18 May, 2011
By Siobhan
There’s nothing like learning from people with experience. There are thousands of new web start-ups expanding all over the globe in a resurgence of innovation brought about by web and mobile apps. Many of these start-ups fall flat, but others rise to the top. I’m going to be interviewing entrepreneurs from across the world to see what makes a successful startup and what we can learn from their experiences. This week Pen.io founder, Anthony Feint. Pen.io is a lightweight self-publishing tool that recently won best design at the 2011 Launch Conference. I’ll let Anthony tell you all about it:
What is Pen.io?
Pen.io is a really simple way to publish content online. Its a lightweight alternative to more feature rich site builders and blogging platforms, and was designed for people just wanting to quickly share a single piece of content like a recipe, joke or essay.
What distinguishes it from other self-publishing platforms?
The Pen.io platform was designed to be quick. It requires no registration and doesn’t include many features of the other platforms, which makes it really easy to get started creating pages.
How did you come up with the idea?
I was looking for a really simple way for me to quickly share a single piece of content. My only options were to setup a blog, on a platform like tumblr or WordPress, which was overkill for just posting one article. So in the end, I decided to create my own app, which allowed me to do just that – share a single piece of content online, fast.
How long did it take you to get Pen.io off the ground?
The original application took a weekend to build. However, since launching the app in February, and witnessing its huge growth, I work on it full-time. Although the frontend of the application hasn’t changed much, the backend has needed massive amounts of work to support the 100K+ users who use it everyday.
What applications or tools do you find most useful for your business? Why?
As I’m currently based in Australia, my investors and developers based elsewhere, Skype has become an essential tool for communication. The Google suite of apps (gmail, docs, and calendar) are also indispensable
Can you tell our readers a bit about your business model?
Towards the end of 2011, we’ll be launching a whitelabel version of the application. This will give individuals, businesses and organizations the ability to run their own version of the app on their own domain name, with their own privacy controls and branding.
What’s been the most difficult aspect of setting up Pen.io?
Like all web apps, scaling is usually the most difficult aspect. And its the same for pen.io. It’s a daily challenge to keep the application loading fast and making sure its always online. There’s no set method for scaling an app so most of the time its trial and error.
What has been your biggest success?
Winning the Best Design Award at the 2011 Launch Conference was a huge achievement and put the app in front of thousands of influencers and really gave the app the momentum it needed.
What have you learned along the way?
While building Pen.io I’ve learned the importance of being super selective when it comes to adding new features. There is a real temptation to keep adding lots of new features to the app, but I’ve discovered this isn’t what the core users really want and need.
What piece of advice would you give to someone setting up their own startup?
Just go and start it. Pen.io was started in a week with basically no money. Since then, its been featured on all the major tech blogs, experienced amazing growth and is getting funded. It didn’t require a huge launch or years of work. If you have an idea, get it to market as soon as you possibly can – it doesn’t need to be perfect, just launch it.
Finally, I’ve seen some great pieces of writing appear on Pen.io. What’s your favorite?
Its hard to choose just one, I think I have a new favorite each day. This page (The Lake Tahoe Hiking Newton) is one of my all time favorites as it really shows how much can be done of the platform.
Thanks Anthony! We’re looking forward to seeing pen.io grow even more over the next 12 months.
