Buffer – Because you want to tweet better

The proliferation of Twitter is ubiquitous to say the least and despite the service being almost universally loved by its users, annoying your followers with a barrage of tweets is not a gargantuan task to accomplish. Enter Buffer.

Buffer is a simple, yet highly effective web application that lets you add your messages to be automatically tweeted at scheduled times, thus avoiding a backlash in the form of decreasing followers. Its co-founder, Joel Gascoigne, puts it best: “Buffer is a smarter way to Tweet”. I was lucky enough to drag Joel away from his text editor long enough to find out what makes him, and Buffer, tick.

Joel, a Warwick University computer science graduate has a long history of early adoption of emerging trends. He embraced the power of the web at the almost premature age of 12 when he first started creating websites, and throughout university he worked as a freelance developer and designer. It was never his idea to leave university to set upon the typical route of the many students taking a graduate job: his aspiration was to be completely independent and build something substantial without being told what to do by anyone else.

Clearly one with a startup mindset, when the time came for his final group project at university, Joel created an interesting location-based social network where your friends could check-in at different places on campus. Joel’s idea actually preceded the behemoths that are now Facebook Places, Foursquare and the prevalence of smartphones. While the entrepreneurially minded Joel would have liked to continue this project, he came to abandon the idea as his fellow group members had different plans.

Following university, and further proof that Gascoigne is a forward thinker, he co-created OnePage; a one-stop shop to easily and automatically disseminate your Internet presence, in the style of prominent sites such as about.me, before these even existed. Although the project lasted over a year, it was not a complete success and he did not get the traction he desired. During the time, it also transpired that his co-founder and himself, while good friends, just did not work that well together; a most important of realisations.

Armed with the experience of building two dynamic and intelligent web applications, Joel set upon getting Buffer off the ground. Joel is a keen follower and believer in the Lean Startup method, first pioneered by entrepreneur Eric Ries, which advocates constant deployment of features and launching with a minimum viable product. Before even starting to build the application Joel wanted validation that his idea was a good one, and put up a landing page with a description of the product, different pricing levels and an e-mail form. With careful analysis of the traffic on his preliminary site he was able to track the metrics that eventually validated his idea. He also gathered over 120 e-mails of prospective subscribers and immediately engaged in conversation with them to understand what they really expected and wanted out of Buffer. These conversations and his acorn of an idea became the paramount shapers of the application. He then set about actually developing the website, which from start to finish took Joel a mind-blowingly swift seven weeks to set up.

With the application up and running, Joel knew that in order to transform the product from an idea into a real and scalable business he would not be able to do it alone. This is when Leo, a young student and keen entrepreneur himself came to the rescue. He is much more than just a product evangelist or simply Joel’s right arm. He is an integral and vital part of the business. Despite the lack of a technical background, Leo managed to previously hack together an interesting cooking social network for students, giving Joel faith in his can-do nature. Having just finished his second year exams, he is taking a year out of university to focus exclusively on Buffer during this high-growth stage.

At the very earliest stages of Buffer, Joel had to keep freelancing in order to be sustainable, despite having his first paying customer within the first three days of operation. Buffer has now grown significantly to over 12,000 users, a healthy portion of whom are paying. This has allowed Joel to stop freelancing and dedicate his full attention to his creation. At this point, he isn’t raking it in yet; in fact, he is making less money now than when he was freelancing. Borrowing a phrase from the prolific Paul Graham, Joel describes Buffer as ‘ramen profitable’. Something tells me Joel does not mind that the riches haven’t yet come and relishes in continuing to develop the application in unique and interesting ways.

His product and idea are both, without a shadow of a doubt, really great, but this alone is not what makes Joel a successful entrepreneur. He has a great attitude that is to an extent shaped by some of the world’s best entrepreneurs. Joel finds it of the utmost importance to keep placing himself outside the traditional comfort zone and finding challenges. He feels that this is the only way to keep satisfied and truly learn in a continuous manner.

When asked about his competitors, Joel was candidly frank. He knows they are out there and he acknowledges that there are similarities in the product, just like different car manufacturers embed similar characteristics in their vehicles. Different car brands get you from A to B, but what really matters is how they do it. He invokes a quote by Henry Ford: “The competitor to be feared is one who never bothers about you at all, but goes on making his own business better all the time”. It’s a decidedly healthy and refreshing attitude in a world of startups obsessed with an idea and the eventual exit. In fact, Joel believes that an undue focus on getting investment or exiting eventually derails founders and drives them to focus on the wrong things.

Before our interview was over, Joel passed some great advice to students potentially interested in entering the exciting world of startups. He thinks it is crucial to take advantage of the summer, as there is unlikely to be a stretch in their lives that is so unconcerned with time or money; two of the biggest constraints on young founders. He believes it to be the perfect time to really experiment and try new things. To that effect, Joel is always open to talking and helping out young startup founders, feeling that having gone through the process very recently, he is in tune with the worries and questions they may have.

With close to 350,000 scheduled tweets to date, Buffer is clearly on the uptrend. There is no doubt that as more and more companies and individuals find their voices on Twitter, Joel and Leo’s application will become increasingly attractive. While Birmingham has thus far been a good home for Buffer, as soon as their lease expires next month, Joel and Leo are off to San Francisco to see for themselves the allures of the almost mystical Silicon Valley. They are already making ripples across the pond, with the Twitter API big chief requesting a meeting with them.

Interestingly, during my interview with Joel, Buffer raked in almost another thirty users. To put things into perspective it took him a week to get those many users when he first began.

If you take nothing else from Joel’s story, remember three key things: the importance of simplicity of your product, the importance of a right co-founder and the veritable will to make it happen no matter what. Expect great things from this duo.

Check out Buffer at http://www.bufferapp.com Find Joel’s blog on: http://joel.is You can also follow Joel on Twitter: @joelgascoigne