Ingredients

  • A healthy programmer: any kind of programmer is fine, in our experience, when a programmer does startup, he tends to work very hard because of his love in the project. So good health ensures the completeness of the startup.
  • A weird mindset: the weirder it is, the better chance you can make an interesting product. Don't worry to be weird, lot of atWare's employees are weird, too!
  • 200 grams of programming skill: expert is not required, but as a startup, you will manage your own products so a full-stack developer is prefer. If not, you still can borrow some programming skill from other members.
  • 1 or 2 crazy ideas (optional): if you don't have any ideas now, it's ok. You still can play around with other projects while thinking about a new one.
  • And finally, an atWare's contract of employment: of couse, if you want to do startup in atWare, you have to be an atWare's member.

Directions

1. Come up with an idea.

If you already have one, so it's perfect! Grab your leader (or your boss is fine) and tell him that you have a fantastic idea and you want to do it while still being paid by the company.

If you haven't had an idea yet, you could sharpen your skills with other company's project. Sometimes, the projects are so interesting and make you forget about startup. So be careful!

2. Prepare for starting your new idea

Share your ideas with everyone in your team and get feedback. Each team in atWare has mission to make a new service so there will be a high probability you can get members in your team implement your idea together. If your idea doesn't require much work or you don't have much confidence, you can do it by yourself as a side project.

3. Implement your idea

Lean startup is recommended in atWare for starting a new service. If you don't know how to Lean, ask Kitano-san to teach you.

Now you can implement your service. Put your crazy idea in central, implement it with 200 grams of programming skill, modify it after each sprint with your weird mindset and feedback. Repeat it until you success or feel bored and come up with a better idea.

Good luck!

Note: When doing startup, if you want to work till midnight (or even overnight), you can stay at office and work. atWare has kitchen to prepare some warm food and drink, soft sofa to rest and an isolated room for you to focus on your project. Sometimes, especially Friday or there is a new comer, we usually has drinking party in office. If you don't want to have too much fun with others and focus on your project, isolated room is your solution.