Marketing for the people

The marketing industry has changed dramatically in the last few years.

Since the social networks came into our lives, brands started connecting with their consumers in a personal, direct way.

We at Joyinapp give a lot of thought to marketing the apps created.

(Reminder - Joyinapp is a collaborative platform allowing people with ideas for web/mobile apps to create them using teams of professionals from around the world)

We are aware of the fact that apps are going live everyday and many of them are buried somewhere in the app-store's grave yard.

So how Joyinapp supports marketing?

After an app goes live, we encourage the idea owner to add 2 more team members to his team - a Marketer and a Content Manager.

The Marketer is responsible to understand the app's target market and come up with a plan of how to reach this target market in the most effective way.

The Content Manager's responsibility is writing posts and articles about the app and its contribution to the world as well as improving the initial app store/Google Play app description.

How much does it cost?

Nothing. At the moment.

We believe that a strong guerrilla marketing is good enough at this stage of the app's life-cycle.

By "guerrilla marketing" we mean that the marketer will:

Create & Operate online entities in social networks.

Locate & Contact relevant bloggers their audience is part of the target market.

Think & Execute useful cooperation with other parties.

Come up with creative ways of increasing the app's spread rate.

The reason we wrote "at the moment" is because we do plan to allow the idea owner to set an amount of money he/she wants to invest in marketing efforts - CPC campaigns, sponsered blog articles, etc.). This will be available in the future.

For sum-up, we want and need every app that is developed in Joyinapp to be a successful app. Why? Simple - this is how we make our money :)

Stay tuned for my next post regarding App Monetization in Joyinapp.

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The story behind Joyinapp

Three months ago, on a sunny Saturday morning, I went on an entrepreneurial meet-up at the Silicon Valley and looked around – a room full of entrepreneurs, self-confidant, with smiles on their faces, busy doing classic networking with people they've just met.

One tells about his great idea for a web app and another tells about how he solved an entire population problem using his mobile app.

We all sat down to listen to an experienced entrepreneur (can’t really remember who it was).

Everybody started typing their tablets with enthusiasm, taking every word they can and trying to think how they can use the lessons on their own idea, asking questions and of course, trying to make the speaker solve them a specific problem they have.

In response, he smiles back and says –

“You’re an entrepreneur aren't you? You’ll figure it out”

At that point I stopped listening, looked outside through the windows and asked myself: What about those who aren’t here? Those who haven’t defined themselves as entrepreneurs yet? Don’t they have good ideas? Can’t they make a change in the world?

I think they do. At the end of the day, every person with an idea is some kind of a potential entrepreneur…

I took a pen and paper (yes, I was almost the only one without a tablet but it turned out it was for the best… I’ll tell you about that in the next post) and wrote the platform which 3 months later, turned into reality.

Meet Joyinapp

Joyinapp is a platform allowing people with web/mobile app ideas, create fully functional products in a short time, low monetary investment and without giving up their day jobs.

Our mission is to take a process which today is available for entrepreneurs only and make it simpler so it will fit to a much greater part of the community.

The process in Joyinapp is simple:

Post your idea in the system and check what people (mainly your target market) think about it

Get some information about your market, who the potential competitors are and what their condition is.

Choose your product manager who will manage the development process for you from an idea to a working product.

Your product manager picks your team of professionals who will create the product

You get a fully functional product and share revenues with your team

Our unique business model is aimed to create profits for the sides involved while keeping high motivation for the development team. We turn professionals from simple freelancers into silent partners on the same idea they develop, and give them a monthly revenue share out of the app’s income.

Have an idea? Start. Check it out and then decide if to develop it or not – no commitments

http://joyinapp.com

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The big search...

So my former post was about the fact that starting from building your startup without a tech guy is possible. Now, after 2 more months of hard work I can say I still stand behind this claim. I learned a lot and made through some tough (for me..) technological challenges on my own.

BUT, now, when I already have the basics and want to take the business to the next level, I decided to search for my team.

I will start by saying something that all of you who were in my shoes already know but feel ashamed to admit - this phase is annoying!!!

Who wants to start "dating" professionals?

I have a beautiful wife I love and she was my last sweet date.. but then I find myself again, seating with someone, telling him/her about myself, about the company, hearing him/her out and decide whether to meet again or not.

Tiring.

But it's also exciting.

I get to meet these great people who are not ashamed to give me a real, honest feedback about my idea, ask the hard questions and cut to the chase. They know that in the "co-founders search" business, wasting time is almost a crime..

So I'm still searching.. I prepared myself it might take a while until I'll find the one I'll feel comfortable with.

My advice for all of you who start looking for a co-founder:

Make sure you are not stuck!

Start it when you still have the option of taking the startup forward on your own. Don't get to a point where you're seating in front of the screen gazing and hope for the one to just pop up.

He/she won't. Not without you working hard spreading the word, initiate new contacts, go to relevant meetups, etc.

You know what to do ;)

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Starting without a tech guy is possible!

Yeah yeah I know all the stories about how you have to find your tech co-founder in order to get things done. I know all of you guys spending months searching for the one. I've been there myself.

But no more.

I've recently started a new venture called PartnerChase.

Funny fact is it started as a co-founders matching website after I couldn't find a tech guy and wanted someone to create a real matching solution, not just a searching/browsing profiles solution.

So I started writing the plan, created some mock-ups, put up some numbers in excel to see the business potential and focused on market research and validation.

While doing all the above, I had to look for my tech co-founder because HEY, you can't start a startup without a tech guy!

After 3 months, things started slowing down...

I finished creating the mock-ups, the plan was written and re-written ~8 times, the excel plan was ready for the following 5 years (and looked great!) and I pivoted some according to the feedbacks and insights I got from people I met.

What's next? I can't find my tech guy... Is that mean I have to stop?

NO! NO! NO!

I took myself to Google and typed: "freelance developers".

I was shaky doing so since I had no money to spend - I was bootstrapped.

I got a bunch of results but the first two were Elance and oDesk - 2 great platforms for connecting us, the simple non-tech's with the smart almighty guys called "tech guys" :)

                                   I published an ad on each of them and gave a maximum fee of 100$.

I got a few responses and after some thought decided to take the cheapest one - hey, I was bootstrapped!!

So I started messaging with this great guy from India and made sure he understands what I need.

2 days later, my "freelance tech guy" sent me the stuff he developed.

I was shocked to see how quickly he did it and besides some minor tweaks and changes - everything was perfect. At least to the level I expected.

So I gave him another mission and this time it was even cheaper.

And so I'm planning to keep on doing until my tech guy will find me.

I read somewhere the following:

"...You don't find a tech co-founder, you earn one."

In case you didn't get me until now, I totally believe in it.

Just to make clear, I don't own any shares either on Elance or oDesk. I just discovered that these platforms enable us, the non-tech's to take our startup forward despite the fact that we haven't found a tech co-founder yet.

Highly recommended.

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How I set up my first SV trip meetings

14 days to go. My first visit to the SV (Silicon Valley).

Why

To meet as many entrepreneurs, angels and students as possible, pitch them PartnerChase and hear their thoughts. I want to understand their approach and needs so I can better implement it in our product down the road.

How

I already set a quite big number of meetings with awesome people, signed-up to 3 meet-ups that are relevant to me and got a ticket to participate in the Lean Startup Machine weekend - a weekend long, quite intensive adventure where I'm going to hook up with some great people, work on an idea and learn a lot about the process of validation and MVP (minimum viable product) creation.

But how did you...?!

Many people ask me, how I managed to persuade so many people to meet without knowing me first?

So the short answer will be - I didn't. I didn't persuade anyone to meet, all I did was to approach them (through Email, FB or Linkedin) and most of them replied with a "yeah sure, let's meet!" response. Of course there were some who didn't reply or politely refused but they were a minority.

There are two advices I can offer:

Maintain your online presence in case they'll check you up - you don't want your last public photo on FB will be of you drunk with a bunch of girls at a party.

Understand who you're approaching - being more or less official is very dependent on how "high up the chain" the person you're approaching is.

Here is an example of what I sent them:

Hi X, 

My name is Yogev, we don't know each other personally, I saw your name at XXX and was impressed by your profile here on Linkedin. 

These days I'm working on a new startup called PartnerChase.  PartnerChase is an online environment offering smart tools for entrepreneurs in their first steps and providing high value due diligence for potential investors.

I’m coming for a first visit in the Silicon Valley at [dates of my stay] in order to meet entrepreneurs, angels, students and so on to hear their thoughts about PartnerChase and better understand their needs and approach. 

Is it possible for us to sit for a quick coffee somewhere during my stay? [a personal sentence that will show you researched about him/her] I’m available for a meeting between the dates – [dates of my stay]

What do you say?  My Linkedin – http://il.linkedin.com/in/ybentov

Thanks!

Yogev Ben-Tov Founder & CEO | PartnerChase [phone number] | Linkedin

So that's the answer of how I "persuaded" people meet me.

I encourage you to reach out to people you think might help you - you'll be surprised to see how many of them are willing to spend an hour with you :)

Cheers!