Two Startups in Thirty Days (Video)

Here are some things that didn't make it into the video (camera's weren't running 24/7, so it was hard to catch all of our 'moments'):

-We had just completed a major release of our software that included a new dashboard, so doing a dashboard product was definitely a contender for the 30-day project. We were almost ready to rule it out, though, when we saw a dashboard product (Dashku) on the Hacker News home page getting some love. This influenced us by leading us to believe the demand could be there.

-At the exact same time, there was another story on the HN homepage by a developer who wrote about why he would never develop an app for the Twitter platform. This influenced us a bit, too, as an Android Twitter client was a leading contender on our list — which we subsequently dropped.

-It took a solid week to come up with the name Dashzen, and we probably wasted too much time and involved too many people with the naming early on.

-In the past, Axosoft has done 30-day projects like this, but only involving developers. By including marketing and QA, we were able to build more solid products that also had better UIs and branding compared to what we've done in the past.

-Even though both products' home pages describe our pricing models, there is no charging mechanism built yet. Until we build one, both products are actually free.

-If we decide to film the event again next year, we'll do a few things differently, like: set up a "camera room" where anyone can go in and record their thoughts at any time; set up daily scheduled meetings; and possibly incorporate some kind of pitch event.