saddino

pro: we don't have the validate the concept anymore

con: now we're playing catch-up with an Internet giant

anyway, guess there's some solace in having the only alternative on iOS for video texting without sound, and we still think our minimalist design is pretty cool

help us keep morale up by checking it out, thanks!

You should pitch whenever you can, to whomever you can, until doing so is effortless.

A pitch is foremost a test of your own faith in your project. If there is any self-doubt, your pitch will betray it, and you will know you aren't ready (or that the idea and your execution aren't going to cut it).

So by all means pitch. Test yourself.

Working for yourself is not much different from running a startup. You have a product (yourself). You have sales (winning contracts). You have accounting (for your invoices and for your expenses) and have to keep books. You have legal (your contracts). It's a great way to learn how to run a (hopefully) profitable business and build the foundation you'll need to run a startup.

For everyone else, go ahead and try to read things titled "How to Be a Programmer" but don't expect it to actually help you, you know, BECOME one.

The actual question for would be business owners is: does the intensity of your passion drive you towards accepting this risk? If you are unsure, then either title is probably the wrong one for you.

(IMO the PinPigeon logo is indeed confusingly similar)

This.

Or as I like to say: the most important pitch you will ever make is to yourself. Convince yourself and others will follow.

There are no superhuman heroics involved here nor supersecret backroom deals. This is really just a simple story of good luck and timing, a spot on pivot and execution, and honestly brokered business relationships.

You can't duplicate the Instagram strategy because there was no strategy. These guys didn't build an app to flip. They built an app that was cool: to them, their friends, their investors, their users, and ultimately their suitors and acquirer.

Kudos to them.

Don't confuse the dancer with the dance.

That being said, we closed $750K in my last startup after crossing 125K users, so perhaps traction is good enough at least for the first round.

Starting my own company, releasing my own software, interacting with my own users and reveling in their praises or reeling back from their complaints: that's software brought to life and that's what keeps me going.

Programming is just the canvas for getting my ideas out in the real world in the hands of real people.

(For those interested, you can grab Trapeze from mesadynamics.com -- requires OS X 10.4; source code is a mixture of C++ and Objective-C).