Introduction to Building Your Startup

Earlier this year, I grew interested in simplifying the meeting scheduling process. In my view, the proprietary calendar systems such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar and Microsoft Outlook have failed to make scheduling as easy as it could be. My big complaint is the number of back and forth emails typically required to schedule the average meeting. I had an idea for a planning application that would make the process much less annoying.

I love the creative process and I enjoy sharing my knowledge with others. I thought it would be valuable to set forth the internal process I use as I go through the process of formulating a new product idea, clarifying its business concept, and moving through the stages of implementation.

Building Your Startup With PHP is a series geared towards walking you through the stages of transforming a cool business concept into an actual startup. If you're an idea person curious about the entrepreneurial process, this is for you.

All of the code for our MeetingPlanner application will be released via open source.

New episodes will be published regularly throughout 2015 - usually between two and six weeks apart. A number of episodes are already in the works.

The Table of Contents

Here's the current list of what you can expect to read about in the coming months:

1. Series Introduction and Getting Started
2. Feature Requirements and Database Design
3. Working with Google Places and Maps and HTML5 Geolocation
4. Localization with I18n
5. Access Controls, Ownership, Scoping and Polish
6. User Settings, Profile Images and Contact Details
7. Scheduling a Meeting
8. Scheduling Availability and Choices
9. Delivering the Meeting Announcement, Reminders, Updates
10. Email Commands
11. Generating Calendar Event Files

The following are also confirmed episodes but the order may still change:

• Choosing and Configuring Production Hosting
• Collecting and Managing User Reports and Feedback
• Designing Identity and Branding
• Building Your Designer's Designs
• Monetization Features
• Marketing
• Thinking About Mobile
• Administrative Dashboard and Reporting
• Meeting Templates
• Automated Testing With Codeception
• Dynamic Forms for Scheduling Meetings
• SMS Gateways

And we'll likely add more topics to this list soon. So, check back regularly and follow me on Twitter @reifman.

Please feel free to ask questions and suggest topics or features below; I generally participate in the discussions. You can also reach me on email me directly.

Other Resources

Following stories of the entrepreneurial path is always interesting, and there are a couple of recent entries that may complement this series. 

This year, Stanford is open sourcing its How to Start a Startup class with many industry experts, such as Sam Altman, Paul Graham and Marc Andreesen. Also, Planet Money co-founder Alex Blumberg recently launched a podcast on his own foray into technology startups, which you can follow at HearStartup. He's a bit of a novice as an entrepreneur, but in part because of his access, the content is intriguing and entertaining and he's making amazing progress.

If you'd like to learn more about Yii2, the exciting PHP framework which the series is built in, follow our Programming With Yii2 series and visit the author's reference site The Yii Developer Exchange.