Great pivot! Wish you the best luck for the World Cup.
I'm currently freelancing to get some $$$ in the bank again after using all my savings for our startup. We were planning to escape the German winter and work from SE-Asia and/or India as well.
I was seriously considering Thailand and liked the idea of spending time in Chiang Mai a lot... but the recent political turmoil has me worried. From press reports, it's really hard to make out what the impact on daily life is like and whether it's a good idea to go to Thailand at the moment or not. Where are you situated? What's the situation like at the moment?
I could give you some advice there. Of the last 5 months, I spent 2 in India (I'm Indian), 1 in Singapore, and 2 in Thailand. I am going to visit my parents in Oman for 2 months next. What citizenship(s) do you hold? Most western nations require a paid-for visa to India that is not cheap to get. I am not sure how difficult it is to secure/renew either.
Singapore has wonderful internet, amazing public transit, and just the right amount of crowd and bustle - you're not choking, but it's always lively. And people love their technology. Wonderfully conducive immigration atmosphere. However, although everyone speaks english, the people are not very personable, so it's hard to grow a social circle through random acquaintances if you don't already have friends there (I did). It is also a fairly expensive place (comparable to Berkeley or Seattle), one of the top 5 in Asia.
Thailand has great internet, extremely nice people, and is ridiculously cheap to live in. Bangkok is lively and bustling with lots to do, but a bit too crowded. Public transit is not nearly as well-connected except in BKK city, but taxis/bikes are affordable. Unfortunately, very few locals speak English, so again growing a random acquaintance social circle is difficult. You can however meet lots of like-minded foreigners at the co-working spaces.
I personally strongly discourage bootstrapping from India. The internet situation alone was probably enough to call it quits. Terrible ISPs, high cost, slow speeds, data caps on wired connections, bad customer service (they left me without internet for 3 days before I had to have my complaint elevated), etc makes it nearly impossible for bootstrapping a software product. Public transit is mediocre in most cities and requires knowledge of the local language (and there is a different one in every state). Electronics are expensive (heavily taxed). Majority of local vendors will try to pillage any foreigner. They even try to rip me off because they can tell I haven't spent much time locally.
If you have a close friend who is more familiar and comfortable with a part of India that you will live/work with, it can be a lot better (you mostly just need someone who can yell at them right when necessary).
Don't get me wrong though, it's a beautiful country and wonderful to spend time in, just terrible to try to get any work done.
We're located in Bangkok and I can really recommend it. I've not been to Chiang Mai so I cannot really compare it, though I would guess Bangkok is still more startup friendly.
To address the current political issue with the military coup, I have just one thing to say: The media always exaggerates. I've been here through the protests, the curfew and now the coup. And I've never felt threatened or had any issues what so ever. I would invite my own mother here and not be worried.
We are currently sitting together with another startup in their offices in the part of Bangkok called Ekkamai. Previously we rented some desks at the co-working space Launchpad, which was also a really great experience and a way to meet a lot of other like-minded people.
Re political situation in Thailand: Media is massively exaggerating. I've been here through the protests in BKK & Chiang Mai, through the curfew and coup. It has nothing to do with us. As long as you don't stand in the middle of a stone throwing competition - which you shouldn't anywhere in the world - you're safe. It's very easy to avoid these things. In daily life you won't see anything that is affected by the situation - except maybe emptier hotels.
Keep an eye on the visa situation. Back to back visa runs over land are/will be a bit trickier from now on. Plane tickets of local low cost carriers are ridiculously cheap and plenty and will solve this issue every 30 days (I'm writing this out of Vientiane, Laos for this very reason. Visa run by plane + extended weekend to get to know Vientiane. They have a coworking space here as well: https://www.facebook.com/tohlao). You can also apply for a proper tourist visa in your home country and in countries around Thailand. This gives you piece of mind for 60-90 days. For a long term commitment you could consider an educational visa for one year. Language schools and even muay thai schools can provide you with them. If you attend them is a whole different story (some schools are entirely built around this concept.). Both - Chiang Mai and Bangkok are amazing places to live and bootstrap. When you come to BKK, make sure to check out http://hubbathailand.com/ - best coworking space I've ever come across. Peter from https://levels.io/ has some great content regarding coworking in TH.
Post mortem means "after death" ... I see "after money" and "after pivot" but the company and application ultimately survive (with a happy ending). It's a great story and I think there's a lot of value in sharing stories like this, but what should we call them?
Some serious wisdom here, some learned the hard way, e.g.:
"But our biggest self realization was that we were not users of our own product. We didn’t obsess over it and we didn’t love it. We loved the idea of it. That hurt."
Not sure if this is a common occurrence but I've noticed that when I search for a common one-word app name, it's really hard to find. I searched for the app, "Champion" and had to follow their iTunes link in order to view the page.
Anyway, best of luck with the pivot and I'll probably check your app out in more detail during the World Cup.
Thanks for your support. I thought I would just share some of our thoughts and experience with the app naming and discoverability problem.
An app will rank differently on different keywords in different App Stores. For every keyword you compete with other apps that uses the same keywords. So popular keywords are harder to rank high with than others and "Champion" isn't easy of cause. But we've done a lot of testing on this subject and there are several things you can do.
We use a site called Sensor Tower [1] to track keyword rankings between the different App Stores.
First thing is of cause to add extra names to your App Store title and hope that people search for "champion live score" or "champion football", which will greatly increase your chances (our full App Store title is "Champion - Football Livescore").
But actually we found that it doesn't take as much as we thought to become #1 on a keyword like Champion. We launched first in the Thai App Store to be able to test a lot of this before the global launch. We've been in the Thai App Store for almost 2 months now and it took us less than 1 month to become the #1 app for the keyword "champion". So it's an achievable goal.
Definitely not a post mortem as smoyer mentioned. Huge opportunity with the World Cup, I hope you take advantage of it. Looking forward to seeing some fast, unique insight from Champion that I could not get from my favorite sports outlets.
[+] [-] CookWithMe|11 years ago|reply
I'm currently freelancing to get some $$$ in the bank again after using all my savings for our startup. We were planning to escape the German winter and work from SE-Asia and/or India as well.
I was seriously considering Thailand and liked the idea of spending time in Chiang Mai a lot... but the recent political turmoil has me worried. From press reports, it's really hard to make out what the impact on daily life is like and whether it's a good idea to go to Thailand at the moment or not. Where are you situated? What's the situation like at the moment?
Best of luck anyways!
[+] [-] keerthiko|11 years ago|reply
Singapore has wonderful internet, amazing public transit, and just the right amount of crowd and bustle - you're not choking, but it's always lively. And people love their technology. Wonderfully conducive immigration atmosphere. However, although everyone speaks english, the people are not very personable, so it's hard to grow a social circle through random acquaintances if you don't already have friends there (I did). It is also a fairly expensive place (comparable to Berkeley or Seattle), one of the top 5 in Asia.
Thailand has great internet, extremely nice people, and is ridiculously cheap to live in. Bangkok is lively and bustling with lots to do, but a bit too crowded. Public transit is not nearly as well-connected except in BKK city, but taxis/bikes are affordable. Unfortunately, very few locals speak English, so again growing a random acquaintance social circle is difficult. You can however meet lots of like-minded foreigners at the co-working spaces.
I personally strongly discourage bootstrapping from India. The internet situation alone was probably enough to call it quits. Terrible ISPs, high cost, slow speeds, data caps on wired connections, bad customer service (they left me without internet for 3 days before I had to have my complaint elevated), etc makes it nearly impossible for bootstrapping a software product. Public transit is mediocre in most cities and requires knowledge of the local language (and there is a different one in every state). Electronics are expensive (heavily taxed). Majority of local vendors will try to pillage any foreigner. They even try to rip me off because they can tell I haven't spent much time locally.
If you have a close friend who is more familiar and comfortable with a part of India that you will live/work with, it can be a lot better (you mostly just need someone who can yell at them right when necessary).
Don't get me wrong though, it's a beautiful country and wonderful to spend time in, just terrible to try to get any work done.
I hope that was helpful!
[+] [-] watson|11 years ago|reply
We're located in Bangkok and I can really recommend it. I've not been to Chiang Mai so I cannot really compare it, though I would guess Bangkok is still more startup friendly.
To address the current political issue with the military coup, I have just one thing to say: The media always exaggerates. I've been here through the protests, the curfew and now the coup. And I've never felt threatened or had any issues what so ever. I would invite my own mother here and not be worried.
We are currently sitting together with another startup in their offices in the part of Bangkok called Ekkamai. Previously we rented some desks at the co-working space Launchpad, which was also a really great experience and a way to meet a lot of other like-minded people.
[+] [-] heyalexej|11 years ago|reply
Keep an eye on the visa situation. Back to back visa runs over land are/will be a bit trickier from now on. Plane tickets of local low cost carriers are ridiculously cheap and plenty and will solve this issue every 30 days (I'm writing this out of Vientiane, Laos for this very reason. Visa run by plane + extended weekend to get to know Vientiane. They have a coworking space here as well: https://www.facebook.com/tohlao). You can also apply for a proper tourist visa in your home country and in countries around Thailand. This gives you piece of mind for 60-90 days. For a long term commitment you could consider an educational visa for one year. Language schools and even muay thai schools can provide you with them. If you attend them is a whole different story (some schools are entirely built around this concept.). Both - Chiang Mai and Bangkok are amazing places to live and bootstrap. When you come to BKK, make sure to check out http://hubbathailand.com/ - best coworking space I've ever come across. Peter from https://levels.io/ has some great content regarding coworking in TH.
[+] [-] smoyer|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Aqueous|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fridriksson|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pavlov|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] twidlit|11 years ago|reply
Meals can cost as low as $2 and lodging as low as $4 / day. Everyone knows English and very westernized compared to other SEA nation.
Email eric (at) lifebit.com if you are interested.
[+] [-] hga|11 years ago|reply
"But our biggest self realization was that we were not users of our own product. We didn’t obsess over it and we didn’t love it. We loved the idea of it. That hurt."
Worth skimming/reading it all.
[+] [-] robbfitzsimmons|11 years ago|reply
I bet a lot of us hit this moment, over and over again: "We didn’t obsess over it and we didn’t love it. We loved the idea of it. That hurt."
When you're on the brink, remember why you're doing this at all; to build something that you think is really cool.
[+] [-] ggreenbe|11 years ago|reply
Anyway, best of luck with the pivot and I'll probably check your app out in more detail during the World Cup.
[+] [-] watson|11 years ago|reply
An app will rank differently on different keywords in different App Stores. For every keyword you compete with other apps that uses the same keywords. So popular keywords are harder to rank high with than others and "Champion" isn't easy of cause. But we've done a lot of testing on this subject and there are several things you can do.
We use a site called Sensor Tower [1] to track keyword rankings between the different App Stores.
First thing is of cause to add extra names to your App Store title and hope that people search for "champion live score" or "champion football", which will greatly increase your chances (our full App Store title is "Champion - Football Livescore").
But actually we found that it doesn't take as much as we thought to become #1 on a keyword like Champion. We launched first in the Thai App Store to be able to test a lot of this before the global launch. We've been in the Thai App Store for almost 2 months now and it took us less than 1 month to become the #1 app for the keyword "champion". So it's an achievable goal.
[1] https://sensortower.com/
[+] [-] thomasmeagher|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] probablyfiction|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jpeg_hero|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fridriksson|11 years ago|reply