Choosing the right features to build is one of the most important things we do as founders. But it’s also really hard.
Steve is currently co-writing a book on this topic. For research, he’s been talking to bootstrapped, stable, well-run, mature, profitable software companies of about 20-50 people, asking them how they go about feature prioritisation – how they did this in the early days, how that changed over time, and what they do now.
Steve will be sharing 5 unique and interesting approaches he’s discovered so far.
Steve McLeod
Founder & CEO, Feature Upvote
Feature Upvote, is a SaaS for collecting and centralising customer feedback that’s become unexpectedly popular in the video games industry. It’s Steve’s third software business.
The first business was a complete flop, only ever selling one license. Financial salvation came when the business morphed into a successful consultancy.
The second business was an old-school try-before-you-buy shareware-style desktop app, acquired after 10+ years.
After experiencing near burn-out with his first business, Steve is firmly in the “lifestyle business” camp. He intentionally aims to keep his business low-stress, aiming only for modest, manageable growth, so that he can keep mentally healthy while running it.
Originally from New Zealand, Steve now lives in Barcelona, Spain.
