“How To Start A Kickass Startup In Only 5 Steps” slide deck cuts through the rubbish, breaks down confusion and gets straight to the important areas of focus when building a great startup.

Transcript: How To Start A Kickass Startup In Only 5 Steps

1. Write down 30 things that annoy the shit out of you.
2. Find a way to solve any of those problems with tech.
3. Tell anyone the problem and your solution, then listen.
4. Build it or rinse & repeat, depending on feedback.
5. BONUS ROUND: If people give you money to build it, you win.


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Hello,

Today we bring you some unfortunate news and our last email.

We have decided to close down Barkles on the 1st of June.

To some, this may come as a shock, and for that we apologise.

For over 6 months Jay and I (Diesel) have been working behind the scenes on Barkles to build it to where it is. We have gone through many ups and downs and have learnt a huge amount about the way startups operate. In all honesty, there are a few main reasons that we would like to share with you as to why we are shutting up shop. Hopefully, others can learn from our mistakes.

1. What’s The Problem?

One of the main rules about starting a new startup is locking down the problem you are solving. Without a strong problem, you will have less people needing/wanting your product which will result in low traction/return rate. In many cases, Barkles was a cool solution looking for a problem – a reason for people to use it if you will. Had we of nailed down our problem before building the solution we probably wouldn’t have built Barkles in the first place.

2. Passion

Jay is very passionate about development. I am very passionate about design. Over time however we lost our joint passion for continually building Barkles when we started realising we had built a solution looking for a problem. We still enjoyed watching the debates come in and people using it on occasion – however for us to move forward and get that passion back it would require a big overhaul to the product, with the likely chance we would be pivoting far away from the product it is today. This pivot would have taken us 3-6 months to fully realise and even then we would not be any closer to working on a problem that people want solved.

3. Financially Viable

Building a freemium product is hard to do if you have low traction and have lost passion in the product itself. Often what results is the founders redirect focus onto paying work (hey, we’ve all got to live!) which pushes the freemium product into the background of their minds. For others in this situation we recommend financially securing a ‘runway’ (a bunch of cash you live off for a set amount of months) to give yourself that focus and dedication that is needed when building a long term freemium product.

It’s Not All Doom And Gloom

This process of creating a startup, getting members on board and iterating the product has been the most incredible experience. Jay and I look at the closing of Barkles as a “succesful failure“, a journey we have learnt a lot from. We have enjoyed over 1400 debates, met countless people who inspired us and now know what it’s like to run a startup.  We would like to thank our advisors, mentors and other entrepreneurs who have helped up learn and grow througout this journey.

What’s Next?

Barkles.com will be closed on the 1st of June.
Jay and I will continue freelancing in the areas of development and design and see where the road takes us. We will still both be actively involved in the Melbourne/Perth startup scene.If you would like to contact Jay (I can attest to his great development skills) you can get in touch: Jay’s email and you can contact me via my email.

Thank you for your involvement with Barkles,

Sincerely,

Jay Whiting & Diesel Laws

Here’s the details:

• Everything fits on the one line which helps reduce the clutter and would allow more articles above the fold (in this design I have kept the standard 30).
• The darkest items are now the titles taking the focus off the header and straight to the content.
• Font used is Droid Sans (Google Webfont)
• Secondary links (in header and next to titles) have been dulled slightly to be easier on the eyes.
• Background has been lightened.
• SUBTLE: Removed the dots from the position numbers (trust me, it makes a difference!).
• SUBTLE: The More link is now orange. Yep, awesome.

Full size version here: http://diesellaws.com/HN.png
(Open this link in a New Tab to avoid the popup)

One of the big things that has become evident to me is the love I have for helping other startups. Being able to offer advice when applicable, help in design when requested and offer a supporting shoulder when needed has inspired me in so many ways.

Throughout that time I have been fortunate enough to get to know Andrew Birt, Adrian Stone & Nathan Sampimon (the powerhouse team behind AngelCube) and have recently been mentoring their 2012 startup teams in UI/UX design at Inspire9. Although it has only been 1 week with the teams, I can already say that the collection of entrepreneurs in this years program are going to be powerful players in this industry to come.

You see, when you offer advice to someone, you get to know what makes them tick. You hear what drives them forward and watch as they implement their various strategies to do what needs to be done. Witnessing this passion close up is infectious. It forces you to look at yourself and ask the same questions you do them. It’s in those moments that you realise they are helping you immensely.

Whether they listen and action your advice or disagree and persevere on their own path is irrelevant – it’s all learning.

That’s the most important part.

Being able to learn from the people you teach.

And that’s why I love helping startups.

Founder Interviews #4: Diesel Laws (Barkles) from Beta List on Vimeo.

Jeff (BetaLi.st) interviews Diesel Laws, the co-founder of Barkles: A place to discuss hot topics, share opinions about your favorite products and debate big issues the right way. barkles.com