mzbridget

I've telecommuted on and off for years and I'm doing that right now. Here is what I learned:

1. Always "get ready" for work. Do the same routine as you would if you were going to an office: shower, dressed, etc. It puts you in the mindset that its time for work.

2. Make it a point to work in a coffee shop or something similar at least once per week. You need to be around people as a human being and it breaks up your week nicely.

3. Make lunch or meeting arrangements with people in your field on a regular basis. Its similar to point #2 but takes it a step further in forcing you to communicate and interact with another person and its work-related.

4. Set very clear expectations with your family. Have a space that is designated only for work. Let them know that you're "at work" or they will bother you and you'll start resenting them.

5. Set a timeframe when you'll be off work. Let them know that they can expect say, between 5 and 6 pm and at that time you're off work. Period.

6. Never, ever do household chores during work hours unless you set a specific time during the day. For me, I don't allow any chores but there are times when I will set aside an hour and complete a task. The joy of working from home is flexibility so use it but wisely. The same goes for work. Don't allow 'creep' to set in because it can be a slippery slope. When you're off work - be off work. When you're at work - work.

Good luck!

What exactly are you trying to accomplish? Are you trying to build the community and engage the existing users? I'm going to assume both is true. But the first thing you need to ask yourself is what are your goals with the community. Then ask yourself what tone do you want to set for it? Start by reviewing the communities of similar sites in your market. Some great examples would be the 37 Signals and Zappos communities. Balsamiq also has a great community too. All of them share a common trait: There is a personable approach in their writing and sharing.

A few things: Instead of asking for PR at blogs, offer to guest blog at those places. It opens your company to a broader audience. Make sure to follow up on every single comment too. Then offer other companies' community managers to guest blog on your site. They will make sure to tweet/FB their posts to their audiences and it starts a reciprocal relationship.

Email is underrated. Yeah, I know people think its dead but we send out an email each week and highlight product developments, share articles relevant to our users, and highlight our blog posts. We have a very high open/click-through rate and see an increase in Twitter chatter for about 3 days post-mail.

Next, highlight your users: show the community how people are using your site/product/widget and ask your community to guest blog for you. Highlight your users in your weekly emails and tweet out their stories/contributions.

Have webinars or twitter chats that scheduled and have a unique hashtag. They don't have to be directly related to your product but a general discussion about the industry. Reach out to businesses in your field and ask them to co-host these with you in a roundtable fashion or Q&A setting.

The above should get you started and spark more ideas along the way. And the best part is you can do all of these at no cost except the time you spend. Good luck!

Everyone has great points here. I took up intermittent fasting where I eat within an 8 hour window. Normally, I only eat one huge meal per day. It saves me time too. I also use a kettlebell and keep it by my workspace (It basically taunts me to workout). In 15 minutes I can get a full body workout and I have left my work for that time and cleared my head which makes me way more productive for the rest of the day.

Not sure when you plan to start her on programming but I just started my girls on CodeAcademy (I'm not affiliated) because its super easy, teaches by doing, and there's gamification/rep system in place. I'm following along with them. Personally, I wouldn't want to choose a language for them to learn, rather, get the principles/fundamentals of coding and let them explore languages from there.

No, he's correct - it can be years longer than the UK for a PhD. avg is 7 years here (5 w/a MA) compared to 3 in the UK. But I agree that he should just go for both and try to make them intersect as much as possible. The data from my business is the backbone of my thesis research.

I'm curious about the statement you made that the UK uni's won't let you work on a startup during your course of study. I plan to apply for the PhD (as an American in the UK) in personal informatics. I have been very upfront when speaking to advisors in the uni's that it directly relates to my company and no one has mentioned that I can't work on my business and PhD.

Anyway - to answer your question: have you looked at the Eastern European schools? Slovakia, Czech - both countries have wonderful tech uni's.

I wish I had a recommendation for a doctor familiar with tech startups. It could be tough to find that. Have you considered looking at your diet too? Also, networking with other tech founders is helpful. As one myself, I started getting really isolated and it threw me into a depressed state. I started by making myself go to one event each week that was startup related. A lot of us experience what you're experiencing and knowing that its common (and that you're not alone) can really ease the intensity of the symptoms. I wish you a lot of luck. Also, if you wanted to connect, feel free to email me and I'm happy to chat. I hate to see someone go through depression alone.

Very well put. I needed this explanation.

Yeah, nailed it. Its a tough trade-off and a really good reason why there should be 3 co-founders.

I agree with landing page optimization but a few more questions to consider: What are you doing to up-sell post-signup? Are you holding webinars, doing newsletter campaigns? The sign up process should also be so simple. The problem I see so often is trying to get too much info about the customer upfront. Are you sending emails to free users incentivizing them to upgrade? Are you giving away too much in the free version that there is no incentive to upgrade? Understand how your customers are using the free version and let them know how much more they can do in the paid. I agree that less than 1% converting to paid compared to the 18% is too large.

You can try Angel List and Seed Camp. The former is more like kickstarter and the latter is like a YC type thing for Europe.