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The most salient point to me was the fact that github was not initially conceived of as a business, but as a tool the founders desired for the betterment of the
by n8agrin 16y ago
The most salient point to me was the fact that github was not initially conceived of as a business, but as a tool the founders desired for the betterment of their own day to day. And not only that, but github was quickly adopted in the founders' workplaces at the time, giving them time to focus on it and refine it without giving up an income. Dogfooding is a common theme in startups and it's worth noting that 37signals' Basecamp product was, as I understand it, built with the a very similar purpose. Initially it was a tool for them to help manage their own projects first and something they could charge for second, built under similar conditions where they already had a business designing client websites, providing them an income.
A lot of times I dream up projects I think of as potential startups but often have to ask myself, "Would I actually use this product?" If the answer is ever even a hint of "no" I tend to suspect that I could not dedicate myself to the project wholeheartedly enough to back a business. I wonder if this is a meaningful metric and if dogfooding is really such a powerful motivator.
- GrandMasterBirt 16y agoIs that not how most great technologies are born? Ok some are for war, but most of the "cool" technologies I've seen (even some made by co-workers) are all about someone having a major itch and developing the best damn back scratcher they could to scratch that itch. Its quite incredible what someone with a vision can do, even without technical prowess that some posess. Its all about just thinking that "I am only one man, I only have a few hrs a day... however I need to do the job of 10" and instead of giving up building something that lets you do just that. I find the in corporations where you can throw more people/time at the problem is where it starts to fail. I can always "hack" something up fast, and add a few programmers to make it faster, but the trick is to not add anyone and still meet the deadline (or a bit over, but that gets covered by blowing all other deadlines away). GitHub is no different. They had an itch, scratched it, turns out other people had the same itch.