9 ms·

A startup postmortem with a happy ending

62 points by watson 12y ago

smoyer 12y ago
Post mortem means "after death" ... I see "after money" and "after pivot" but the company and application ultimately survive (with a happy ending). It's a great story and I think there's a lot of value in sharing stories like this, but what should we call them?
- pavlov 12y ago
  "Per vitam"?
  - smoyer 12y ago
    Nice! ... or how about "Novam vitam"?
- Aqueous 12y ago
  Well the first application didn't survive (if I read correctly) - so I guess you could call it a postmortem for the first application.
  - smoyer 12y ago
    True ... but to me it seems like positive stories should have a more positive name.
- fridriksson 12y ago
  Haha.. spot on. We need to coin a new phrase here. Thanks for the kind words on the story.
thomasmeagher 12y ago
Definitely not a post mortem as smoyer mentioned. Huge opportunity with the World Cup, I hope you take advantage of it. Looking forward to seeing some fast, unique insight from Champion that I could not get from my favorite sports outlets.
probablyfiction 12y ago
This is more of an analysis than a postmortem. Great writeup, though.
CookWithMe 12y ago
Great pivot! Wish you the best luck for the World Cup. I'm currently freelancing to get some $$$ in the bank again after using all my savings for our startup. We were planning to escape the German winter and work from SE-Asia and/or India as well. I was seriously considering Thailand and liked the idea of spending time in Chiang Mai a lot... but the recent political turmoil has me worried. From press reports, it's really hard to make out what the impact on daily life is like and whether it's a good idea to go to Thailand at the moment or not. Where are you situated? What's the situation like at the moment? Best of luck anyways!
- watson 12y ago
  Hi, co-founder of Champion here. We're located in Bangkok and I can really recommend it. I've not been to Chiang Mai so I cannot really compare it, though I would guess Bangkok is still more startup friendly. To address the current political issue with the military coup, I have just one thing to say: The media always exaggerates. I've been here through the protests, the curfew and now the coup. And I've never felt threatened or had any issues what so ever. I would invite my own mother here and not be worried. We are currently sitting together with another startup in their offices in the part of Bangkok called Ekkamai. Previously we rented some desks at the co-working space Launchpad, which was also a really great experience and a way to meet a lot of other like-minded people.
  - CookWithMe 12y ago
    Thanks a lot for sharing your experience! Yeah, the media reports... I didn't know what to make of it. They were mentioning the curfew and some arrests of politicians, but not much on how this impacts daily life. From what I've read, Bangkok is definitely more startup friendly, but Chiang Mai is also a very interesting town and has some great options for bouldering and rock climbing :)
  - GFischer 12y ago
    Thanks for sharing and congratulations !! As a Uruguayan soccer fan, I'll have to download it to see what Easter Egg you put in it :P I've seen very similar apps my coworkers use, so it's not exactly virgin territory (they don't have some of your features though). Edit: a classmate of mine is testing his software with the Uruguay team, they have a company that does realtime analytics, AZsportech (http://www.azsportech.com/ http://www.azsportech.com/), formerly Kizanaro.
ggreenbe 12y ago
Not sure if this is a common occurrence but I've noticed that when I search for a common one-word app name, it's really hard to find. I searched for the app, "Champion" and had to follow their iTunes link in order to view the page. Anyway, best of luck with the pivot and I'll probably check your app out in more detail during the World Cup.
- watson 12y ago
  Thanks for your support. I thought I would just share some of our thoughts and experience with the app naming and discoverability problem. An app will rank differently on different keywords in different App Stores. For every keyword you compete with other apps that uses the same keywords. So popular keywords are harder to rank high with than others and "Champion" isn't easy of cause. But we've done a lot of testing on this subject and there are several things you can do. We use a site called Sensor Tower [1] to track keyword rankings between the different App Stores. First thing is of cause to add extra names to your App Store title and hope that people search for "champion live score" or "champion football", which will greatly increase your chances (our full App Store title is "Champion - Football Livescore"). But actually we found that it doesn't take as much as we thought to become #1 on a keyword like Champion. We launched first in the Thai App Store to be able to test a lot of this before the global launch. We've been in the Thai App Store for almost 2 months now and it took us less than 1 month to become the #1 app for the keyword "champion". So it's an achievable goal. [1] https://sensortower.com/ https://sensortower.com/
jpeg_hero 12y ago
Suddenly I want to win an app contest.
- fridriksson 12y ago
  It definitely has its perks..
hga 12y ago
Some serious wisdom here, some learned the hard way, e.g.: "But our biggest self realization was that we were not users of our own product. We didn’t obsess over it and we didn’t love it. We loved the idea of it. That hurt." Worth skimming/reading it all.
robbfitzsimmons 12y ago
This is a really honest, refreshing post to read. So nice to read a "postmortem" that isn't just posturing. I bet a lot of us hit this moment, over and over again: "We didn’t obsess over it and we didn’t love it. We loved the idea of it. That hurt." When you're on the brink, remember why you're doing this at all; to build something that you think is really cool.
twidlit 12y ago
If anyone is looking to do the same. Our office in Davao City, Philippines is open and free. We have Internet, coffee and meetups monthly at least. Meals can cost as low as $2 and lodging as low as $4 / day. Everyone knows English and very westernized compared to other SEA nation. Email eric (at) lifebit.com if you are interested.

62 points by watson 12y ago

Post mortem means "after death" ... I see "after money" and "after pivot" but the company and application ultimately survive (with a happy ending). It's a great story and I think there's a lot of value in sharing stories like this, but what should we call them?

pavlov 12y ago
"Per vitam"?
- smoyer 12y ago
  Nice! ... or how about "Novam vitam"?
Aqueous 12y ago
Well the first application didn't survive (if I read correctly) - so I guess you could call it a postmortem for the first application.
- smoyer 12y ago
  True ... but to me it seems like positive stories should have a more positive name.
fridriksson 12y ago
Haha.. spot on. We need to coin a new phrase here. Thanks for the kind words on the story.

thomasmeagher 12y ago

Definitely not a post mortem as smoyer mentioned. Huge opportunity with the World Cup, I hope you take advantage of it. Looking forward to seeing some fast, unique insight from Champion that I could not get from my favorite sports outlets.

probablyfiction 12y ago

This is more of an analysis than a postmortem. Great writeup, though.

CookWithMe 12y ago

Great pivot! Wish you the best luck for the World Cup. I'm currently freelancing to get some $$$ in the bank again after using all my savings for our startup. We were planning to escape the German winter and work from SE-Asia and/or India as well. I was seriously considering Thailand and liked the idea of spending time in Chiang Mai a lot... but the recent political turmoil has me worried. From press reports, it's really hard to make out what the impact on daily life is like and whether it's a good idea to go to Thailand at the moment or not. Where are you situated? What's the situation like at the moment? Best of luck anyways!

watson 12y ago
Hi, co-founder of Champion here. We're located in Bangkok and I can really recommend it. I've not been to Chiang Mai so I cannot really compare it, though I would guess Bangkok is still more startup friendly. To address the current political issue with the military coup, I have just one thing to say: The media always exaggerates. I've been here through the protests, the curfew and now the coup. And I've never felt threatened or had any issues what so ever. I would invite my own mother here and not be worried. We are currently sitting together with another startup in their offices in the part of Bangkok called Ekkamai. Previously we rented some desks at the co-working space Launchpad, which was also a really great experience and a way to meet a lot of other like-minded people.
- CookWithMe 12y ago
  Thanks a lot for sharing your experience! Yeah, the media reports... I didn't know what to make of it. They were mentioning the curfew and some arrests of politicians, but not much on how this impacts daily life. From what I've read, Bangkok is definitely more startup friendly, but Chiang Mai is also a very interesting town and has some great options for bouldering and rock climbing :)
- GFischer 12y ago
  Thanks for sharing and congratulations !! As a Uruguayan soccer fan, I'll have to download it to see what Easter Egg you put in it :P I've seen very similar apps my coworkers use, so it's not exactly virgin territory (they don't have some of your features though). Edit: a classmate of mine is testing his software with the Uruguay team, they have a company that does realtime analytics, AZsportech (http://www.azsportech.com/ http://www.azsportech.com/), formerly Kizanaro.

ggreenbe 12y ago

Not sure if this is a common occurrence but I've noticed that when I search for a common one-word app name, it's really hard to find. I searched for the app, "Champion" and had to follow their iTunes link in order to view the page. Anyway, best of luck with the pivot and I'll probably check your app out in more detail during the World Cup.

watson 12y ago
Thanks for your support. I thought I would just share some of our thoughts and experience with the app naming and discoverability problem. An app will rank differently on different keywords in different App Stores. For every keyword you compete with other apps that uses the same keywords. So popular keywords are harder to rank high with than others and "Champion" isn't easy of cause. But we've done a lot of testing on this subject and there are several things you can do. We use a site called Sensor Tower [1] to track keyword rankings between the different App Stores. First thing is of cause to add extra names to your App Store title and hope that people search for "champion live score" or "champion football", which will greatly increase your chances (our full App Store title is "Champion - Football Livescore"). But actually we found that it doesn't take as much as we thought to become #1 on a keyword like Champion. We launched first in the Thai App Store to be able to test a lot of this before the global launch. We've been in the Thai App Store for almost 2 months now and it took us less than 1 month to become the #1 app for the keyword "champion". So it's an achievable goal. [1] https://sensortower.com/ https://sensortower.com/

jpeg_hero 12y ago

Suddenly I want to win an app contest.

fridriksson 12y ago
It definitely has its perks..

hga 12y ago

Some serious wisdom here, some learned the hard way, e.g.: "But our biggest self realization was that we were not users of our own product. We didn’t obsess over it and we didn’t love it. We loved the idea of it. That hurt." Worth skimming/reading it all.

robbfitzsimmons 12y ago

This is a really honest, refreshing post to read. So nice to read a "postmortem" that isn't just posturing. I bet a lot of us hit this moment, over and over again: "We didn’t obsess over it and we didn’t love it. We loved the idea of it. That hurt." When you're on the brink, remember why you're doing this at all; to build something that you think is really cool.

twidlit 12y ago

If anyone is looking to do the same. Our office in Davao City, Philippines is open and free. We have Internet, coffee and meetups monthly at least. Meals can cost as low as $2 and lodging as low as $4 / day. Everyone knows English and very westernized compared to other SEA nation. Email eric (at) lifebit.com if you are interested.