News, Advice, Case Studies for Startups

When Raphael Mudge decided to launch a startup last year, one of his biggest fears was was "walking into a job interview with my head held low because I didn't succeed." Indeed, the first iteration of his style checker software went nowhere at first. Fortunately, Mudge was undeterred. He kept at it and his perseverance paid off when After the Deadline (AtD) was acquired a year later by Automattic, the company behind popular blogging software WordPress.

The early months of his new business were fraught with frustration. Mudge submitted an early version of AtD to Y Combinator Demo Day, Spring '09 and was promptly rejected. Mudge then applied to several other seed funding programs, only to be rejected each time. Finally, he landed an interview with an investor and -- you guessed it -- was rejected again.

"I was so far along with the product at that point, I wanted to at least see it finished," Mudge recalls. "My plan was to get the product built, pay for a decent Web site, and invest time into marketing the product. I set my 29th birthday as the day I would have a job again. Knowing there was an end in sight let me focus on finishing and marketing the product."

As it turns out, Mudge started working with Automattic the day after his 29th birthday.

Mudge credits the early feedback he received about his project as one of the keys to his success. "The precursor to After the Deadline was a web interface to an English style checker I wrote. The technology didn't check spelling, grammar, or misused words. I wrote the style checker because I had the need. When I first announced it, there wasn't any interest in it. I knew the technology worked but I wasn't successful generating interest in the idea.

"Later I wrote to a friend who worked at TheLadders.com. I casually mentioned my website in a footnote. He wrote back and said he showed it to his coworkers and they loved it. They wrote about it in their newsletter and a lot of people came to my site. I received those crucial 'thank you' messages from the people I helped. Without this feedback, After the Deadline wouldn't exist today."

Mudge advises anyone on the fence about launching a startup to just dive in, get to work, and stay positive. "Do it and release something simple as quickly as possible. Don't get discouraged if initially there is no interest in your product. Give yourself a set amount of time and iterate as much as possible in that time. If you have no traction after that time period expires, move on."

Now that Mudge has been through the entire startup cycle, from rejection to acquisition, would he do it again? "Yes," he says. "With Automattic, I am still an entrepreneur. Now I have a team I can collaborate with as needed and a mission to help people write better."

Flickr image courtesy of gemsling.