Startups are hard, I learned this by doing it myself
ROLE
Founder
EXPERTISE
Design & Dev
YEAR
2018
Website
I've found that building a business brings countless challenges
6 years ago, I started with a simple idea. I saw that more and more people are checking Instagram and Google for photos before choosing a restaurant to visit.
That's why I built QR Menu for restaurants. However, the project brought challenges, including engaging with customers, handling sales, improving our delivery pipeline, and designing a flexible architecture.
Even though it was paintful, I loved the process of building the product.
If I had to choose the two most important lessons I've learned, they would be:
Engage with customers regularly and start with a MVP that truly addresses their needs.
Establish solid architecture and a project setup. The way data is modeled significantly influences the downstream software architecture.
API Design
Ruby on Rails comes with many conventions, and it's often tempting to put business logic in models. However, I found that this pattern makes the code harder to maintain and understand. To address this, I encapsulated the business logic into separate modules, ensuring they were isolated from side effects.
Can I become a salesperson even if I'm timid?
Meet Customers
I went out as a salesperson to speak with restaurant owners, which helped me identify hidden gems I would never have discovered. I also ran Google Ads campaigns and tracked the conversion rate using Mixpanel.
Invaluable insights come from trial and error
Takeaways
Although the project lost momentum, I gained invaluable experience from incubator programs. I learned the importance of architecture, as well as why a product should evolve alongside its customers.