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).

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).