Episode 015 - From medical doctor to Time Doctor - Rob Rawson on startups and productivity

Rob Rawson explains how he built productivity application Time Doctor for his own needs and the crazy experiments he has run to grow users.

Today’s guest, Rob Rawson, was formerly a medical doctor and always an entrepreneur. He is Co-founder and Chief Productivity Officer for Time Doctor, and CEO of the outsourcing website Staff.com.

Rob originally created Time Doctor – an app that keeps track of how much time you’re spending on different tasks, apps, and websites to assure productivity – so that his employees could work from home, while maintaining his peace of mind as their employer.

Now, Time Doctor has over 10,000 users.

We’re going to learn how Rob turned his own productivity application into a consumer product without very much software development experience, the experiments he ran to grow his user base, and how he continues to find success through structure.

“One thing I really focus on, and that’s been so important to me, has been taking massive action … Anything that’s working, you need to put the pedal to the metal as fast as you can with that strategy.” (click to tweet)

In this episode, you’ll learn from Rob:

How to build a product without software development experience.
Why he doesn’t support outsourcing development, but instead “in-sourcing” team members.
Specific steps he has taken to develop growth metrics for Time Doctor.
Which experiments he has conducted to improve the Time Doctor experience.
What goes into organization and communication with a team that has no central location.

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Resources mentioned in this episode:

Answers to Quickfire Q&A:

If you could chat with anyone, dead or alive, who would it be and why?
1. Warren Buffett, because he is very simple in nature.
Name a tool, app, or website that you can’t live without and why.
1. Jing – “It’s actually an app for recording your screen, and it’s an essential communication tool for remote communication.”
Tell us something unique and interesting about you that not many may know.
1. I got in trouble at school for crashing my teacher’s car.
What are the top three skills or characteristics that you look for in people you work with?
1. Specific skills required for specific tasks
2. Genuine enthusiasm
3. Time zone
What is something you believe, but few others agree with you?
1. The largest form of intolerance today is “country-ism,” or being discriminated by the country you are from.

How to contact Rob:

You can reach out to Rob and the people at Time Doctor using their Contact page.

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