Go slowly as fast as you can

Ben Fox co-founder of FlowPress, WPUniversity.com and Sidekick.pro shares smart ideas about pricing, building a team and having a greater vision for his new product offering.

• Embrace and address the challenge of pricing your new product by talking directly to your prospective customers to fine tune your offering to the needs of your different customer segments.
• Build a successful, sustainable product by finding engineers that are dedicated to your project and will stick with you for more than just the product launch.
• Even if you start building a product around needs in the WordPress universe, consider if your idea has application beyond the WordPress circle.

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What happened during the conversation between Matt and Ben
(times correspond to video)
2:10 What’s happening with WPUniversity?
3:30 How do you balance your time between client services, product development and new business development?
5:10 What was the genesis of the idea for Sidekick Pro?
6:55 How did you set up your partnership?
8:40 What is it like working in an business incubator or accelerator?
11:20 What kind of advice did you get from the accelerator group when WPEngine contacted you?
13:00 How are you setting the pricing for Sidekick Pro?

It’s easier to price on the enterprise level

15:45 How are you getting feedback from customers?
17:30 How are you balancing/managing the customer’s requested features?
19:10 How are you using PivotalTracker to manage your process?
21:45 What is the biggest benefit to using PivotalTracker
23:40 How did you fairly assess what your team was capable of?
28:30 Why is it important to use a Service Level Agreement with clients?
32:00 What is a good way to craft a Service Level Agreement to use with your clients?
36:30 How much detail do you put in your statement of work (before the deposit is paid)?
41:15 How did you decide to reach beyond WordPress with Sidekick Pro?
47:00 What is planned for the EastMeetspress event?
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Resources

Ben Fox @benjaminefox
email: [email protected]
Sidekick.pro
FlowPress (there is no website)
WPUniversity.com
New Rainmaker
LeadPages
Event: East Meets Press
Trello
Teamwork
PivitalTracker
Freshdesk
Wave Accounting
Leadin

Acronymns Used

SLA: service Level Agreement
MRR: monthly recurring revenue
SOW: statement of work