bitsm

From the outside, it's hard to dispute that Wallet didn't have enough "utility value", but Square didn't seem to do much to market Wallet to merchants.

Almost none of the local merchants I tried using Wallet with knew about the feature, and some merchants didn't show up in it at all (they were using Square to run simple cash transactions -- i.e., no product catalog entered into Square).

So this is an interesting case for animation, but turn off the javascript and try real-world (manual) scrolling -- both pngs and svg perform about the same for me in Chrome (osx).

I'm not sure there's much of a takeaway here unless you're trying to animate the page scrolling of a full page of sprites (i.e., the example proves itself, but not much else).

Just FYI, most, if not all, of this is built into javascript already, via the DOM. http://www.joezimjs.com/javascript/the-lazy-mans-url-parsing...

Forrst has a similar system for promoting user posts as an advertising alternative, though Kyle (founder) uses credits (called acorns) and there are several ways to earn credits, outside of simply purchasing them.

It's a great idea: it's hard to get more "targeted" with ads than content that would have been posted within the community anyway.

If anecdotal evidence is any guide, it seems to have been received really well within Forrst, and the backlog was huge the last time I looked (not enough pageviews to match demand).

The entire point of the lean startup is getting out of the building and validating your ideas with customers. Everything else is gravy.

Go out, talk to people, and they will define what you should be building, and what will constitute MVP or MVA.

You seem to not be spending enough time talking to customers. You cannot define these things on your own, that's the whole idea.

Research like this has implications far beyond the primary application. There's a significant amount of knowledge and technology developed in order to implement the primary application, and most of the value is likely there, in improved processes, small bits of applied tech, and the growth of the students themselves.

These applications generate news, but they're really just the tip of the iceberg.

I wonder if this shot across Netflix's bow (which it likely is, way too early to definitively walk away), combined with Netflix's lower (base) digital subscription, will open the door to premium Netflix packages -- Starz as a premium add-on for $5/mo.

That might create tons of new opportunities network content bundles or al a carte show seasons, and mute the furor over the digital-only switch. For $15/mo. you might be able to get Netflix Streaming + Starz + Breaking Bad.

I have been doing some interviewing lately, and only just received my first "prototyping" test, based off a short user scenario. It was almost scarily broad, given the 3 days I had to complete it, but I think that's the point -- show initiative, build something cool, be prepared to defend your decisions.

I was personally happy to spend my time doing it, because it was a direct reflection my abilities, and I controlled the result.

I also recently spent a short 2-day stint working with another startup team that was also very instructive. There's no substitute for seeing a team in action, how they approach decisions, collaborate, etc.

I contrast this with the full-day onsite interview I did at one of the old guard dotcoms, which was disorganized, confused, and muddled -- basically, a huge waste of everyone's time. And to cap it off, after I'd had numerous phone calls, in-person meetings, the onsite interview, and bought an SVP lunch (forgot his new bankcard PIN), I got a quick impersonal phone call from HR saying they weren't going to move forward. Needless to say, I agreed.

It's always "good enough", except when it isn't. :)

Seriously, though, startups -- and websites in general -- are continually moving targets. Your requirements are always changing, your user base and their needs are always changing.

You ever see the inside of a FedEx truck? Eeek. Focus on what your customers need, over-deliver on that, and keep the rest together as best you can.

You will learn how to manage your business properly with time, and you'll have time as long as your customers are happy.

Love it! I've been playing around with the same idea, using HTML5/CSS/JS and the Baker Framework. I'm inspired!

The thing most people miss about gamification is that most games suck, and likely, so will your new gamified whathaveyou.

Gamification is the new forums.

I think those pointing to his follower count are missing the point. Morton's has established what sounds like a pretty great CRM for their customers. I'd be really interested to know how they're set up.

We live in an age where everyone is a media creator. Instead of spending money on mass advertising campaigns (spray 'n pray) with little lasting value, this type of customer service is like launching smart bombs that target actual customers and the people around them. This story & pictures is now in the internet -- it will be around forever. Is that worth the drive from Hackensack? I bet it is.

I think the question we should be asking ourselves is how can we be this awesome for our customers every day?

This is a great idea, and there is a market for this, as anyone with a baby will tell you. But have you done any customer development? As others have mentioned, you have a lot of competition.

First you have relatives. They buy lots of new clothes for you. Then you have consignment shops for lots of basic items, which as a new parent, you are suddenly very aware of. Finally, you have the parents themselves, who can usually afford to splurge on a nice outfit here or there, after the bulk of clothing's been supplied by #1 and #2.

I just don't see a burning need here that will get you across the chasm.

When you operate at the DNS level, you get to do all kinds of cool things with site traffic. Cloudflare started with a value proposition based on security, but low-cost hardware and advent of cloud technologies have allowed them to easily expand their offering to CDN and apps.

They are freemium because they need to collect as much traffic data as possible to learn to identify threats. Same reasoning as Akismet spam filtering started out with. They also have enterprise level plans, which probably drive more revenue.

Plus, they are only 7 months old. Kinda early to be hatin', no?

So, could this work between two phones? That would be interesting: Paypal meets Square (and possibly disrupts both).

Your last point is the rub -- Groupon's creating a "heavy discount" mindset with consumers that often transcends product loyalty.

Groupon's focus is local service businesses, which, if they're smart, can offset the initial discount with upsells (think liquor in a restaurant).

For more commodity type products, there's limited upsell opportunity, so you're very vulnerable to price sensitivity. And price sensitivity, as you point out, will increase if the market is saturated in deals.

It will be interesting to revisit this in a year or so, as the economy turns around, and see if Groupon and others have had to change tactics.

The reason self-publishing works for Doctorow is not because his audience wants it to. It works because he works extremely hard, is prolific, and smartly leverages technology as well as his massive audience at BoingBoing. He is not an overnight sensation. There's no trick here.

Yes, he's taken some risks with technology, but he's also worked hard promoting himself to mitigate that risk.

I am not a fan of his writing, but I admire his dogged determination to get up every day and be a writer, in an age when anyone else you asked would tell you to give up and get a job with a future.

These are difficult to find. In the past, I have found these in individual city GIS department websites, but haven't found a single source that aggregates lots of cities. Quality and formats tend to vary as well.

So what's the line on this practice? It does seem to work in out some cases, but entrepreneurs seem to be gaming the system now, which would make this practice a much worse deal for the buying companies.

24 months does seem to be the avg. term, minus let's say, 3 months ramping up and 3 down. Consider weekends and holidays, and companies are not getting much for their dollar.

I understand the company's need to compete in an entrepreneurial market, but the investment doesn't seem to be worth it on it's face.

Am I missing something?

I can't decide if this is a good or bad thing. I could be wrong, but it feels like a punt by Google. Shouldn't they be owning the quality of their own marketplace?

Hey, if you're still looking, we're doing early testing on an online portfolio service that might meet your needs. I'd be glad to send you an invite.

Email me at tim -at- bitsmachine -dot- com

http://bitsmachine.com

Example portfolio (mine): http://timbarkow.bitsm.com

How does this not also cover every web browser in existence? This seems to cover any networked communications system. Analytics and online ads would seem to be especially vulnerable.

All I can see is this guy is really good at writing patents. If you can't beat em, bury them in citations and they'll think you know what you're doing.

The problem with the metaphor "you're dead but you don't know it" is that at the end of the movie, Willis' character accepts his situation -- pretty easily, in fact. The startup founder is unlikely to see the light so quickly.

How to break free of the delusion? Maybe by pondering the opportunity costs of not pursuing a new startup worth at least 2x (pick a reasonable concrete number) of your current one? Using real, achievable numbers might make it easier to take that leap of faith.

I think most dead startups suffer from "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush" syndrome (sorry, had to toss in a metaphor of my own) -- knowing how difficult it was to get the "dead" startup off the ground, it's difficult to face starting over.

I was a cofounder of what I used to call "the most successful startup that could never make any money". We got press consistently, did some cool partnerships with big companies (always free), and were driving steadily away from any kind of a revenue model. My partner got stubborn and, frankly, arrogant about the business, despite its professional amateur status, and I had to finally leave. He could not be made to see the light, no matter what I or anyone else said. Now he runs it as a calling card to get himself speaking gigs at conferences.

After writing this down, I'm not sure there was anything I could have said to convince him to spend his time any other way. He's not a math person, so opportunity costs are lost on him. There was nothing I could do but let him man the boat alone and drift off into the night.

Since I don't have to be PCI-compliant, it's doubly important that the company I'm trusting to handle my customers' data is doing their job right.

It'd be irresponsible NOT to ask.

A small, three-guy startup running on Linode with little to no background in payment processing or security doesn't automatically win my business.

Yeah, as others have pointed out, that doesn't answer the question. I'm familiar with transparent redirects offered by Braintree and SpreedlyCore.

But Linode (mentioned in the footer) is not PCI compliant by default, so it's worth asking what they are doing since they DO touch the credit cards.

Are you guys PCI compliant?

On Mac at home, SuperDuper for bootable backup, plus TimeMachine, to a 2TB dual disk external with drives mirrored via RAID.

SuperDuper is great. Having a bootable backup is awesome when things go wrong. The RAID gives me some peace since I can't afford to lose this data. Backing up the backup online somewhere is my next step, I think.

First, I love this kinda stuff, but this is not exactly the first. SMITH magazine published Six-Word Memoirs in Feb. 2008 and made the NYTimes Bestseller list. The book had almost 800 authors, each of whom received a copy.

http://www.smithmag.net/sixwordbook/about/

I'd be very careful when considering and implementing most of these ideas. While the sentiment is correct (make users' experience easier), many of these approaches have pitfalls or require fallbacks.

Your signup and login pages MUST be bulletproof.

Autofilling city/state from zip, for example, requires an updated database of postal codes, but users will often consider your autofill city as "wrong", since they use a different district/locale name. Make sure users can override your guesses.

Agree 100%. Design is art with a goal.

"Clean" is not a goal, nor is "messy". Given how many articles on lean startups and testing are posted here on HN, I'm surprised how many readers are swallowing the author's advice without questioning WHY "clean" is better or necessary. The author himself said here in this thread that he isn't interested in testing at all. That, to me, shows a fundamental misunderstanding, and frankly disrespect, for great design.

The parrot secrets ebook is a classic example of great design that is definitely not "clean". Yet it is successful.

Never confuse your personal aesthetic with design.

There are great books to learn from, and everyone should take all these book recommendations to heart. But take the time to absorb the professional advice, and try and synthesize it into rules you can work with and apply properly.