joystickers

I wish he would have gone after the real culprit: hand wavy advice. Telling someone to be passionate about one's work is about as helpful as telling someone not to set himself on fire.

He should have singled out Gary V to make his point. The guy didn't start with only his passion and a video camera. He started with employees and a multi-million dollar business. Responding to comments is not hustling.

Good question, I'll address it in the article. No institution will let you get away with that, but if the seller is financing it then maybe. You can, though, put down as little as 3.5% today.

This interview is even great for developers who want to make successful apps. Good stuff.

The more you play with a component's mechanical housing the more likely it is to break. There's also just human error in replacing hardware that leads to housing fractures.

Creepage among memory chips is also possible. RAM doesn't sit as snug for the entire life of your computer. It creeps out a little bit over time and allows for dust to prevent conductivity between the chip and the slot. Having everything soldered in place is much better.

The biggest issue, though, is all the added space required for the housing. The slots, connectors, clips, etc make the product bulkier. While that's fine for a desktop it's not ideal for a mobile device.

As someone who is learning Rails and is looking to collaborate with a partner, thank you!

The lack of hardware upgradeability on Apple products in general kept me from switching for many years. Then I realized by the time I was ready to upgrade my system the CPU sockets changed, the memory changed, etc.

So I'm not concerned if I can't upgrade my hardware down the road. Having everything soldered in place means I get a lighter product with fewer points of failure.

10% is a considerable chunk. This is especially true for someone straight out of college who doesn't have a high income to begin with. You could argue that his/her expenses are lower than someone with a family, but the counter to that again is the income. Someone with a family isn't making a starting salary anymore.

Another problem I have with the 401k is that "most" people leave it in the hands of fund managers who we're told know what they're doing. I'm one of those that leaves it to a fund manager as well. The biggest argument for the 401k is that the market will perform X% by the time you retire based on historical data. This assumes that trend will continue and that you don't unexpectedly lose a chunk of it as many retirees did in 2008.

Another problem I have with the 401k is that it's incredibly illiquid. If you take money out before you retire you're strictly penalized.

I'm not saying don't invest in the 401k. I invest in it, but only enough to get my employer's full match. If someone is offering you free money, you take it. I'm suggesting that it's better to take control of your own finances and earn enough passive income to live on. The 401k money should be a bonus, not the salary.

This article talks about two different things. First, it talks about how much money one would need to live comfortably in different parts of the country. Second, it talks about retirement.

I have a question about the latter. Does anyone else notice that the retirement articles are always written by the same old school business journalists, in this case CNN Money?

I think this article illustrates a major difference between our generation (I'm 24) and previous generations. The retirement conversation always revolves around living off of a nest egg investment that will hopefully be enough to survive on later in life.

Let's change the discussion to be about earning income regardless of employment status. Anyone banking (no pun intended) on a 401k to sustain himself in 40+ years is nuts imo.

Really awesome app idea, here are my suggestions:

1) The green color scheme clashes with the red and orange banner.

2)The duck doesn't stand out because there's little contrast between it and the banner. I suggest changing the banner colors to something that blends in better with the rest of the site.

3) The barcode takes up a lot of the screen, but isn't valuable. With a short name like Zuzu, people can easily search for it on their phones. The goal is to excite them enough to search for it.

4) Get rid of the "Perch" menu bar. All those links can be horizontally listed under the banner giving you more space to show off the product.

5) Make the box of scrolling pictures MUCH bigger, stretching across the entire screen (horizontally). The words in the pics are too small to read.

6) Get rid of the "Wake up and win with Zazu" image and keep the tagline "Zuzu wakes you up verbally..." on a single line.

I hope this helps. If any of this is unclear and you'd like me to make annotations on a screenshot, let me know.

Goodluck!

37Signals' product URLs are not app_name.com and they're doing just fine. Millions of dollars fine.

What's the lack of motivation due to? If you're not motivated by the product anymore then get out now, but if you're just feeling beaten down then absolutely keep at it.

When you say you outsourced all the development it sounds like you expected this project to take off without getting your hands dirty. What have you been doing to market it? Word of mouth won't help you if you're not even talking about it. Go out to conferences and meetups and talk. Get to know bloggers or journalists who write about investing. You have some users? Talk to them. Ask them what they love and what they hate about your product. Find out how they're using it. Find people who aren't using your product and see how they're solving their own problems. I know a trader who still uses IRC chats. Start asking a bunch of questions and get excited!

1) Taking legal action costs money. Your product hasn't launched yet so it hasn't made any money yet either. He is either going to have to sue you with his own money or find a lawyer that is willing to work on commission for a product that hasn't made a dime. I wouldn't worry about his threats.

2)It seems to me that you've been very complacent with your co-founder up to this point which is why he thinks he can bully you with such a bogus claim. You need to politely say you've had enough of the abusive relationship and you wish him the best of luck.

3)Did you sign anything for the LLC? Anyone can put anyone else's name down when they register it online, but without a signature it's meaningless. Form your own LLC or S-Corporation and start learning the biz side yourself. Articulate exactly what you think you need a biz person for and start doing what you can. You'll get a better understanding of the expectations you'll have for the next guy, who may end up being an employee instead of a co-founder.

Good luck!

This is a pretty great idea. Nice work!

Ahh, I see - good point. I misunderstood.

Pretty awesome tips. I don't necessarily agree with the uppercase suggestion, though. If you strip the color from Google's logo the font isn't as identifiable as Twitter or Facebook (both of which are lowercase) so the combination of colors and capitalization of the first letter makes it stand out. Amazon's logo is all lowercase so I don't know if his example is 100% accurate.

The logo I made for Joystickers is all in lowercase precisely because it stands out. Had I used a capital J, it would have looked pretty plain. The lowercase j along with some GIMP magic make it a little more interesting.

Thanks for this post. I just bought my ticket. I've seen other classes go for a lot more that offered a lot less.

@vaksel, nope. I still watch and listen. Often, the best interviews are the ones you initially dismiss because the guests aren't known for crushing it under 4 hours every week. :)

Trying to juggle gchat, work, email, and HN never ends well. I'm going to try this. Thanks.

I apologize if I offended you. First thing I would do if I were you would be to check out resources like Mixergy, This Week in Startups, and read Rework by 37Signals. I know that isn't a direct answer to your question, but that's because I think you're asking the wrong question. Can you elaborate on what you want to build and why you need a fleshed out company right off the bat?

Is this a joke?

As a technical guy who is taking care of the biz side of things in my startup, I must disagree with you lachy. I know how aggravating it is when someone shows complete disinterest in the technicalities. They lack an awareness of the challenges and think this stuff is magic. It's not. There are limitations and trade-offs.

I'm learning a lot of mechanical engineering stuff from my co-founders that's critical to understanding why our product will or won't work.

As far as passion is concerned, you should be passionate about the whole thing - from start to finish! I want to know the why, how, and what behind my products.

As a startup founder based in Chicago, "Amen."

Great site, I'll be using this from now on! How do you plan to make money? Affiliate links? Membership fee? Ads?

*typo - www.chicagocares.org is the correct URL.

One of my new years resolutions for 2010 was to volunteer and help a stranger. Living in Chicago, I went to www.chicago-cares.org and tried two different events. 1) Read to kids at a battered women's shelter. 2) Worked at a food pantry.

I had wanted to do something like that for years, but was unsure of how I could actually help. It turns out that you don't need any special skills to help someone. All you need is a little time. Working at the battered women's shelter was a great experience. I got to see how just being present meant the world to someone who didn't even know me. Working at the food pantry was another eye opener and gave me a different perspective on things.

I also gave blood for the first time at Lifesource. That was pretty cool and didn't take very long.

Check out www.idealist.org for a nationwide search on volunteer opportunities.

Goodluck!

Can you go into detail, perhaps outside of HN, as to how you got to this stage? It could be a valuable lesson for others.

Have you already formed your entity: LLC or corporation?

The best way to avoid this problem is to start the company yourself. Put everything in your name regardless of your skill set. Buy the domain, incorporate the company, get a basic site up, get a logo, create the twitter account, etc. Now you have complete control over your company and the percent ownership you retain: 100%. This gives you the leverage to make someone a co-founder based on performance, not initial enthusiasm and an idea.

If you already formed your entity then things are going to get a little dirty. First, talk with the other co-founder that is pulling his weight and write down everything that you guys do. Write down everything that you two are responsible for that the third guy can never catch up to: professional relationships built, developer stuff, etc. Write down everything the slacker is responsible for and what little he's actually done. Next, talk with your supporting co-founder about how to split up the company. Should the slacker get 10%? Less? What does he bring to the table? 15+ years of experience isn't worth 1% if it doesn't bring any tangible value.

Then the dirty part: confront Bob. Read Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People" first. The more aggressive you are during this conversation the uglier the outcome is going to be. Be honest with him, but don't say "You do nothing." Say things like "I feel like I'm getting hosed here. I do 50% of the work for only 33% ownership". Notice the difference in perspective? You're not blaming him for anything. Go over everything you and Fred have done. Ask Bob what results he has to show for his work. Negotiate terms and let him know that work has to get done.

If that doesn't go well, depending on your operating agreement, boot him from the company or dissolve it and start a new one.

Hope that helps and good luck!