YE Interview Series: Mike Roberts of SpyFu

As part of our continuing interview series highlighting young entrepreneurs who are making it happen, we’re very happy to present a great interview with Mike Roberts from SpyFu.  If you haven’t heard about SpyFu, it’s just a matter of time.  Anyone with a website would be wise to check it out.  That is, if you have competition – and who doesn’t?  Like all our interviewees, Mike exemplifies what it means to be an entrepreneur, and he’s an excellent example of what someone interested in tech and programming can do with a great idea.  So without further delay, here’s the interview:

Mike Roberts
32 Year Old Entrepreneur
Founder of SpyFu
Twitter: @mrspy

SpyFu is a great idea.  Where did the idea come from?

Thanks, I appreciate it.  I had the idea for SpyFu when I was learning to use Google AdWords to promote my first company, Velocityscape.  I had some competitors, and I really wanted to see which keywords they were buying, and what ad variations seemed to work for them.  At the time, the only way to do that was basically guess a keyword and check to see if they showed up.

From idea to company, how long did it take to launch your business?

It took 15 months of working about 11 hours a day 6 days a week to write SpyFu.  But, I wrote a prototype called GoogSpy in 4 days.  It gained an instant following and made it into the Wall Street Journal the week after we announced it.  So, that gave me the confidence to go forward.  Interestingly, my first product – a few years before SpyFu took 14 months to write and release, and that was just nights and weekends.  There must be something about that amount of time that makes me really want to get a product out the door.

What challenges did you face in making SpyFu a reality, and how did you overcome them?

I don’t want to geek out on you too much here, but building a 20 terabyte data warehouse that chews on data for months at a time, and supports a website with millions of visitors per month on like $16k in hardware is really hard.  Managing heat alone was a major issue.  During development, I had the servers in my house (which was also the Velocityscape office), and during the winter the heat from the servers kept the 2800 sq ft house at about 74 degrees.  On the downside, for the rest of the year, I had an $800 per month AC bill.

How do you market your business?  What has been the most successful form of marketing you’ve utilized?

Of course, we use pay per click.  But, by far, our most successful form of marketing has been the organic PR aspect of being an innovative, first mover, doing cool things… and also not being jerks to our customers.  We owe 95% of our success to the intense love we get from bloggers and influencers in our community.

What three pieces of advice would you give young entrepreneurs interested in starting a new business?

1. Don’t guard your ideas.  I don’t care how awesome YOU think your idea is.  Nobody is going to steal it.  It’s kind of sad and comforting at the same time.  I tried to give away the idea of SpyFu for 3 years.  But sharing your idea with anyone who will listen will get you really good feedback and help make your idea better.  Seriously, try giving your ideas away – my first 30 posts on Twitter were product ideas I was sitting on for months.  When I have a new one I tweet it.
2. Whatever you do, don’t think you have to come up with something totally new.  In fact, if something hasn’t been invented yet, it’s *most likely* that there isn’t a market.  Competition is a good thing.  Look for a market that’s small enough for you to compete, but big enough for you to grow.  Fragmented competition is also good.
3. If you’re like me and coming up with something completely new and revolutionizing an industry is what really excites you, then here’s my advice:  Trust your ideas, but refine them to the point you can prototype them quickly.  And choose to work on the ideas that scale well.

Do you believe there is a formula for being a successful entrepreneur?

If you asked me that question a year ago, I would have said “Absolutely”, then rattled off a few of my most charming virtues (modesty for example).   But in the last year I’ve won the Arizona’s 35 entrepreneurs under 35 award and become a member of Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO).  So, recently, I’ve met like ten times more entrepreneurs than I’ve met in my entire life.  And there’s a lot less of a pattern than I originally thought.  I’d say that the one common thread is a refusal to quit.  Also, I just played in a Texas Hold ‘em tournament with about 80 fellow entrepreneurs.  Let me just say that the number of “all-ins” was a statistical anomaly.

How do you define success?

Success: An endless cycle of failures that you manage to learn from.

A big ‘Thank you!’ goes out to Mike for this interview.  He’s an inspiration, and we appreciate him taking time out of a very busy schedule to offer his insights.  Thanks, Mike!