If you have been following my blog, my company or my twitter page then you probably know that my startup – yonkly – was built with ASP.NET MVC.  In this post, I will talk about how I scale deploy Yonkly very easily.

Hosting

Initially, I had it hosted on Amazon Web Services inside EC2 instance.  That didn’t work too well for a few reasons:

• EC2 only supports windows 2003
• A separate instance is needed for load balancing (extra cost)
• The database instance is very costly
• Databases tend to run slow on virtual machines

While looking for alternatives to AWS, I joined Microsoft BizSpark (a program that provides software,  support and visibility for software startups).  The greatest benefit of the program is the use of pretty much all Microsoft products for 3 years for free.  Imagine all the SQL and Windows licenses that you need to scale your website – all for free.  Another great benefit is that Microsoft partnered with hosting companies for even more discounts.

The next step is to find a hosting company.  I went with ServePath/GoGrid.  They offer the best combination in price, scalability and flexibility.  I got a dedicated server for SQL Server and created virtual machines for the front end in GoGrid.  Since both services are by the same company, the virtual machine has a super fast connection to the dedicated server.  The cool thing about GoGrid is that it includes a free load balancer.  So my setup looks something like this:

The blue machines are virtual/cloud machines running in GoGrid and the database server is a dedicated/physical server.

Web Servers: Windows 2008, IIS, ASP.NET MVC

Build Server: Windows 2008, TeamCity

Database Server: Windows 2008, SQL Server 2008

The beauty of all this is that I can add X more servers and scale within minutes.  Eventually, the db server will be the bottleneck and I would have to cluster it, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves here.

Management & Deployment

You are probably wondering.  How do you manage all these machines?  How long does it take you to deploy a new version?  The answers are “easy” and “less than a minute”

I started off using CruiseControl.NET (CCNET) to manage my build and deployment but eventually changed to TeamCity.   I like CCNET and the fact that is written in .NET and runs in IIS is very comforting to me.  On the other hand TeamCity is way more capable, has a better interface and was way too easy to setup.  On the flip side, TeamCity is written in Java and runs in Tomcat.  This is a very simplified list of benefits, for more info check their homepage and look at the screen tour.  The best part, both products are free and CCNET is open source.

Once I got TeamCity up and running, I created 2 projects one called “Yonkly Build” and the other “Yonkly Deploy”.

The Yonkly Build project:

• monitors the source control repository (SVN)
• checks out changes
• builds the code

The Yonkly Deploy project copies the changed files using Robocopy to every web server using a NANT script.  The NANT build file looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<project name="yonkly" default="deploy files">
    <target name="deploy files">
       <exec
         program="robocopy.exe"
         commandline="c:\dev\yonkly20\yonkly20\ c:\websites\yonkly20 *.* /E /XA:H /COPY:DT /XO /XD .svn logs obj aspnet_client app_data properties controllers helpers models /NDL /NC /NS /NP /XF *.cs *.csproj *.config  *.pdb"
         timeout="120000"
         failonerror="false"
         resultproperty="nunitReturnCode">
       </exec>
       <fail if="${nunitReturnCode > '7'}">Robocopy failed with yonkly20 (return code ${nunitReturnCode})</fail>  

       <exec
         program="robocopy.exe"
         commandline="c:\dev\yonkly20\yonkly20\ \\10.109.69.2\c\websites\yonkly20 *.* /E /XA:H /COPY:DT /XO /XD .svn logs obj aspnet_client app_data properties controllers helpers models /NDL /NC /NS /NP /XF *.cs *.csproj *.config  *.pdb"
         timeout="120000"
         failonerror="false"
         resultproperty="nunitReturnCode">
       </exec>
       <fail if="${nunitReturnCode > '7'}">Robocopy failed with yonkly20 on remote (return code ${nunitReturnCode})</fail>  

    </target>
</project>

You can repeat the Robocopy command for every web server.  You can learn more about Robocopy here, NANT tasks here and the exec task here.  The fail element in the above XML file tells TeamCity to only fail the build if the return value from Robocopy is greater than 7.  Get more info about Robcopy return code which is a bit map over here.

It’s important to note that I have a dependency setup between my build and deploy projects.  This is to ensure that I don’t deploy a failed build.  The deploy project will only work if the build succeeds.

Tools & Helpers

There are a couple of helpful tools/plugins that make TeamCity even more powerful.  The first plugin is a system tray notifier that will display popups to notify of build status.

The other plugin is for Visual Studio and is a “killer feature” for TeamCity.  It allows me to verify that my code will build on the server before I check it in.  it’s probably better if you read the description on their site.

Ready. Set. Go

Now, all I have to do is check in my code.  TeamCity will detect the new files, check them out, build the application and if it succeeds, it will deploy it.

What’s Next?

Many of these things are relatively new to me, so if you know of a better way to do things, please share.  I am also looking for a way to automate my database migration (probably with a NANT task).

So, I need to start/create a new product or service and need your opinion on what to do next.

I created a very short questionnaire (only 1 required question and no email address is required).  Can you please take 5 seconds and guide me in the right direction?

It is located at http://bit.ly/hIk1p

If you decide to fill out your email (optional), I will use it to send you a free copy/subscription of whatever I (we) decide to create.

I will announce the results of your votes on twitter after I close voting. 

Thanks for your help in advance.

PS: You can also help by re-tweeting – http://bit.ly/1uIuvI my request for feedback.

PSS: I will make the results public once voting is closed.  I just don’t want the current results to influence your vote.  I will also make public the ideas suggested by you – some are really fantastic (thanks).

PSSS: Some related discussions here

Initially, I thought I should turn this into an eBook and sell it for a few bucks then I thought my target audience are probably not willing to spend money even it were only 5 bucks.  I finally settled on making it into a series of blog posts and also incorporating your comments along the way.

Risks

First, let’s set the stage.  My situation is probably different than yours; so if you have lots of money saved up, rich parents or potential investors and have no debt then some of these questions/pointers might not apply to you.  I started off with zero savings, high credit card debt and pretty good credit score.  So, among money of the risks you will be taking, ask yourself if you are willing to end up with bad credit.  A year+ later, I am short selling my condo, have a lot more debt than before and I don’t even want to know my credit score.

I was telling my sister about my situation and she said “you are taking this surprisingly well.  You used to be very conscious of your credit score”.  Well, I told her it’s not the end of the world and I will just have to learn to live within my means for the next few years until banks agree to lend me again.  Can you imagine living in a world where you only buy the car you can afford?  The computer you can afford?  The house you can afford?  So again, are you willing to take this risk and take it “surprisingly well” if things go bad?

So far we have “Are you willing to end up with bad credit?”, this of course is one of many more questions you should ask yourself to assess your readiness to take the leap:

• Can you handle a foreclosure?
• Can you live without a car if it breaks down and you can’t fix it or if it gets repossessed?
• Can your significant other handle it?
• Can you handle living without some “relative luxuries”: eating out, drinking, partying, vacation, gadgets, toys and so on?

In the above questions, when I say “handle”, I mean “can you mentally, psychologically and physically handle it?”.  It is really hard for me to walk into Best Buy or stumble on Amazon.com and come out empty handed.  It is very difficult for me to go out with some friends and just order a couple of beers all night.  All I am saying is: prepare yourself.

One more thing and then I will move on.  A friend once told me about how brave I was for doing this and that he could never do the same thing in a million years.  I asked him what was his biggest fear and his answer shocked me: “… that my wife would leave me”.  I am sorry, but personally I think if you are thinking this way then you probably married the wrong person.  And, honestly if she leaves you because you are broke, then good riddance.  What happens to “until death do us apart”, it’s not “until your credit score do us apart”.  Luckily, my fiancé is still around and we are getting married in the next few months.  Off topic: weddings are a big, expensive, waste-of-money one-night party that no one will remember.  And if anyone remembers your wedding 3 months later it is because it was really good or really bad.

Offsets

There are many things to offset the risk while you are starting your company.  The most obvious one is to not quit your job.  I personally couldn’t do that.  You can’t spend 10 hours at work and then come back home and be able to fully focus and commit to your startup.  If you can do that then you should.  But say goodbye to your social life and probably health and mental well being.

Again there are a hundred ways to offset the risk and generate some money on the side if not to cover all your bills at least it will cover your food and Internet bill.  I don’t know you and I don’t know what you can do to make some money but I will tell you some of the things I did and an estimate on how income they generated.

• Consulting gigs (web development and social media consulting) – $30k
• Online ad Revenue from my websites – $2k
• Startup/yonkly – revenue (I know!  Can you believe that?  It is already generating revenue) – ~$10k.  Most of the money was a side effect of the startup e.g. custom development.
• Book writing – I don’t think I am allowed to disclose the amount but let’s just say it’s enough money to pay your bills for 2 or 3 months.
• Article writing – depends on the magazine but should be between $500 and $1000 per article.
• Sell your junk on amazon, ebay and craigslist.  I sold a ton of books, dvds and electronics that I didn’t use anymore – $1k.  It won’t make you reach but it will be enough money to feed the dog for a few months.
• Raise money – $0.  Hey, don’t sound surprised, it’s a tough market.
• Not selling your organs on the black market – priceless.

The important thing is that you need to find the right balance.  If you do too much consulting then you won’t have time for your startup.  But if you get lucky and find a contract that lasts a couple of months and pays a lot of money then take it.  That should keep you going for a few more months.

Coming Up

I don’t want to make this post too long.  I talked about the risks and how to offset.  It is important to understand that you are minimizing risk – not eliminating it.

I am going to focus this series on an web startup or do I dare say a web 2.0 startup.  Not everything will apply to everyone (or to anyone for that matter) but hopefully it will be helpful and entertaining.  I would like to cover the following topics in future posts:

• Building The Website (multiple posts)
  • Development (Programming)
  • Hosting and scaling
  • Payment integration (PayPal)
• Marketing & PR (here is a good book)
• Tools & Services (I will expand on my previous post)
• Resources & References
• [insert your suggestion here]

Help me expand the previous list.  Leave a comment and tell me what you would like me to discuss.

If you have been reading my blog or following me on Twitter then you already know that I quit my job almost a year ago and launched my first startup (Yonkly) a few months ago.

The economy sucks, we are bootstrapped and doing whatever it takes to survive – I hope that kid I stole the sandwich from will understand.  As a startup, we need to cut the fat (not that there is any) and make sure we only pay for things we need (and no, you don’t need a subscription to Playboy).

I thought, I would come up with a list of online (and offline services) that are worth paying for.  Feel free to leave a comment with links to services that you use and think are worth the money.

FreshBooks: A great way to track your time and invoice your clients (until your startup takes off).  I am currently using their free plan but they have plans starting at $14/month

Basecamp: Really easy project management on the web.  They have a free version and plans start at $12/month

DreamHost: A very affordable way to host your blogs and websites I must have over 30 websites hosted with them for a ridiculously low fee.  It is so low, I want to pay extra with my bill (but I won’t).

WooThemes: Impress your customers with a killer WordPress theme.  These are some of the best themes I have seen anywhere.  We are currently using it on the Yonkly blog.

Animoto: So you have decided to raise some money and want to create an interesting video to put on your homepage.  Unfortunately you are as artistically talented as box of donuts (no offense Krispy Kream).  This is a killer way to create a video, go and try it out, you can create a 30 second video for free.  Here is the video I created for Yonkly, it took me less than 30 minutes.

Angelsoft.net: Speaking of raising money, try this site.  I signed up and paid $250 to have my application submitted to thousands of potential investors and investor groups.  Warning: It has only been 3 days since I subscribed to it, so I don’t know how effective it is.  I personally like the fact that I can reach so many investors very quickly it’s like monster.com for entrepreneurs/investors.  But don’t get your hopes too high, only 5% get funded.  Here are some stats http://angelsoft.net/industry/index.seam

StreamSend: Now that you have 15 thousand people signed up to receive your newsletter announcing the grand opening (or closing) of your startup, you need a way to send bulk email.  StreamSend is the cheapest I could find.  Not that best, but the cheapest.

Remember The Milk (RTM): Stay organized and productive with Remember The Milk.  They are everywhere: on the web, on your iphone, in your gmail inbox, in your gmail calendar on your windows and mac desktop, in your iGoogle start page and even integrates with QuickSilver on the mac and Launchy on the pc.  It’s free but I pay $25/year to use their iPhone app (that’s 25 a YEAR).  One drawback: it doesn’t sync withOutlook  

Amazon Prime: If you are going to buy a ton of book to tell you how to market/sell/buy/start/ a business or how to work 4 hours a week and live your dream then you should subscribe to Amazon Prime.  It gives you free shipping on pretty much everything at Amazon for $75 a year.

Amazon Web Services: The best way to reduce your bandwidth and online storage.  I use S3, CloudFront, Elastic Compute Cloud and SimpleDB.  I even created a SimpleDB manager, which you should buy a copy of.  Legend has it that for every copy sold a terrorist is captured.  You don’t believe?  I sold a copy the day John Walker (the terrorist not the drink) was captured.  Coincidence?  I don’t think so.

Joe’s Goals: Set some goals, track them and celebrate your achievements (or cry yourself to sleep, loser).  It’s free, but you can pay $12/year to have the ads removed.  I will take my ads now, please.

CrowdSound: A great way to collect user feedback.  They have a free plan and plans starting at $10/month.  Definitely worth the money.

And of course, the myriad of Google tools and services out there: Docs, Calendar, Mail, Analytics, Reader.  They are all free but you have to give up your soul to Google.  But don’t worry, they will “do no evil”.  Worst case, they will sell ads on your soul with SoulSense (still in beta).

Please share with everyone services that you use and think are worth the money.

Hacker News users are stubborn and insist on commenting there.  I can’t seem to convince them, so here is a link to their comments http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=456422

Disclaimer: I am sure you noticed that most of the links have a referral code.  Don’t worry, that didn’t affect my recommendations or integrity (what is that?).  I actually use all the services mentioned above.  Plus we are bootstrapped and the economy is in the crapper so give me a break and use these links.

We have subscription plans and currently offering a discounted annual subscription* to celebrate the new year.  For the technically-savvy, we even have the source code up for sale .

What Next?

We have been contemplating the next step in our startup and want to hear your take on it.

Should we look for funding?  Angel investors? VCs? Friends and Family?

If yes, then how much and in return for what?

If no, then why and what are the other options?

Do we sell?  How much? How and to who?

The Dream

We are a dedicated and highly motivated team of entrepreneurs that want to achieve a 4HWW lifestyle and not work ourselves to the grave.  With that in mind is getting investors a good idea?

Exit: A Good Outcome

We think the best outcome for us is having enough paid subscribers to pay our bills and more.  A second best outcome is to sell the company and use the money to fund our next idea – we have a ton of ideas and lots of talent (that sounds conceited).  Third outcome is to get funding so we can aggressively develop, market and grow the company.

What do you think and why?

* Discounted annual subscriptions of up to 33% off.  Create your network, go to the admin control panel and click subscriptions.   This is a limited-time offer, so if you don’t see it there, it probably expired.

One approach to my marketing strategy is to use an affiliate program.  We have all seen affiliate programs for everything from selling t-shirts to selling domains.  The question I struggled with is "how much do I pay my affiliates?"  I want it to be fair, competitive and also motivational enough to encourage the affiliates to market it.

I found out that 37 Signals pays 5% to their affiliates that sounds way too low.  What would be a good percentage?  15%? 25%?  The plan I came up with is a tiered approach which gradually increases your percentage from 10% to 50% – you can read more about it at http://www.yonklyapp.com/affiliates.aspx and maybe even signup to be an affiliate.  The best part is that it is recurring. 

So if you bring in a 100 customers, you will earn:

$200/month on the first 20
$400/month on the next 20
$600/month on the next 20
$800/month on the next 20
$1000/month on the last 20

That’s a total of $3000 EVERY MONTH.  Isn’t that pretty damn good?  Or not?  I would love to hear your opinions.

Consultant

My name is Emad Ibrahim and I am a consultant specializing in .net development. I architect, design and create software. I can do it faster and better than the competition. Unlike other consultants, I don’t want to milk a contract to make more money. I want to finish on time and under budget, so I can have a happy customer and repeat business. Call or email me for a free consultation – I would love to help you even if you get someone else to do the job.

Entrepreneur

My name is Emad Ibrahim and I am an entrepreneur specializing in web development and new media.. I create software applications and web services using the latest technologies and embracing new web and social trends. I understand the online landscape and stay up to date on what is hot and what is not and how to tap new technologies to improve your business and your life. Contact me for partnership opportunities. I have learned that I can’t do it all alone.

Superhero

My name is Super-E and I am a super hero. I can read and write computer languages incomprehensible to humans. I also have the ability to create self-healing programs and an expert bug exterminator. I like to guide people and business on how to use computers to improve their work and personal life. If you have any questions that only a superhero can answer, then call on Super-E.

photo credit: zukker

Create your own 15-second pitch for free at http://www.15secondpitch.com

photo credit: Keith Bacongco

I went through all my accounts and canceled all the non-essential stuff.

1. Cable TV is gone – interestingly enough my media center croaked recently, it must have been a sign
2. My Xbox 360 is dead and it is going to stay that way.
3. Netflix is also gone. If I feel the urge, it’s redbox for a dollar or free from the library
4. My paid online subscriptions are gone. If it is not free I don’t want it. I am only keeping am even canceling my Basecamp account
5. I moved all my php websites to a new server at DreamHost and my cost went from $50 a month to $5.

photo credit: rickOther things I am doing to cut cost:

1. I am looking into moving my Rackspace server somewhere cheaper – I am paying $300/month
2. I will switch to FIOS as soon as it is available in my area – any experiences with that?
3. No more eating out
4. Draft beer from now on – no more dirty martinis :(

Other tips anyone?

photo credit: Stephen Jefferson

Here are the steps I am taking to reduce distractions and stay focused and productive:

1. I unsubscribed from 95% of the feeds – my Google reader is lean and mean (I still read Dilbert every day)
2. I unsubscribed from every newsletter or email I get – specially the ones that tell me to buy stuff. Damn you Amazon.com
3. I turned off all my instant messaging – AIM, MSN, Google Talk, Yahoo and Skype.
4. I am trying to limit email checking to twice or three times a day (very hard to do)
5. I am limiting blogging to once or twice a week and schedule posts to be spread out several days.
6. I am using Basecamp to keep track of my project, milestones, to do items and so on. Albeit its limitation, I love this tool.
7. I use outlook and remember the milk to manage my tasking and calendaring (I might get rid of rtm)
8. I listen to a lot of DJ Tiesto on Pandora
9. I am eliminating video games. The Xbox 360 is broken, and I am not going to fix it. I think Microsoft programmed it to break 1 week after the warranty expires.
10. I am limiting web browsing to 1 hour a day or less if I can.
11. I am limiting TV to very specific shows (lost and family guy), plus my media center just croaked. Why have a surge protector if the first storm fries your electronics.
12. I am not showering or shaving. I am just kidding. Actually, I would love to do that but Laura would leave me.

Do you have other tips on how to stay focused and productive?

Some probably think, I am either stupid or crazy. The funny thing is that I actually liked the company I worked for and I was making enough money to pay my bills. But I had to do it. I have several ideas and want to dedicate all my time to them. I want to be 100% committed to them and not work on them on evenings and week nights. I have been wanting to do this for a while but the time was never right (and I didn’t have the guts).

Two things happened last week that triggered this seemingly irrational decision. I was reading the 4 hour work week and a few things caught my attention:

• The time is never right
• Imagine the worst case scenario and ask “is it that bad?”
• Taking a risk is a lot less frightening than the thought of it – the though of skydiving is a lot scarier than actually doing it.

photo credit: Mr. Jacobsen

After thinking about the worst case scenario i.e. losing my houses, my job, be completely broke, etc… I realized, it wasn’t that bad. It’s also highly unlikely. So I got to work and emailed and a bunch of friends asking to raise capital for my idea. The second thing happened, the response was overwhelming. It was over $100k of possible investment. Wow!!!

Then I talked to a friend and he gave me a good advice and basically told me not to take money until I absolutely needed it. So, I decided, for now, I will finance my ideas with my credit cards, loans, credit lines and so on. When I get to a beta or at a point when I really need the money then I will start looking for investors. Plus, I didn’t want to deal with investors, paperwork and all that headache.

I am sure you want to know what the ideas are. Well, stay tuned, I will be blogging about them very shortly and will try to post regular progress here.

photo credit: Ingy The Wingy

If you want to stay up to date on my progress, you can subscribe to my feed. If you don’t use feeds or don’t know what a feed is then subscribe to my email in the top right hand corner and the site will automatically send you an email when I post something new. Or if you are super lazy, just click here

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