via bgn.org
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Friday, December 24, 2010
Startup lifestyle factor
Lifestyle factors
Also factor in the kind of lifestyle that the startup will offer. This heavily depends on the startup's culture, but don't ignore that factor. For some people, the alternative will be working for a large corporation, which will result in a very different lifestyle.
via swombat.com
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Google was the only one where me speaking my mind never seemed to cause a problem.
4 - They don't seem to mind honest criticism. I'm currently reading a draft of a forthcoming Google book, and was amused to find that it includes an email that I sent back in 2000 trashing our then most recent product launch. It's painful for me to not tell people what I think, so for the most part I try to find people who don't mind hearing the truth (or my take on it, rather). Much of my interaction with startups consists of me telling them everything that I don't like about their product (and then they thank me!). I've worked for a lot of different companies, and Google was the only one where me speaking my mind never seemed to cause a problem. I'm not claiming that I'm always right, because obviously I'm not, but systems (or individuals) that don't welcome negative feedback are doomed. Cultures that don't laugh at themselves are cults.
Meetup: Business of software startup and challenges of building one locally...
.. and discussion about building a startup community here in Cebu. A discussion led by Mark John Buenconsejo.
General Manager/Senior Programmer at Caresharing (http://caresharing.eu...) Programmer, entrepreneur Personal site: markjeee.com, linkedin.com/in/markjeee Agenda
Introduction by everyone, shameless plugging (important for now, since we want to know who's who) Building an online identity Build an online startup community, across Meetup.com, Twitter, Blogs, etc. How will a startup community help each other Discuss challenges of doing a startup locally Discuss demo days Product demo by 2 startup teams (tentative, will disclose when i have confirmation) If you are in a startup; or would like to join one or form one, come to this meetup and help build a startup community in Cebu. Please come prepared to share your thoughts. Also, share with your friends who you think might be interested to participate.
What: Discussion about Startups
When: Thursday, January 20, 2011
Time: 6:00pm to 10pm
Where: TBDFor the challenges/topics, to make the meetup efficient, please post the challenges you have encountered in your startup on this meetup page, ahead. Also, for questions or topics you want to be discussed during the meetup, please post them here. I will pick at least 6 topics that we will discuss, and posters will get one from any of these books:
'The Art of the Start' by Guy Kawasaki (http://amzn.com/15918...) 'Founders at Work' by Jessica Levingston (http://amzn.com/14302...) 'Toilet Paper Entrepreneur' by Mike Michalowicz (http://amzn.com/09818...) This meetup will also have some food and drinks, and will depend on the venue and the sponsor. Hopefully, we'll be able to finalize this soon.
Limitation: The discussions in this meetup will be limited to the business of software and IT, and most likely also be global/online market, or anything web-based. I'm sure there are others who have experienced doing other kinds of startups or market, and hopefully we'll hear from them on the meetup. :D No need to be a programmer to attend, though interest and passion towards computing and Internet will probably come in handy.
Please RSVP, so we have an idea how many are attending.
via meetup.com
RSVP at the Meetup.com page:
http://www.meetup.com/Tech-Talks-from-Cebu-and-Beyond/calendar/15778253/
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Monday, December 20, 2010
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Startup: Does your company or product have a personality?
16. Does your company or product have a personality?
This is the squishiest of the questions -- but it's important. Great software companies today have a personality and a voice. They're distinctive and remarkable. Whether it's through their blog, through the copywriting in the product (like error messages), or through in-person interactions, some companies just have personality.
via onstartups.com
Put your faces in your website, and link them to your personal social network accounts.
If you want to be an entrepreneur, it’s not a job, it’s a lifestyle.
“If you want to be an entrepreneur, it’s not a job, it’s a lifestyle. It defines you. Forget about vacations, about going home at 6pm — last thing at night you’ll send emails, first thing in the morning you’ll read emails, and you’ll wake up in the middle of the night. But it’s hugely rewarding as you’re fulfilling something for yourself.”
via bgn.org
Startups: It's hard work, don't be afraid to fail, think globally - Niklas Zennstrom, Skype co-founder
- “It’s hard work. When a business becomes successful seemingly overnight, no one knows about all the months and years you’ve invested, all the projects you’ve tried before that didn’t work.”
- “You shouldn’t be afraid of failure — when something fails, you think, ‘What did I learn from that experience, I can do better next time.’ Then kill that project and move on to the next. Don’t get disappointed.”
- “Often you’re the only one who believes in what you’re doing. Everyone around you will say, ‘Why not give up? Don’t you see it won’t work?’ You then have to find out, are they right or am I right? It took a year to raise money for Skype: we went to 26 different venture capitalists, asking for 1.5 million euros and prepared to give away a third of the company. But no one wanted to invest.”
- “Surround yourself with smart, dedicated people — to build something isn’t a one-man show. It’s more important to have smart people who really believe in what you’re doing than really experienced people who may not share your dream.”
- “Try to prove there are people actually interested in your product before you spend money building a business. Test it on your mother, sister, friends — I tried Skype on them very early on. Though you never know with the ‘mum test’ if they’re saying good things because they just want to be nice.”
- “Think globally. If you don’t think big, it’s unlikely you’ll become big. We made sure from day one that Skype was an international business — we were incorporated in Luxembourg, we had software developers in Estonia, we moved to London. The internet has no country boundaries.”
via bgn.org
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Went on a tour of UP TBI's facility, and it looks like it's ready for crazy startups to locate. Watyawatingfor?
We're also bootstrapping a local startup community here in Cebu. We'll post updates and announcements, once i have more info.
Friday, December 17, 2010
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Interview with Jake Nickell of Threadless
Definitely our ability to attract and sustain a super-talented art community that submits amazing things day after day. This happened right from the beginning because Threadless was born as a project within an existing online art community.
Anyone can build a website like Threadless has, or make and sell t-shirts as Threadless has, but our secret sauce is all of the amazing artists around the world that are contributing. That’s not easy to replicate.
via chrisg.com
Friday, December 10, 2010
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Monday, December 6, 2010
Saturday, December 4, 2010
The Web is exciting for two reasons. One, it's ubiquitous... And anything that's ubiquitous gets interesting. And so is SMS.
The desktop computer industry is dead. Innovation has virtually ceased. Microsoft dominates with very little innovation. That's over. Apple lost. The desktop market has entered the dark ages, and it's going to be in the dark ages for the next 10 years, or certainly for the rest of this decade.
It's like when IBM drove a lot of innovation out of the computer industry before the microprocessor came along. Eventually, Microsoft will crumble because of complacency, and maybe some new things will grow. But until that happens, until there's some fundamental technology shift, it's just over.
The most exciting things happening today are objects and the Web. The Web is exciting for two reasons. One, it's ubiquitous. There will be Web dial tone everywhere. And anything that's ubiquitous gets interesting. Two, I don't think Microsoft will figure out a way to own it. There's going to be a lot more innovation, and that will create a place where there isn't this dark cloud of dominance.
via wired.com
Friday, December 3, 2010
The Full Stack, Part I - about the "full-stack programmer"
A "full-stack programmer" is a generalist, someone who can create a non-trivial application by themselves. People who develop broad skills also tend to develop a good mental model of how different layers of a system behave. This turns out to be especially valuable for performance & optimization work. No one can know everything about everything, but you should be able to visualize what happens up and down the stack as an application does its thing. An application is shaped by the requirements of its data, and performance is shaped by how quickly hardware can throw data around.
via facebook.com
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Programmer Competency Matrix - Awesome way to measure a programmer's skill
Programmer Competency Matrix
Note that the knowledge for each level is cumulative; being at level n implies that you also know everything from the levels lower than n.
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