printerjam

Thank you. I must say, you summarized our core product very well.

Thanks for the feedback. It sounds like we've got some work to do in the 'clarification' department.

Agreed. You gotta just start programming things that matter to you. I know many good programmers who have non-CS degrees but have been hackers since they were kids. Through trial and error, and a lot of reading on the side, they've turned out to be phenomenal programmers. And each job they've held along the way, they've learned a ton from other people on their teams.

I agree, if only because Facebook is primarily a giant photo album.

I haven't ordered any t-shirts yet, but I've been digging this company's user interface to get the design set. Prices seem reasonable. What's really cool is the selection of t-shirt brands. Meaning, you can get a nice, soft American Apparel shirt. Vistaprint did not offer as many choices (styles, brands or colors). Zazzle seem too expensive.

http://www.customink.com

I'm not going to defend PG, specifically, but you've got to realize that being a building owner/manager is a specific skill set. It takes a lot of time, too. Why would anyone who isn't passionate about commercial real estate put his money into it? It's kinda the principle of sticking to what one knows and is passionate about running/operating/building. In some way, Paul IS doing something awesome by putting his money where his mouth is AND mentoring entrepreneurs.

Turnaround? Their revenue in 2000 was 23 billion and in 2010 it was 62 billion. They doubled their earnings over the decade. The commonly penned idea in the press that MSFT sucks and Ballmer needs to be ousted is horse crap.

Great mini-doc and great subject matter. Thanks for posting.

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Seems that there are two reasons to do this. For search, isn't this just a Blekko-inspired (read: crowdsourced) way to improve Google's search results? And for advertisers, isn't this creating a knock-on, viral effect? Seems like the +1 approach is a pretty good idea.

Hilarious! Blast from the past for sure.

This is a tough bet. My first reaction was, "They are going to open up their wallets and spend like crazy to rebuild." Then I heard on the news that Japan runs a massive fiscal deficit and I thought, "Where are they going to get the money." When the market cools, it might be good to pick individual stocks (construction and pharma come to mind). Right now though, staying out of the broader market (index funds, etc.) might be prudent.

I'm using Unbounce now. But they don't have a social/viral component.

Open information systems (the internet) leads to all sorts of changes in closed system (Middle Eastern governments, State Departments, the FBI). The internet is fun again.

The new entrepreneurs you deal with, have they worked in other startups before or are they really young?

The first thing I did with my company was hire a lawyer. This is the first company I've personally started, but not my first startup. So my question above has to do with the experience level of the folks to whom you are preaching. To me, getting incorporated correctly, trademark searches, etc. was extremely important and well worth the money I paid.

The UI/UX is really nice. Give yourself some credit on that part.

One thing to keep in mind: CB worked because it was a communication tool for a very specific community (truckers). You may want to start out with a user niche to get initial traction.

You've made a pretty nice banner creator. Might be worth looking at partnerships with publishers who have self service ad buying platforms or platforms like PageGage.

I named my company on the first day that I sat down to write an outline of the business plan. Having written my thoughts about what the business would be in Microsoft Word, I had to save the file to my desktop and name it. I gave no thought of the business name, I just named the doc with the first thing that came to me - a working title that I intended to change later. But the name never changed because it was unique and top of mind. It stuck.

Try tapping into a stream of consciousness (meaning, don't over think things) and write a list of words. Or, ask some relative who is not tech savvy to tell you the first words that come to their mind (my mom is good for this).

Lastly, in my second startup (circa 1999), we hired a naming consultant for big $$ and the one take away was: Brand names pretty much don't matter. Nike may have sounded dumb the first time people heard it, but folks remembered it AFTER they tried their shoes. Intel sounds like a spy organization. Microsoft sounds like something for scientists, yet it is a consumer brand now. The bottom line: Don't freak out to much on the name.