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Your Minimum Viable Product is Processing Credit Cards
If you’re building any sort of web service or mobile app and you can’t yet receive money from people – stop. Right now. Stop. For all that is right in the world – stop. If you can’t process credit cards right now – you don’t have a product and you barely have a business. Your … Continue reading "Your Minimum Viable…
How To Fire A Co-Founder
The two biggest reasons startups fail is running out of money and founding team implosions. One Y Combinator founder I spoke with felt that about ~20% of startups in his batch blew up in the first 9-12 months after entering YC due to founder issues.
Finding Ideas For Your Next Project
When starting a new business project, how do you decide what to produce? The common thing you hear is that an idea is necessary to start. I know a lot of wannabe entrepreneurs who are constantly trying to come up with their next big idea. They think great ideas are not only hard to come […]
Here’s what I learned hanging out with Jason Fried
Discuss on Hacker News. I went to meet Jason Fried so I could learn how to stop selling software by accident. Since I started programming 10 years ago, I’v
Behind the scenes of the Pirate Bay trial
Process of law failed on so many accounts in the trial against the two operators of The Pirate Bay, its media spokesperson, and a...
The Factory Floor, Part 1 of 4: The Quotation (or, How to Make a BOM)
This month, I will be teaching a few MIT Media Lab graduate students and doing a bit of a “geek tour” of Shenzhen – we will visit several factories and live among the electronic markets to facilitate new directions and expand horizons in the students’ hardware-oriented research projects.
The Software Millionaire Next Door
I've been reading "The Millionaire Next Door" and have so far found it to be a pleasant book with a good message: don't waste your money on silly things and appearance (fancy su…
One Way to Write A Powerful Cold Email
The cold email tactic I’m about to share is not only for sales and business development professionals; it’s a unique cold email strategy that can be used
Starting The Web App Challenge: From Zero to $5,000/month In 6 Months
My last two projects, both books, have been insanely successful. Selling more than $80,000 worth in just over 3 months. The connections I’ve made, marketing lessons learned, and financial freedom I now have make a huge difference. There is only one problem: those were all one time sales. Note: Do you design software?…
SQL is Agile
Thoughts about why relational databases are not a bad choice when starting a new project.
$26,679 in 24 hours: Stats from my latest book launch
Do you work on web applications? Then you’d probably learn a lot from my new book, Designing Web Applications. A few years ago I had no idea a day like last Wednesday was even possible. After all, everyone I knew worked jobs that paid a modest yearly salary. My wealthier friends made closer to $250/day […]
Expedia: Bad for the Traveler, Bad for the Hotel
There is a lot of talk in the news these days about the difficulties facing small business owners around the world. Nowhere are these difficulties felt as deeply as in the travel industry. The rapi…
Astrology For Businesses
A few years ago, my work sent me on a training course. It involved the usual things, trust exercises, team bonding, and personality profiles. I filled in a few forms, answered some questions, and the very professional looking lady marked up my paper and said, "I see that you're a Scorpio. That means you're focused…
Nate Silver confuses cause and effect, ends up defending corruption
Crossposted on Naked Capitalism I just finished reading Nate Silver’s newish book, The Signal and the Noise: Why so many predictions fail – but some don’t. The good news First off…