woot.
Complete graphics overhaul coming up. No more of this blah blah blah boring server side coding to be done. For the next three weeks we are focusing almost exclusively on making the app and the website look better. Photoshop + XHTML + CSS + jQuery (more commonly known as the Devil) all day every day. It’s interesting, the majority of the work that has to be done for this product will never be actually SEEN by the end user (tough cookies, Scott). On the same design note, we’re possibly taking on a co-founder this summer that will be focusing on design.
I keep thinking about a post by Dave Mcclure about the importance of design in consumer internet start ups. We really do need to put a lot more effort into making addicting user experiences if we want to be successful. I’m becoming more and more of a Dave fanboy as time goes on. I really like his writing style – very flow of conscious.
Final note: TechStars for a day. Holy bleeep. Nuff said.
Well I haven’t written in almost a month but the last time I did it was about the trials and tribulations of an amateur trying his hand at web design. I’m proud to say that my skills have increased dramatically since the last time I wrote. The web site is almost done and, being that it’s the first web site I’ve ever done and all, I’m pretty impressed with myself. To a lot of people and EVERY person that has experience with web design, it’s going to be clear that it was done by an amateur but that’s ok. There are some clear issues in uniformity (read: fonts and use of color is a bit haphazard at times) but overall I’m happy with the job I’ve done. Most likely, we’ll take what I did and turn it over to someone with some real talent to really pull everything together. But deadlines are deadlines and we’re trying to get YC and TechStars applications out so the web site needs to be up.
We’re both at points in our lives where there will never be a time where we don’t have work that we could be doing and I don’t see this changing for the next…3 years or so. Wish us luck on our YC and TechStars apps.
Today…was a long day.
I spent probably 3 hours bouncing around between drawing and screwing around with html trying to do a mock-up for JUST THE LANDING PAGE. All I have to say is holy f*cking sh*t. Being less than proficient at both makes getting anything in the design realm done such a pain. So today I’ve made a pact with myself. I’m really going to jump head first into web design.
I might spend fifty to one hundred hours getting where I want with my web design skills. But in the long run, I’m going to save one thousand hours that are lost due to my #bigfail web design skills.
HTML and CSS aren’t really the problem. It’s photoshop. And learning how to integrate my HTML and CSS with the photoshop. Does anyone that does web design have any tips or tools they use that increase their productivity? Anyone use any great teaching tools that they would recommend? Open to any and all suggestions.
–EDIT–
Lol 50 to 100 hours to get pretty good at web design. Off by an order…or a magnitude? Probably a few of both #sadface.
Well, another year is begun. So much to look forward to! We’re already gearing up for our first round of closed beta, it’s all very exciting. Just thinking about all the things we have to do in the future makes me realize that this is probably going to be the busiest year of my life (at least so far). But no worries, my new word of the year “JFDI” will help me out a lot. It’s not a word per say but it’s a nice play off of Nike’s slogan with a little bit of added emphasis (thanks to Irwin Ki by the way for showing me the power of the word).
I’ll keep it short for tonight. Happy New Year everyone. Hope your New Year’s Resolutions last longer than February. BTW I suggest everyone come up with their own one word for the year. Make it something really near and dear to you, draw it nice and big on a piece of paper, and put it up on your wall.
Thanks @msuster for JFDI. I’ll use it well.
So far we’ve talked to around 15 bands and 15 record labels. I think all of them but 2 or 3 would be great fits for our product. But most importantly, all of them have expressed some real interest in our product. It’s hard to not get excited at the fact that real people that might really use your product not only express interest in buying it, but also are excited to work with you as you develop it. I’m very excited for what the future holds.
In the meantime, I’m having a hard time concentrating and really doing some solid work while at my parent’s house! Looking back at my “Productivity Advice” post, I can see why I’m not doing so hot. So much stuff around: parents, brothers, TV, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, the dog, the cat, the cat playing with the end of my phone charger, girlfriend stuff. I need me a cave. But where?
Happy Holidays to everyone! No matter which holiday you celebrate, we hope you enjoy the festivities. And have a happy new year while you’re at it =D.
Find an “office”. Claim your own space. Build a work cave, a bomb shelter, a hiding place.
For me at least, working out of the apartment is an oxymoron. The simple fact that I am in my apartment dramatically increases my likely hood to facebook, twitter, techcrunch, venture hacks, techmeme, msuster – both sides of the table, holy shit the list of distractions goes on and on forever. There’s nothing wrong with a little advice/culture seeking on the internet but if you read that all day, no one is going to build your company for you.
It’s like reading, computer, tv, etc. in bed. Your body gets used to doing things other than sleeping and so when it comes to time go to bed, you might have trouble falling to sleep. Replace sleep with work in the previous sentence and you have a nice little parallel to my life of doing work at my apartment.
But there’s hope. For me it’s the Engineering Entrepreneurs Program’s conference room on Centennial Campus. At this Pocket Stage (going through a name change – just trying that name on for size) Compound, I feel like shit needs to get done when I’m there. I feel like if I don’t do work when I’m there, a countdown should be running. But instead of a clock it’s my % equity in the company.
Advice: if you’re a college student / entrepreneur, find a work space you can call your own, it will help.
If you’ll read the last post it will make a lot more sense.
This agony get exponentially worse with a) the future b) late nights c) alcohol and d) good press (everywhere) about your competitors.
Sorry this is only Seth Godin-esk in length but I’ve got to tell the masses immediately.
The worst thing about being an aspiring non-coding tech entrepreneur is the inability to help pre-launch. Sure, there’s customer development, setting up beta testing, keeping up with social media, etc. — but sitting around waiting for your MVP to be done is agonizing. Every day that passes is a day your competition gains traction because you (and your cooler/better product) aren’t there win the market.
Advice: If you’re an aspiring tech entrepreneur that isn’t too old of a dog yet (it’s hard to teach them new tricks), learn how to code in your spare time. It will open countless doors for you…or so it seems from my point of view.
Maybe the grass is always greener…what do I know anyways?
—edit—
Just making sure everyone knows, MVP stands for minimum viable product not most valuable player here.
4 months minus two days since my last post.
A more appropriate title would be: Social Media – the day of awakening.
So tonight, instead of studying for my final, I really fell in love with social media for the first time. We’ve been dating for years but tonight was the night that we really hit it off for the first time. I owe the rebirthing of this relationship to Tweetdeck; not the iPhone app but the desktop application. I can manage my Twitter (all the columns I want (or don’t)), Facebook, Myspace- which I’m actually creating just so I can have another thing to manage on Tweetdeck, and LinkedIn. And I can do it all in one place that’s visually attractive and easy to manage. It’s truly wonderful.
What have I been up to for the past 4 months? Customer development. I’ve been talking with bands, bloggers and record labels trying to validate that there’s a market for this. The results have been satisfying. Record labels range from sufficiently interested to overjoyed at the prospect of their band getting their very own iPhone application. It almost seems trivial to me because we’ve been talking about the idea for the last 6 months. But to them it’s like a dream come true.
I also fell in love with the idea of being a blogger for TechCrunch one day. I’ll be writing more often to keep you (the total of zero readers who keep coming back to this) updated more often and to practice writing. See you in the funny papers.