005: How to Turn a Desire into a SaaS Solution with Corstiaan Hesselink

The SaaS (Software as a Service) Business Podcast

Corstiaan Hesselink is the creator of the Reflect app, an extension for Evernote. Reflects provides a convenient way for you to reflect on (remember, review, and rethink) all that you have saved in Evernote. Reflect was born because Corstiaan, an avid Kindle reader, wanted a tool to help him review the tagged high-lights he had saved in Evernote while reading Kindle books. Unable to find such a tool, he built one and then put it up on Beta List. When Reflect started to attract interest, he knew he was on to something. Corstiaan does a deep dive into the technology of the stack that is Reflect, talks about his plans to monetize Reflect, and discusses how a small app can become a big project.

Key Segments

• [02:30] What is Reflect and how can you use it?
• [05:45] What did Corstiaan do to validate his idea?
• [06:10] He first posted Reflect online on Beta List and received a few hundred requests for early access within a few days.
• [07:15] What technology does Reflect use between Evernote and the front end?
• [07:35] Reflect was developed using Microsoft .NET and is running on Microsoft's Azure
• [07:55] Corstiaan used the micro-framework NancyFx instead of ASP .NET.
• [08:15] Corstiaan recommends using a framework that does not get in the way.
• [08:45] Evernote .NET libraries are available for the Evernote API.
• [09:20] The database runs on Microsoft's SQL Server.
• [09:40] For data access between the web application and the database, Corstiaan uses OrmLite.
• [10:10] On the front end the web app is built using Bootstrap for the CSS framework (customized to match the style of Reflect) combined with js.
• [10:30] Corstiaan will consider AngularJS for his next project or for a major overhaul of Reflect.
• [10:50] He is currently very close to releasing the iOS app in native code. (Post-production note: Reflect for Evernote for iOS has been released.) There is no HTML5 wrapper. NancyFX comes into play for the mobile app too.
• [11:40] Reflect is currently slightly more than an MVP (minimum viable product), but given his vision for what Reflect can become, Corstiaan considers it to be near an MVP.
• [12:25] He uses .NET mainly because that is what he has the most experience using.
• [13:35] NancyFX allows you to build an application in the way that HTTP actually works rather than having the framework abstract a lot of the details away.
• [14:35] AngularJS has a large community, many side projects, and gives you a large toolset for mobile apps.
• [16:10] What are his strategies to monetize Reflect as a SaaS product?
• [17:40] He wants to create a service that works in the background and allows people to get a more thorough understanding of their data.
• [19:50] What kind of problems did Corstiaan run into while developing Reflect?
• [21:40] Have there been any unexpected costs along the way?
• [22:05] As more users used Reflect, Corstiaan's bandwidth bill increased.
• [23:15] Do you see any problems with scaling on the Azure platform?
• [25:15] Is he using any metrics to track usage?
• [25:30] He started out with Google Analytics but is working on implementing KISSmetrics.
• [26:35] What does your company Fluxmatix Ventures do?
• [26:50] Corstiaan shares a bit of his background.
• [27:05] Progress in web apps and mobile in particular lured Corstiaan back into active software development.
• [29:45] Recommended books: A Technique for Producing Ideas by James Webb Young, and Anti-Fragile: Things That Gain from Disorder by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Profit First: A Simple System To Transform Any Business From A Cash-Eating Monster To A Money-Making Machine by Mike Michalowicz

Resources Mentioned

• A Technique for Producing Ideas by James Webb Young - "examines the creative process and ways to produce ideas"
• AngularJS - HTML enhanced for web apps (by Google)
• Anti-Fragile: Things That Gain from Disorder by Nassim Nicholas Taleb - "things that not only gain from chaos but need it in order to survive and flourish"
• Azure - Microsoft's cloud platform
• Beta List - "early access to over 100 new internet startups each month"
• Bootstrap - "HTML, CSS, and JS framework for developing responsive, mobile first projects on the web"
• Evernote .NET libraries - .NET libraries for the Evernote API
• Evernote API - application programming interface (API) for Evernote
• Fluxmatix Ventures - Corstiaan's company responsible for Reflect for Evernote
• Google Analytics - "turn customer insights into action for your business"
• KISSmetrics - "key insights and timely interactions to turn visitors into customers"
• js - "dynamic JavaScript UIs with the Model-View-View Model (MVVM)"
• Microsoft .NET - Microsoft development platform
• NancyFx - "lightweight, low-ceremony, framework for building HTTP based services on .NET and Mono"
• OrmLite - "lightweight Object Relational Mapping (ORM) Java package providing simple, lightweight functionality for persisting Java objects to SQL databases while avoiding the complexity and overhead of more standard ORM packages"
• Profit First: A Simple System To Transform Any Business From A Cash-Eating Monster To A Money-Making Machine by Mike Michalowicz - "accounting plug-in that will transform your business from a cash eating monster into a money making machine"
• Reflect App - Corstiaan Hesselink's app to help you review and remember things you have saved in Evernote
• Reflect for Evernote - Reflect iOS app
• SQL Server - Microsoft tools to deploy and manage databases