The 48 Hour Startup
Over the weekend, starting at 8am on Saturday morning and finishing on Monday at 8am, I worked on my 48 Hour Startup. An attempt to build a project from nothing to a ship-able first version. I failed.
What was the idea?
Getting stuck on simple configuration issues, or tweaking small design elements has got me stuck many times in the past. The main factor in setting myself a 48 Hour challenge was to eliminate unnecessary delay, and to work in a forward movement to build something that could be used by the end of 48 Hours.
The 48 Hour Startup had no greater purpose, other than to constrain time, and to force a small project to more forward. It was not for glory, or the chance at a sum of cash, or a shared experience that I could remember for years to come. It was a personal challenge, with a simple goal.
How Did it Begin?
Thursday morning dawned, the sun shone bright into my room, and I couldn’t get back to sleep. Ideas chased around in my mind, thoughts of projects I have built over the years. My many attempts and failures, that have been sitting on the internet for years doing nothing. Some ideas never made it into reality, one of them was a Headless CMS, the term didn’t exist four years ago when I first thought of it.
The project was the perfect candidate rapid development, but I can never stick to that philosophy with my projects. There is always some technology I want to use, or some new method I want to try. While they are great for working in different languages, it leads to project atrophy and my work would never see the light of day. There must be a different approach.
Since Constraints on creative endeavors inspire creativity, the idea of the 48 Hour Startup was born.
48 Hour Startup
Why let a small project take up brain space when it can exist in the real world? Why take time worrying about issues that appear on bigger services, when there is no product existing to have issues? Take small steps, quickly, and build the first version. Iterate, extend, grow and learn. There is no market for a product that doesn’t exist.
There is no market for a product that doesn’t exist.
My 48 Hour Startup was a personal challenge, one I set myself on a Thursday afternoon, thought about on Friday, and started on Saturday. There wasn’t any searching to check that name was being used — looking toward the 24 Hour Comic as inspiration, I created some rules and waited for Saturday morning to come around so I could begin.
After the 48 Hour Startup was completed, a quick internet search showed there are a few startup challenges, with 48 hour time constraints, around the world. New Zealand has the Innes48 and Garage48 is run in Estonia. Finding these before hand could have stopped me from proceeding, competition for an idea usually stops me working on it.
Rules of the Game
As the 24 Hour Comic has rules that artists should abide by, there are rules for the 48 Hour Startup.
1. From the time you commit anything to paper, or text editor, it starts the 48 hours
2. Any breaks are counted as part of the 48 hours
3. Only one person my be involved in the creation of The Idea
4. Any language can be used. Any framework can be chosen.
5. Plans can be thought of before beginning, but nothing on paper — you may buy a domain name if needed.
6. The end product should be functional, and demonstrable on the internet.
MVP
This minimally viable product was never meant to be production ready. It was to prove an idea, and to build a solid base for building upon. To build something I could use, and iterate, while finding what the market would be. It is a floor, not a target. It is an idea, a prototype that will shape itself through time, not a sale-able product in this initial stage.
I Failed
The time was not enough for me to complete a first version. I built the back-end of the system and realized I should have built the public pages first. I worked hard on trying to get it working, and didn’t move fast enough to deliver a working prototype.
What was interesting was what I learned by constraining time with a development project - for that, you’ll have to join me next time.
