Helping Small Businesses Get Building

We know right now is an especially difficult time for both individuals and businesses everywhere, which is why we are even more committed to supporting developers and entrepreneurs all over the world. Beginning in April, we’re kicking off an initiative to help small businesses through a series of virtual presentations, panels, and live-coding sessions – all focused on helping small businesses get building.

While the topics will cover many elements of business and technology, each session will focus on how to build and grow cloud-powered apps and businesses.

Here’s what you can look forward to in April:

Building a SaaS, two-part series| April 9, 2020 1:00 p.m. EDT and April 21 @ 1:00 p.m. EDT

Part 1: Customer-Driven Product Development

• Jake Levirne, Sr. Director of Product for Developer Experience at DigitalOcean, will explore methodologies that help us continually focus on our customers’ needs, building just enough to learn and iterate toward their desired outcomes.

Part 2: Building a SaaS: Developing Your App, From Front to Back

• In this webinar, we’ll take a look at what it takes to create a SaaS and start gaining paid customers. Presented by Chris on Code, the founder of Scotch.io.

How to successfully operate & optimize an eCommerce store in 2020 | April 20 @ 1:00 p.m. EDT

• eCommerce sites are currently seeing dramatic changes as buying behavior shifts. eCommerce expert JetRails will provide helpful information on ensuring your store is optimized to support this shift. Presented by Robert, Director of Partnerships & Alliances at JetRails with support from Austin Black, Solutions Engineer at DigitalOcean.

The Impact of No-Code and Low-Code Technology | April 23 @ 12:00 p.m. EDT

• The rise of no-code and low-code options have made developing websites and apps easier than ever. How does this impact small businesses? Join a panel of industry experts to learn how your business can prepare and adapt to these new tools.

Running a Dev Shop or Agency on DigitalOcean | April 27 @ 1:00 p.m. EDT

• A panel discussion from successful founders and developers on why they use DigitalOcean for their businesses. The panel will touch on where DigitalOcean fits into a client’s technology stack and other tools agencies use with DigitalOcean.

How Startups can Increase Their Cash Flow Through the R&D Tax Credit | April 28 @ 11:00 a.m. EDT

• One frequently overlooked incentive for emerging startups in need of cloud infrastructure is the Research and Development (R&D) Tax Credit. Brandon Carroll, from Leyton, will talk about how startups can increase their cash flow through the credit.

Running an agency during the pandemic | May 5 @ 11:30 AM EDT

• Join agency expert and consultant Jody Sutter from the Sutter Company (https://www.thesuttercompany.com/) as we discuss how an agency can cope with the current pandemic’s impact on the agency industry.

Multi-location load balancing for DigitalOcean | May 6 @ 1:00 PM EDT

• In this webinar Snapt (https://corp.snapt.net/) CTO and industry expert, Dave Blakey will unpack the current and future state of ADC’s and Load Balancers and solve the challenges in delivering and securing multi-location and cloud-native applications in DigitalOcean

Building and optimizing an eCommerce site using DigitalOcean | May 14th @ 1:00 PM EDT

• Austin Black, a Solutions Engineer at DigitalOcean, will walk through how to set up and optimize an eCommerce site hosted on DigitalOcean.

Most of these events will be live on DigitalOcean’s YouTube channel. To stay up to date on these sessions and other DigitalOcean happenings, simply subscribe to our YouTube channel.

If you are already building and want to share your story with us, we’d love to hear about your experience. We’ll highlight some of the stories that catch our eye with our vibrant user community, where they will serve a bigger purpose: inspiring and educating fellow developers while also giving visibility to your hard work.

Let’s get building – together.