Slide deck for my talk at Silicon Valley Code Camp 2013. Make more money than you ever will at a regular job. Choose what projects you want to work on. Decide how much you want to get paid. Never work a 9-5 again. Only code when you feel inspired. Use the rest of the time to build your startup, spend time with your family, work on hobbies & projects, or anything else you always wanted to do. You design your own lifestyle. I used to have a regular boring job as an employee who consistently released quality code. Now I can be anywhere in the world I want, whenever I want and make however much money I want. I will show you the process I used to change my quality of life forever. I went from freelancing, to consulting, to products. Now I have multiple streams of income.
Text of Are you an underpaid developer
Are you an underpaid developer? Sherman Lee Email: sherman@goodsense.io Twitter: @SHERM8N Blog: http://blog.goodsense.io
Email me - sherman@goodsense.io Introduce yourself Where do you work? Why are you interested in this talk? Ill respond to every single one of you Leave a business card!
Who is this dude? Sherman Lee - Berkeley CS Corporate job for 6 years Jumped into startups Drained savings and built credit card debt Turned it all around
Freelance development Consulting Productized consulting services Products and startups Multiple streams of income The Process to Change Your Life
Get your feet wet in becoming independent Finding projects Selling and marketing yourself Understanding business needs Pricing and contracts Freelance Development
Business partner versus slave developer Solve business problems Specialized service Consulting
Repeatable parts of your engagements Charge monthly for it Easy for you and it may be automated http://draft.nu/revise Productized Consulting Services
Find a personal problem or need Develop a hypothesis Finding your audience Ask them to pay Listen to your audience Take that audience and make your own Build the product Products and Startups
If you have a problem or need others do too I have 97 t-shirts and spent $2,194 Find a personal problem or need
What are you trying to find out? For me, if teenagers would buy t-shirts. Develop a Hypothesis
The audience you want to sell to already exists somewhere I found mine on Wanelo Finding your audience
Collecting money is idea validation Product doesnt need to exist I didnt print t-shirts first Ask Them to Pay For Your Product
First sale within 24 hours of idea Ask Them to Pay For Your Product
They will tell you exactly what they want Give it to them! Listen to Your Audience
Another case with similar design Results even better Listen to Your Audience
Look for existing audiences Easier than from scratch Get them to follow you on Twitter, Tumblr, etc. Capture their email Take Audience and Make Your Own
Having an audience is when you build Paying customers Idea validated Build the Product
Hardest part No audience means nobody to sell to Blogging, Social Media, SEO Build the Audience
Builds a fan base for shop owners, sellers, artists and designers http://audience.goodsense.io Good Audience (my startup)
Solved own problem 2 big sellers in LA/SF In Urban Outfitters Good Audience (my startup)
Freelancing Consulting Products No need to depend on one Multiple Streams of Income
