bradt

Vendors take 70% of each sale, 30% goes to the WP App Store.

I'm the founder of WP App Store and would love to hear first impressions, suggestions, etc. from the HN community. Happy to answer any questions as well.

Excellent answer on Quora from Adam Trachtenberg about conference ticket price: http://www.quora.com/Tech-Events/Why-are-tech-conferences-so...

You need a partner or an advisor. Someone else who you feel you can't give up on. At least that's what has worked for me.

I've always seen mobile web apps winning over native mobile apps in the long term. Jacob Nielsen described as much last week as well but was careful not to put a timeline on it.[1] Hopefully this project helps make it happen sooner than later.

[1] http://www.useit.com/alertbox/mobile-sites-apps.html

The issue with Smarty is that it is yet another syntax to learn. A PHP template system that uses PHP for the logic and control structures makes a lot more sense IMO.

This would be a great way to create a PHP-based templating system that just uses a subset of PHP as syntax. Would be very fast.

This article and the 37S "meetings are toxic" (http://gettingreal.37signals.com/ch07_Meetings_Are_Toxic.php) argument really speaks to designers/developers who have worked at an agency. In my experience, many agency meetings attempt to get work done. Most of the thinking happens during the meeting resulting in poorly thought out, off the cuff suggestions. Sure preparation is important, but more specifically most of the thinking should happen before the meeting. The meeting itself should only be about sharing and reacting to that sharing.

Every time I need to communicate something, I stop and ask myself, what level of interruption does my message warrant? An email? IM? A meeting? It's very rare that it will save time to bypass email and IM for a meeting. Meetings because project managers want to spend less time in email and IM is unacceptable.

Can't agree more that skeuomorphs are awful. Probably my fav example of this is "sticky notes" apps. So f'in useless! What are your favs?

I actually worked on this exact idea with a designer friend but called it quits after we got too busy with client work. You've executed this brilliantly!

I was a bit surprised that you are showcasing designers and linking to their sites, allowing potential customers to contact them directly. This is something we struggled with.

I think you nailed it though. There is huge value in posting to the network and finding out who is interested and available to take on the project. I would love to see a clone of this for developers as well, so I could actually use it. :)

For me, Steve Jobs passing had the opposite effect.

I had convinced myself that my comfortable lifestyle web dev business was all I really needed. That pursuing startup ideas were not worth sacrificing time with family, friends, and hobbies away from the computer.

When Steve Jobs passed, I took stock of his accomplishments, watched the Standford address, and was generally inspired. It loosened me from my comfortable rut just enough to start bootstrapping a startup I had on paper for about a year. So far, 4 months in, the sacrifice has been little to none. Who knows though, I still may regret this down the line.

I think it would be difficult for Stack Overflow to slow down. In the post, Jeff links to one of his previous blog posts that describes the "running as fast as they can" culture that's been instilled in the company: http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2010/09/go-that-way-really-...

I can see why he'd take some time off and maybe start another venture that would lend itself to a more laid back culture.

I could be wrong, but I've come to believe that grit (http://bradt.ca/grit-scale.html) is everything. Because if you don't have revenues or momentum to start, it is grit that will get you there. Those without high grit will quit prematurely.

I think it depends on the nature of the business, but above all the person's values. For example, I've been an independent web developer for a few years. I can choose how many projects I take on and how busy I am. I have more work coming in than I can handle, so I could hire an employee and build up the business but instead I turn it down. I could work 80 hours per week (lots of my independent colleagues do), but I choose to work 30-40 instead. I make a comfortable living and make plenty of time for my wife and family. It would seem that none of the "characteristics that apply to all entrepreneurs" apply to me. But I do have a business, so how is this possible?

You can sign up here: http://sharurl.com/invite/p9q1h

I didn't say free services are a mistake. I said that the “free model” in the particular case of a service where you’re giving away bandwidth and storage space is a bad plan. “Free model” referring to a 100% free service that gains value by accumulating data rather than a revenue stream.

As for the lack of paid options, they are on the way. I made the decision to launch with this option and many others in the spirit of what I say in “Don’t be afraid to launch.”

I've posted your comment and this follow up in the article comments: http://bradt.ca/archives/developing-sharurl-lessons-learned-...