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

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