MicahWedemeyer

9 ms·

1. 61.▲
   by MicahWedemeyer 14y ago

   This is a good strategy. My only complaint with it (and I do it too for some things) is that it can mess up people's address books a little. For example, when I start typing someone's name in gmail, sometimes I get "Joe Smith <a3gfdf33s
2. 62.▲
   by MicahWedemeyer 14y ago

   Since you're calling it a startup as opposed to just a project, I have to ask about business model. How will you make money off this? I think you'll have a very, very difficult time monetizing this, as there are already dozens and dozens of
3. 63.▲
   by MicahWedemeyer 14y ago

   Exactly my point. I'm as nerdy as they come, but this conversation never leads anywhere interesting.
4. 64.▲
   by MicahWedemeyer 14y ago

   I really hope she's right. There is almost no conversation as boring as a group of nerds going around in a circle trying to out-do each other on who was the first to do such-and-such: Well, my first computer was a 486 with only 1MB of RAM
5. 65.▲
   by MicahWedemeyer 14y ago

   I installed a punch code deadbolt on our front door. It has been a life-changing experience. I need neither phone nor keys and never worry about being locked out. I just have to replace the batteries every couple years. One of the biggest i
6. 66.▲
   Let Me Bring You Down to Speed(agileleague.com)

   1 points by MicahWedemeyer 14y ago|0 comments
7. 67.▲
   by MicahWedemeyer 14y ago

   Thanks for sharing your results. Advertising effectively is enormously difficult. I've had results similar to yours in all areas of advertising. Someone asked me once, "So how has the ad we run on our blog for you been doing?" My reply, "We
8. 68.▲
   by MicahWedemeyer 14y ago

   I built a recurring billing system on top of Amazon FPS and it was anything but easy, especially once the credit cards started expiring. I wrote a little about it here: http://peachshake.com/2010/06/15/saas-subscription-billing-o... And t
9. 69.▲
   Eternal NDAs and Why We Don't Like Them(agileleague.com)

   1 points by MicahWedemeyer 14y ago|0 comments
10. 70.▲
    by MicahWedemeyer 14y ago

    "I managed $ABC million budgets..." always makes me think, "Was it your money? Or were you just dipping into the seemingly endless corporate coffers?" I think working with big corporate budgets negatively trains you for running your own com
11. 71.▲
    Don't Just Charge for the Hard Stuff(agileleague.com)

    2 points by MicahWedemeyer 14y ago|0 comments
12. 72.▲
    by MicahWedemeyer 14y ago

    I think there are a lot of services where a 1-month free trial will prevent the kind of growth you need to sustain yourself. For a perfect example: LinkedIn. It's a freemium service where recruiters and other big-players pay for increased a
13. 73.▲
    Paying Users Are Your Nicest Users(agileleague.com)

    86 points by MicahWedemeyer 14y ago|59 comments
14. 74.▲
    by MicahWedemeyer 14y ago

    Yeah, that was surprising to me as well. Maybe the whole picture is rosier than I thought.
15. 75.▲
    by MicahWedemeyer 14y ago

    I wish I could upvote this 100 times. I run a website in the tabletop RPG space, and there is an average of 1 new kickstarter per day for someone trying to fund their new game, new module, new idea, new iphone dice roller, new virtual tab
16. 76.▲
    by MicahWedemeyer 14y ago

    Mailchimp gets brutally expensive at the higher tiers, especially if you have a large list but only send 1 or 2 newsletters a month. We switched to sendgrid for our newsletters even though their interface is not as nice. Their pay-per-deliv
17. 77.▲
    Full Time Consulting - A One-Month Retrospective(agileleague.com)

    2 points by MicahWedemeyer 14y ago|0 comments
18. 78.▲
    by MicahWedemeyer 14y ago

    I agree, the survivor bias in the startup world is intense. We're always focusing on the success stories and replicating what they did. But, like you say, for every "toiled away and finally made it" story, there are probably 5? 10? 100? "to
19. 79.▲
    The one thing your business must do immediately(agileleague.com)

    1 points by MicahWedemeyer 14y ago|0 comments
20. 80.▲
    by MicahWedemeyer 14y ago

    So the woman keeping score: Would she accept herself as a friend? Is she a perfect 100? Or perhaps a 99, since she forgets to wish people a happy birthday on Facebook sometimes...? If I find out my friends or acquaintances are scoring me, t
21. 81.▲
    Ambulatory Coding - The benefits of a treadmill desk(agileleague.com)

    2 points by MicahWedemeyer 14y ago|0 comments
22. 82.▲
    by MicahWedemeyer 14y ago

    Perhaps you think that the API-centric model would have never worked, and that if the ad guys wouldn’t have won, Twitter would not be alive today. Maybe. I think this deserves a bit more attention. It's easy to point fingers and make all
23. 83.▲
    by MicahWedemeyer 14y ago

    Can we update the title to something like "AWS US-east-1 is down" instead of just Heroku?
24. 84.▲
    by MicahWedemeyer 14y ago

    While these are all valid issues, and good to be aware of, don't rush out and fix all your "broken" code. Plus, don't climb up on a pedestal and lecture your fellow developers on their "falsehoods" about time. Use your experience to know wh
25. 85.▲
    by MicahWedemeyer 14y ago

    The Bells and Whistles analogy doesn't have to be as bad as it's made out to be. I run a hybrid "more space" and "more features" freemium model, and it's the "more features" that gets me most of my conversions. The key, I've found, is to
26. 86.▲
    by MicahWedemeyer 14y ago

    I've had similar experiences with AdWords. It's very tough to get a decent ROI. Plus, toying with it is a real time sink, and if you want to do it scientifically, then that's even more time and effort you have to invest.
27. 87.▲
    by MicahWedemeyer 14y ago

    I won't disagree, but my main point is that everything has a cost. These blog posts often present what your business "needs" to do in a context-free manner. If you are sitting on your thumbs looking for something to do, then definitely add
28. 88.▲
    by MicahWedemeyer 14y ago

    At any given time, there are a near infinite number of things your business "needs" to do: add a dashboard, A/B test your landing pages, test your database backups, fix your security holes, improve your customer service, add more metrics tr
29. 89.▲
    by MicahWedemeyer 14y ago

    I'd recommend reaching out to (or just researching) http://manpacks.com and see how they're doing. It seems like a similar business model and you may get some insight on what does/doesn't work for them.
30. 90.▲
    Oracle acquires Vitrue(oracle.com)

    1 points by MicahWedemeyer 14y ago|0 comments