The ups and downs of launching your first startup
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes, 30 seconds
Today’s post is a personal post. It’s about the trials and errors I went through to launch my first start up, Giant Themes. I hope you enjoy the post and it helps anyone who is on the verge of launching their first start up. It’s been a fun ride and definitely one that I am going to love talking about in this article.
This article is going to cover everything from the initial idea that I had inside of my over active creative mind, to the point of launch (just a few hours ago) and what I envision for the future of the start up. If you’ve launched a start up in the past, I would love if you could shed some light on your process in the comments and for those of you who haven’t launched a start up yet, any questions you have would be awesome to see in the comments.
The initial idea
Around June of last year I wrote a post on WP Guerrilla about the top 10 wordpress theme providers and mentioned that I was tossing around the idea of a wordpress theme site myself. Realistically, I had been thinking about it for about a year prior to that. I am a freelance blog designer and the transition into a wordpress theme start up seems like a logical move in expanding my revenue, so I thought about it; then quickly stopped thinking about it. A few months went by before I actually started really thinking about it and putting plans into action.
The brainstorming and planning
When I really started putting things into a notebook and started hammering out the details, I felt like I was on top of the world. I had a lot of ideas and a lot of special ways to make my site ‘different’ than the other theme sites. I bought a moleskine notebook and started using it – a lot. I planned out the domain name, which was an extension of the Guerrilla network I was trying to build. The original domain name, GuerrillaThemes.com was purchased, set up and had a splash page put onto it within a matter of a few minutes.
And then the waiting began. I got caught up in client work and lost sight of the site again. A month or so went by and I started really putting the marketing together. I planned a huge launch for January 1st 2010 and promoted it heavily via twitter, facebook and email. And then I got a twitter message that asked me why I was copying Gorilla Themes.
The first road block
After thinking things through and even though the Guerrilla Themes name was built off of the brand I was trying to establish, I realized that in general conversation, the two names were identical, regardless of spelling. I talked it over with Brian Gardner and also spoke with Carlos from Gorilla Themes and decided to make a transition into a new theme company name. After all, I hadn’t launched yet and there wouldn’t be much trouble moving things around.
I wrote a post on the WP Guerrilla site detailing my move from the old name to the new name and made sure to detail my reasons why. If you’d like to read more about that, you can head over to read it.
The (almost) early ending
After I set up Giant Themes and got the ball rolling with it, I slipped back into the normalcy of client work and forgot about Giant Themes. When the deadline of January 1st came closer, I realized that I wouldn’t have the time to launch properly – so I didn’t. January 2nd rolled around, and the 3rd, 4th and 5th. After the first week of January, I started rethinking it totally. I felt beat down. I felt like I lost any steam I had built up previously and started daydreaming about other projects. If this sounds crazy to you, you should read the comments on the over active creative mind article I wrote on Spyre Studios – I am not alone in this.
The rejuvenation & those who helped
After breaking down one night from all of the pressure and talking with my girlfriend for about 3 hours, just venting all of my frustrations and fears, I felt a lot calmer. It was a great feeling. I knew what I had to do at this point and Giant Themes was definitely a part of it.
After that evening, I spoke with Jon from Spyre Studios through email and vented a bit more – and I have to thank him for not laughing at me or calling me crazy, because I’m sure the emails I sent off to him were a bit haywire. After 5-6 back-and-forth emails, I had a 100% clear plan in mind. I had around 80-90% of the Giant Themes site done and knew that a good day’s work on it would complete it. So I did it.
The launch
I officially launched Giant Themes at Midnight on February 8th 2010. It was a great feeling. When I sent out the tweets and facebook messages, I immediately got feedback – all of it positive. It was an amazing feeling, one that I cannot describe to you. Within the first 12 hours, I’ve had 500 hits to the site and the page views are over 3 pages per person. I’m happy with this result. I didn’t expect 10,000 visitors in one day. I’m right where I expected to be.
The one thing that did kind of set me back emotionally was the fact that not one sale has been made up to this point. I know it’s a numbers game, and the more people who visit your site, the more chances you have of making a sale, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t hoping for a sale or two today.
The future…
My plan is to continue to grow the site, grow the available themes and also use the blog to generate traffic by releasing freebies (texture packs, icon sets, ect) and also writing tutorials for wordpress and xhtml/css in general. I’m hoping that this helps the traffic keep flowing and the sales start coming in.
If you haven’t checked it out yet, I’d love to know your thoughts on Giant Themes and the iSocialize theme that I’ve got for sale.
It’s one hell of a ride, but one that I wouldn’t give back. The only thing I’d change is that I would have done this all a hell of a lot sooner. Lesson learned – if you want to do it, do it. It’s that simple.
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Hey Mike,
Really nice post! I like that you talked about the whole process you went through – about the ups as much as the downs. Launching a startup is no easy task. But you pulled it off and for that you deserve huge congrats man!
Oh and anytime you need to vent, ya know I’m just an email away haha
Great post, Mike. The site looks good and the themes you’ve released (be it there is only 2) looks great! I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before you start to see some sales. Good luck!
Hey Jon, Thanks man. I always appreciate your input and thoughts.
@Mathew – thanks for the comment. I love your slogan on your site too
Great post Mike! You are a busy guy with a lot of potential and you are already making it in the business. I’m sure, actually, I know, you’ll do just fine with ALL you have going on. You are always doing client work (I can tell from Twitter). I wish I was as busy as you. Give it time my friend, give it time.
Good luck with all you do. I don’t think you need the luck, but hey…
Hi Mike, thanks for being so candid with us. This story reminds me of myself a lot. It’s strange how we have so much motivation and so much drive, yet we allow ourselves to get hooked up on minor issues. I hope I’ll be able to overcome my remaining stumbling blocks and complete a project I’m working on at the moment. Thanks again for the inspiration.
All I am going to say is YOU ROCK!
Hey Mike,
Good article man, I feel the same way alot of the times and its good to know there are other people running into the same problems I do from time to time. Love this site to by the way.
Congratulations on your new venture. I completely understand the frustration you must have felt (and probably feel still) when you hit a wall and everything seems to be working against you. My business partner and I have been encountering the exact same thing trying to get our humble little studio off the ground.
We’ve found, like you, that it is best to lean on people you love and trust to help you stay focused when you want to throw in the towel. Stepping out on your own or, in your case, launching your own start up is a terrifying process filled with highs and lows. Stick with it and continue to be flexible when you are facing that pitfall. You’ve seen the results of this strategy already and I am sure it will help you further in the future.
Hi Mike,
Great post! Very personal and inspirational. There’s lot in here that kinda remind me of my own experience. I’m a freelance web-designer too, currently launching a startup too. And as you said, It’s pretty hard to keep working on you own projects/business while you have to deal with clients work at the same time! I finally could launch some of my projects recently. And in the end I can’t complain this took longer than expected (since the main reason of the delays were clients work that pay the bill at the end of each month!).
Anyway, Give yourself a bit of time, as you said…it takes time to drive some traffic and generate sale. But you are doing really quality work and, if you’re persistent, if you keep it up, I see no reason why you shouldn’t be successful with Giant Themes.
Wish you good luck for this promising business!
Wow! Thanks for all of the awesome replies everyone. This is the reason I do what I do here on Guerrilla Freelancing – to reach others who are in the same positions that I am in. Not everyone online is on the “super famous A list” and I’m ok with that. I write the articles on this site for those who are on the B,C,D,E,F,G list. Those of us still in the trenches working hard to make things work.
THANK YOU! from the bottom of my heart. I mean that.
This is an excellent article, and one that has made me seriously consider the position I’m in, staring down the inevitable launch of my web design career and site that I’ve now got several people encouraging me to pursue.
Thanks for your advice – your article is bookmarked and I’ll share it around when I get to work (gotta love the early morning reading time!)
Regards, Laneth Sffarlenn.
“Not everyone online is on the “super famous A list” and I’m ok with that. I write the articles on this site for those who are on the B,C,D,E,F,G list. Those of us still in the trenches working hard to make things work.”
Wow! Those lines really impacted me. Sometimes, when you’re down and you’re business efforts aren’t going well… it tends to make you feel small, insignificant and alone. Although, by no means I would wish anyone to have hard times… it does feel nice to not be the only one in the struggle. Thanks a bunch for the inspiration.
Thanks Laneth, I appreciate that.
Tim – No worries, I know you wouldn’t be wishing that on anyone. I know what you mean though. I’ve had some conversations with people over the past couple days that really opened my eyes to just how many people go through exactly what I’m going through right now.
I’m glad you liked the article.
Well, my 2 cents:
This whole HTML5 / CSS3 thing.
Where does it say that on the front page?
And if I am to believe your story whole, then this is crucial:
After breaking down one night from all of the pressure and talking with my girlfriend for about 3 hours, just venting all of my frustrations and fears, I felt a lot calmer.
She’s your big secret, you lucky dog!
And that’s why I personally believe that women need to be themselves and stop copying men in everything. Men can’t repair some things that women can.
Hey Mike,
I know exactly how you feel and alot of what you have written including taking to your girlfriend and other designers are things that I have been through. In fact, I am still learning to reach out and establish more relationships with designers so that we can bounce ideas back and forth.
I launch http://flickthis.tv last year in a hurry and didn’t promote it on other blogs or do any give aways or do any of the cool things we all know we should do. All I did was tweet and facebook about it and guess what? The numbers sucked. In fact, they are still alot lower than I would like. Not to mention that I too get distracted working on other sites and have put this one on the back burner a few times. I’ve recently picked up steam with it again, changed a theme for a 3rd time and set a plan/goal in place for the way it is promoted and updated. I too should have done this sooner lol.
Been following you for months Mike and really appreciate what you do. I’m quite new to the community and can use this article very good. As I plan to grow my sites and also create new ones. Great read friend thanks for sharing.
Respect the article!
I went through exactly the same process.
Whenever I feel down I just keep the following two things in mind:
- If a give it a 110% then at least I’ve tried.
- Everything takes about twice the amount of time I expected it to cost: relax breath and deal with it.
I hope your WP themes website takes off well. Selling WP themes still has big market potential.
I wish you the best of luck. I like the layout of the site and the iSOCIALIZE theme is killer.
Mike,
You’ve done a good job and I can tell you’ve put in a lot of work. That’s incredible that within 12 hours you had 500 hits!! I too am just starting a website and wish I had as many hits as you in a month. Have a look at http://www.ongobee.com and let me know what you think.
Keep up the good work.
Hi,
nice design. simple, focused and a pleasure to the eye.
I’ve been planning my own startup and its nice to read your insights about the subject.
good luck!
Thanks for this share and good luck, this market is really competitive.