tomgallard

13 ms·

91.
by tomgallard 15y ago
I think we need to remember that this isn't just focussed on tech startups. The UK has a good number of pharmaceutical, engineering, bio-sciences. In these industries patents are probably a pretty good proxy for innovation.
92.
by tomgallard 15y ago
Yes, this is really excellent news. Good to see the government making some positive, useful changes, rather than just talking the talk, or setting up another 'body' to encourage entrepreneurship
93.
Groupon revises Q4 results, losses increase 50%(theregister.co.uk)
3 points by tomgallard 15y ago|0 comments
94.
by tomgallard 15y ago
I think you're right, but only to an extent. I'd say the advantage the individual investor has over the investment professional, is that the professional has a time-frame of 1-3 years. So a lot of a stock's price reflects how the company is
95.
by tomgallard 15y ago
Tell that to Warren Buffet! Seriously though, of course the average investor cannot beat the market, it doesn't mean it isn't possible for an individual to do so, or that it is all down to chance. One approach is to focus on small companies
96.
by tomgallard 15y ago
Yes. I split my investment between low risk, good dividend blue chip stocks (National Grid, Tesco, BP), fixed income preference shares (NWBD, SAN) and smaller, high risk companies. Current favourite that might interest the HN crowd is: Moni
97.
by tomgallard 15y ago
Absolutely- in the case of the tech industry you're right. But we have to remember that not every other industry works the same as ours. Imagine an average mother working at the tills at Walmart. Is she ever going to be good enough at that
98.
by tomgallard 15y ago
No. People can be sacked for not doing their job in the UK, but if they've been employed for a certain length of time it is harder than in the US. But then again, employees can also legally expect to receive a decent amount of holiday, and
99.
by tomgallard 15y ago
I think he makes a particularly strong point about Zynga's unwillingness to change their standard contract to let him keep control of his iPhone app. If a company's not willing to be flexible about something like this, then it is the last p
100.
What every startup should do before writing any code(blog.crispyfriedsoftware.com)
2 points by tomgallard 15y ago|0 comments
101.
by tomgallard 15y ago
I don't think there's an exact answer I'm afraid, depends on the product, how much its going to sell for, and how easy it is to find good keywords that match your product (and which people are searching on!). But maybe £200-300. What I will
102.
by tomgallard 15y ago
Funnily enough I am completely the opposite way round. I always wanted to start writing the code first, but then started realising that was a waste of time if there was no-one to sell it to. So now I always start with trying to find custome
103.
by tomgallard 15y ago
For what its worth- my first steps when I come up with a 'killer' idea. 1.) Wait a week- if still excited about it go to 2. 2.) Discuss with my other half. As a non-techy she'll often have a very different view on things which is invaluable
104.
by tomgallard 15y ago
I'm really not sure that's true. I'm in the UK and it is very widely used, accepted and trusted.
105.
by tomgallard 15y ago
Not only that, but the longer you can delay taking funding, the less of your business you'll have to give away. I hate the thought that getting funded is like winning the lottery. Yes, it is absolutely necessary for some startups, but far t
106.
by tomgallard 15y ago
I guess you've got to look on the bright side though. When there's lots of VC money floating around, people feel like they have to raise capital, employee expensive people, get swish offices. The secret is that you don't! Bootstrap yourself
107.
by tomgallard 15y ago
I think the most important issue with building a company as you work full time is the need for absolute leanness. Out of necessity you have far fewer hours than you'd like to work on a project, and this really forces you to focus on whether
108.
by tomgallard 15y ago
The mistake here is that what you're describing is a functional test, not a unit test. A unit test for a piece of code like this might be "Given that the time signature for the music is 3:4, the software puts 3:4 in the appropriate place on
109.
by tomgallard 15y ago
I disagree completely, and your comment makes me think you've never seriously used unit testing. Writing tests makes you think about how pieces of your code interact with each other, dependencies etc. As an example, if you're trying to test
110.
by tomgallard 15y ago
I agree. When interviewing I can usually weed out those who write tests (and write good tests) from those who just claim they do. How? People who don't really write tests will tell me that the advantage of unit testing is being able to see
111.
by tomgallard 15y ago
I think it depends on the product - you need to be careful not to just annoy people so they go and find some other solution to their problem!
112.
by tomgallard 15y ago
I think it very much depends on the product. A common way to use a beta-signup (as we've been doing at Pwinty) is to find some inital users who you can get using your service before you have completed all the sign-up, billing pages etc, and
113.
by tomgallard 15y ago
This is great advice. You should understand what's going on, what your company needs to file and to who. However, get your accountant to do it for you, things such as Corporation Tax / VAT returns are complicated, and you will get no sympat
114.
by tomgallard 15y ago
We recruit directly. Our ads are clearly marked at top and bottom with 'We do not use, and never have used, a recruitment agency. Please do not contact us if you are a recruitment agent' Despite this, we receive multiple calls a day from ag
115.
by tomgallard 15y ago
My point is- that there may be a proxy server outside your control which is caching the content (e.g. inside a corporate network). Unless you can invalidate the cache here as well, then clearing it in the browser is no good (I suppose you c
116.
by tomgallard 15y ago
An immediate thought on this- would be proxies. So it is no good relying on clearing the cache in the local browser, if it is being served a cached version from an upstream proxy server. It is clearly a problem that needs addressing though.
117.
by tomgallard 15y ago
Isn't it just wasted effort though? If you're using hosted jQuery from Google or similar, it is likely it is already in the client cache... You may in fact find its faster to use jQuery than just Sizzle (which I imagine fewer have cached)
118.
by tomgallard 15y ago
Building the API for Pwinty ( http://www.pwinty.com ) I found the Dropbox API docs to be a really good example of how to structure your documentation - http://www.dropbox.com/developers/reference/api All the resources are documented in th
119.
by tomgallard 15y ago
If you find this interesting, I can highly recommend Porthcurno Telegraph museum in Cornwall (UK). http://www.porthcurno.org.uk/ Its where many of the first underseas telegraph cables came ashore, and was a hub for the British Empire's te
120.
by tomgallard 15y ago
One I'm looking at - Google Analytics for print/billboard ads. Adwords/Analytics is great, because you can see exactly how much money you're spending, and exactly how many sales/conversions/downloads you're getting for that money. In the pr

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