mattcurry
Joined 18 years ago
Karma
425
Submissions
45
Member since
Jan 8
http://pseudocoder.com
http://twitter.com/mcurry
View on Hacker NewsRecent submissions
Comment · 15 years ago
I've taken to getting DVDs from my local library.
- I can reserve online and they'll get it from any library in the network.
- Generally get new release DVDs much faster then Netflix
- Get entire seasons of TV shows at once instead of a disc at a time.
- Free
The big negative is I have to actually go and get them, but I generally pass the library daily, so it isn't that big of a deal.
Comment · 15 years ago
Won't the new Pandora HTML5 site have this same problem?
Comment · 15 years ago
Also they F-ed up the RSS feeds. Take a look at this one for the top stories on Deadspin:
http://deadspin.com/tag/top/index.xml
Barely anything since Feb. Before then there were 4-5 items per day.
Comment · 15 years ago
Not sure I follow your reasoning for #3. Filling out this form seems to be the absolute least someone can do if they really want to work at a particular company.
I think taking 5 minutes to find someone at the company and emailing them a personal email will be way more successful for a candidate.
Plus I'd worry that you will sound like just another recruiter when presenting me to the company, so it may end up hurting my chances.
Comment · 15 years ago
Involve your SO in your startup and then you don't have to choose. They don't have to be a co-founder, but maybe they brainstorm ideas with you or help with customer support.
Comment · 15 years ago
I actually like the concept of color, but they really fucked up the launch. I don't see the use case as you describe.
Imagine being at a baseball game and in between innings you can pull up pics from all over the stadium.
Or you're a high schooler in a suburban town bored on a friday night and you can see pics of what your class mates are doing all over town.
The 150 ft range is stupid...it should automatically adjust to cover an area of interest whether that's a sporting event, party, apartment building or small town.
Comment · 15 years ago
Can anyone give examples of #2, a good story?
I've spent the last few weeks trying to brainstorm the story for my biz and just keep drawing a blank.
Comment · 15 years ago
Hey wasigh,
I'm in a similar situation, developer w/ teacher wife and education business. Two most important things I've learned:
1) You can sell to schools, but not by "selling" to schools. Instead sell to the teachers and they'll sell to the school for you. There are lots of ways for teachers to get schools to pay for stuff they want (grants, discretionary funds...). If you create a great product one teacher will tell another and before you know it a group of them want it and they'll pitch their principal.
I sold to 15 or so schools last year (big, small, public, private) and every one of them started with the school contacting me. I realize 15 is not a lot, but total time I spent on those sales was maybe 10 minutes and $0 each. I replied to emails, setup accounts and generated invoices.
2) As a developer you're going to want to solve the scale problem by coding. You need to fight this.
Take the money you make and buy adwords - they work (http://pseudocoder.com/blog/my-adwords-spending-for-2010)
Talk to your customers constantly - make incremental improvements based on their feedback. Only when there is overwhelming demand add a new feature or in your case expand to a new area.
Do more SEO. You're top 5? Not good enough. The difference between #1 and #5 is huge. Figure out what keywords make you the most money (might not be what you think they are) and attack those.
A final note (this one is tough and I'll try to be tactful). In the end your wife (however awesome she was in getting the site started) is just a user. If she's not interested in the business side then you need to take ownership. That means you may make changes without consulting her and that are unpopular with her that are better for the rest of the community.
Email me if you want to discuss anything offline.
Comment · 15 years ago
I found that when I removed the second password field users thought they were signing instead of registering. This lead to users creating multiple accounts and panic-y emails about lost data.
Comment · 15 years ago
You may want to checkout http://www.heyamigo.net and http://www.barenakedapp.com/category/amigo/
HeyAmigo sounds like exactly what you are talking about. It was built by Carsonified a few years ago and sold (I think). The Bare Naked App blog was a chronicle of them building it.