"this" is easier than being in a startup - Believe me; even for a juggler everything is stable and clearly defined.

If you are startup, chances are that you are experiencing wild competition. And by that token every single user you have is precious:

Failure to manage your users’ expectations and experience will and can result in disaster.

The Internet has lowered the barrier to entry for most services to “non existent”. Event with a tiny initial budget, you can have your dream idea up an running in no time.

Whatever you are dreaming about there are at least 10 already-established services on the Internet waiting to become your competitors. Moreover, there are a dozen of similar services growing in (so called) “stealth mode” which will be entering to the marketplace by the time you are preparing for your launch for the next big thing.

Yes, the arena is harsh; ever-changing; and strongly competitive.

And I strongly believe, in such a crowded marketplace, where…

• the cost of switching is virtually none,
• and the users’ choices are virtually infinite,

“user experience” is the key competitive advantage and the main differentiator that makes users select your service instead of dozens of alternatives around.

To make it simpler: It all boils down to “relationship”. The relationship you have with your user-base has vital value and impact for the growth and profitability of your business:

The ultimate goal in user satisfaction is to have…

not happy…

not loyal…

wait for this…

“devoted” users.

Why?

Because loyalty is “logical”. “Loyal” users come back because they get their needs and problems solved, which makes sense.

“Devotion”, on the other hand, is an emotional connection to you, your brand, your company, and your services.

• “Devotion” tweets about you,
• “Devotion” blogs about you,
• “Devotion” covers your a** you when you make a mistake,
• “Devotion” shouts your name in wall graffiti.

That’s why I think “Customer Devotion” should be the ultimate goal of every business leader.

Teams and individuals that are inventive, and imaginative in creating experience with their users that lead to “devotion” will be the real winners.

And I have three questions for you:

• What are you and your team doing right now to be sure that today’s users don’t belong to your competitors tomorrow>?
• How are you managing and improving your users’ experience with you, your organization, and your service?
• (This is a tough one) Are your users “loyal”, “devoted”, or just plain bored?

Look around: Every single one of your competitors is scrambling for business. And with the vast majority of alternatives around, the competition is beyond fierce. When you lose your users to your competitors, it impacts every single individual in your enterprise.

Your best defense and your competitive differentiator is your ability to create great experience for your users.

That’s why I love being a part of grou.ps, and that’s what I believe makes grou.ps distinctive:

Yes, we have the best technical team you can find around. And that’s only one side of the coin. What we rock is our loyalty and fanatical support to our users:

We think, inspect, analyze, and provide solutions to our users’ needs and wants 24/7.

We are devoted to our users. And we experience the same devotion in return.

• We are, and will always be, enthusiastic, and “in tune” with our users.
• We are, and will always be, working to the best of our abilities to provide them a wonderful experience.
• We are, and will always be, devoted to our users.

That’s why grou.ps is a growing, profitable, and fun place to work no matter how harsh the competition is raging in the marketplace.

At least, that’s what I think; and I’d love to have your opinions.

So Long and Thanks for all the Fish

Today, I’d like to announce an important change in my life:

I’m leaving LiveGO and joining grou.ps.

I joined LiveGO (when it was known as MessengerFX) in 2008, just over 3+ years ago. I’ve had many roles there including front-end architecture, backend design, widget and module development, security auditing, project management… and many things that are hard to give an exact definition of — it’s a startup you know.

During my time at the company, I’ve had an excellent opportunity to lead and mentor my team on JavaScript module development best practices, the importance of thinking library independently, important issues to consider when developing a high-performance fat-client single-page web application, why the heck the goddamn memory “leaks“, the importance of keeping things simple and neat, the fact that optimization without measurement is a useless effort, always being skeptical and asking questions, trusting nothing including themselves, the importance of progressive enhancement and graceful degredation,
thinking about the end user first and giving utmost importance to user feedbacks, tips and tricks to make a web application lightning fast

I think I’ve been successful in my endeavour, and I was able to add value to my company as much as I can. And I’d like to thank everyone for bearing to work with me: (the names below are quasi-random, mostly in cubicle order )

I’d like to thank Cihan Topçu for he always managed to look things at a different perspective,
I’d like to thank İlyas Osmanoğulları for he always observed, analyzed and moved with confidence and managed to solve any technical problem with ease,
I’d like to thank Gülistan Turhan van der Linden for she is an excellent business manager and she know how to reflect the true value of the company,
I’d like to thank Niels van der Linden for his ongoing effor to learn Turkish, and also his business insight he’s given and the value he’s added to the company,
I’d like to thank Furkan Öçal, for he has been always kind, calm, friendly and professional, and he know his suff well,
I’d like to thank Seyran Gülnar for she was a great office manager, who can simultaneusly organize a multitude of things,
I’d like to thank İlter Yıldız for he knows how to drink tequila, and also for he knows design patterns by heart, and can trustably optimize any back-end infrastructure to run under high traffic load,
I’d like to thank my name-sake Volkan Vardar for he’s an excellent leader who knows how to keep calm, think reasonably, and find a rational solution, even under the most stressful situations,
I’d like to thank Erdem Erdoğan for his analytical mindset, and his ability to patiently listen to the “infinite energy machines” nonsense for hours, which is a pain in the rear for an “Applied Physics” major,
I’d like to thank Gizem Şahin for she was the best testing lead, who knows her stuff well,
I’d like to thank Kamrul Ahsan for he was a great tester,
I’d like to thank Ercan Çalışkan for his keen design eye,
I’d like to thank Can Gürbüz for his obsession with details, and his ability to use photoshop without a mouse,
I’d like to thank Ahmet Ardal for he is a tirelss developer, knows how to think like an engineer, and he also can stand to write Objective C,
I’d like to thank Gürer Özen for the little chocolate muffins he brought to the office in the mornings, and for his open-source wisdom of course,
I’d like to thank Yusuf, for he is the CEO,
I’d like to thank Faik Uygur his ability to write and compile code without using a GUI, and also for his ability to manage a grid of servers without hassle,
I’d like to thank Fatih Buğan for he can stand Ferit 8 hours per day, and for he is an excellent project lead, and he’s a top-notch engineer,
I’d like to thank Ferit, for he is… “Ferit” — be yourself buddy, no matter what they say; I’d also like to thank him for his creative mindset, that “at times” he comes up with solutions, which fit right into the problem, that no one ever can imagine,
I’d like to thank Fatih Hayrioğlu, for he is the greatest CSS/HTML/HTML5 guru you can find around,
I’d like to thank tosb… Orhan Ekici for his multi-tasking ability, and his thirst to learn and implement new things,
I’d like to thank Gönül abla, for her wonderful sandwitches, and for her ability to look after a horde of crazy and messy developers.

…

Starting next Monday, I will be working at grou.ps as a Platform Engineer, and I see this as an excellent opportunity to learn a lot of things and equally add value to where I am.

Thank you grou.ps for accepting me aboard

I’m sure it wil be wonderful !

Cheers,
Volkan Özçelik,
JavaScript Samurai & a fresh new groupie.

Each startup has its ups and downs.

Every successful startup boots up with a great idea, and then grows.

This growth, more or less, goes through
the following stages:

• The Seed Stage
• The Start-up Stage
• The Second Stage
• The Third Stage
• The Bridge/Pre-public Stage
• The Exit stage

That’s what’s written in the textbooks. Pretty straightforward, huh?
That’s also how VCs look at the point at hand

… but from the founders’ perspective the can of worms look “very”, very different

The Actual Startup Life Cycle

Here’s a more in-depth view of a startup’s lifecyle.

Well, that’s what I call complicated .

But that’s not everything.

Due to the very nature of the startup, the team keeps unintentionally digging a hole for themselves deeper and deeper…

A Decline Begins…

Any startup that has passed beyond its seed stage will have

• Overconfidence due to initial rapid successes,
• Self-deception and myopia,
• Lack of flexibility,
• or, on the contrary, being too much flexible and quickly depleting resources,
• and not being able to create a sustainable cash flow

The biggest problem is, how, and for how long, the business will support this negative cash flow.

These problems will sooner, than later, turn the startup upside down:
Employees who lose their trust will jump ship. Moreover there will be layoffs, panic and chaos.

This decline phase may be the quickest end of the unprepared.

The Resurrection

“I believe what doesn’t kill you simply makes you… stranger”
– The Joker (Heath Ledger)

For the selected few who survive the storm, a very painful resurrection begins:

• The team will bond together, more than ever, to make their dream come true.
• The team will share the good, and the not so good, more than ever.

Isn’t it usually from understanding of the not so good that the best emerges?

The leaders forcefully choose to be reborn from their ashes.
They have no other option but to support this renewal.

Choosing this renewal is painful, and it requires tremendous commitment.

• The leaders adopt the behavior they want to see in the organization (modeling),
• The leaders communicate a vision in a way that causes others to adopt it as their own (inspiration),
• The leaders challenge the processes and adopt change (innovation),
• The leaders create a climate and opportunity to leverage ideas (action),
• The leaders implant enthusiasm into their organization (passion)

If you are the founder of a startup, you had better burn the following into your head:

In these hard times, having a good team or even an excellent team isn’t enough.

You have to create a “creed“; namely, a group of highly-devoted people:

• A creed who trust each other without question,
• A creed who have similar ways of thinking,
• A creed who have similar ways of learning,
• A creed who have similar ways of reacting,
• A creed who have similar ways of problem-solving,
• And a creed who have similar ways of collaboration.

Further, this team needs to be bond together under a leader (guess who ) they trust and respect.

• They must not be afraid of any type of challenge;
• They must be willing to walk through fire when their leader asks them;
• And they must believe they deserve to be the ones that will change the world.

This is the genesis of a success. Don’t nail it, and you’re not going to get much sleep.

Do this and you and your team can handle anything.
Don’t, and you’ll be heading to the dead pool.

Let me be more straight:

Fuck up your team, and no matter how much you tell yourself otherwise, you’re fucked!

The door is open, the question is do you have the courage to pass through to a better place?

.