jwillgoesfast

This. I think the biggest problem startups make is finding a problem and building a solution, but not realizing there is a difference in problem size, value and pain per your medicine analogy.

Very cool, Looking forward to seeing how uberStarter grows. I think you have a good model to target incubators and accelerators.

"Its the help a startup needs between "office hours" and execution. I do think that there is a piece missing here, that can be developed."

Pretty much agree with everything you said, this is a good unpacking of what I was trying to briefly convey in the OP.

For example, if one of the founders is strong in Biz Dev, then they probably don't need this (though some level of assistance would still be helpful), but if this is not the case, then getting guidance and potentially full-service assistance with an all-in effort in gaining customer feedback in a valid way that could be just the frequency shift that determined success or failure in an otherwise solid product/idea.

Basically you would be taking the product from something potential customers respond with "maybe" into something they say "Heck yes, take my money!"

I don't think the accelerators/funds are missing the obvious, but I do believe that (because of the high signal-to-noise ratio of the startup bubble) many rookie founders don't discern the importance of this process to their success, and end up "hearing what they want to hear" from mentors/books/etc and pick out things like "focus on the experience", "leverage network effects" or the dreaded "get a distribution partner" instead of simply finding customers who would immediately start paying for a solution to their biggest problems.

Good point, there are a lot of bad ideas out there. But, even the best ideas/products are not what they started out as, they involved pivots and market changes. Was this due to luck, or were the founders fundamentally committed to creating a business that adds value vs. simply in love with their "great idea"?

How much time would this save the average customer? Seems like setting up on the existing platforms are pretty easy already, and rackspace already has an auto deployment option.

"Most KPIs (traffic, revenue) are too volatile on a daily basis to be useful. Yet “last 30 days daily” is more or less the default option."

YES! If you're building a dashboard, don't answer the question "what data do I have?" or "what does the brass say this should be?" But instead, get out and talk to users, find out what data is most important to them, think outside the box, throw some different ideas out there and see what sticks with users.

+1 for Ben and the Site5 team!

I Just had my 1 year anniversary of standing desk. It is great, although I do sometimes get tired but I have a stool for that.

You can see my desk design here. It was acquired for very cheap: $1 counter top from thrift store, $10 in 2x4's from lowes. and only 1 strategically placed screw in the wall. I also have an anti-fatigue mat and a foot stool that helps a lot.

pic: https://www.dropbox.com/s/e3zl8jxk7xeazsr/Screenshot%202014-...

bubble

As a startup founder in the same city, this pumps me up. Having watched the story unfold over time, it's a healthy reminder that "overnight success" is always years of perseverance in the making. I'm rooting for you Ryan, Chuong, and Kenny!

This is interesting. With the "remotization" of the workplace where anyone, especially engineers can work from anywhere, instead of moving outward, we're moving inward to these "hubs".

I wonder if this is in part because, now that our work is less social, we want our environment to be geared toward more social, i.e. big cities.

I have a ton of respect for Adii, but from my experience it is SIGNIFICANTLY harder to do something great without a cofounder.

Sure, if your a cereal entrepreneur like Adii or captain crunch, it's doable, but for most of us who are still trying for our first big breakthrough, we need all the help we can get.

Almost any startup/product needs two things. A good quality product and users. When speed is important it's extremely difficult for one person to do these very different tasks exceptionally well. As a CTO (who isn't overly technical, just enough to build prototypes, PM, and lead the team) I feel completely overwhelmed just thinking about having to do all that our CEO does on the business and growth side.

Enjoyed the video, disappointed there's no actual discussion to be had about it here :(

"Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else" by Geoff Colvin is the best book on this topic that i've read.

funny to see this post, I tweeted about this 1 year ago, saw it pop up on Timehop, and built a quick rough draft on my blog this morning. very cool library!

Hmm, this is really interesting. Have any other communities experimented with this?

I agree. But, there is some value in "Advocacy" for people in this position. Although, that card is probably played out by now and its cliche/annoying unless someone actually proposes or better yet is actively involved in a solution.

There is a 2000 year old book that basically says "There will always be the poor" --not sure exactly what that means, but it kinda makes sense. For me, I've tried both large scale and small scale ways of helping "the poor" and I've developed the model of:

1. help people when you can & however you are able...It probably won't help them long-term though but maybe thats ok.

2. A few of those folks really are motivated to change their life for the better, so when you help them, it may pay off for the greater good.

Either way, studies show that helping others and "giving to a good cause" typically pays off higher "happiness dividends" than selfishly spending money on yourself (unless its for a new smartphone or laptop of course :))

crossfleet -- Fayetteville, AR (Remote doable) -- Fulltime & Parttime

Developer, Generalist -- with some combination of skills in: --frontend, web apps --backend, REST & SOAP APIs --Mobile, Android & Services

We are an enterprise SaaS company approaching our 1 year mark. We have paying customers and a full stack v1.0. Now, we need you to help us scale. Our customers are some of the largest corporations in the world and our market is transportation/logistics. Northwest Arkansas may seem like a random place for a tech startup, but we have half of the top 30 supply-chain & logistics companies just down the road and its a great place to live and raise a family.

Offering cost-of-living stipend + equity on a 1 year vesting schedule.

Shoot me and email and lets chat! jeremywilliams [at] crossfleet.com (tech cofounder)

this is so crazy, never knew my 2007 macbook could have the accelerometer utilized via a browser.

"what most attracts me (and other “math men”) to R&D in a startup is the free flow of creativity across divisions and a culture of innovation"

Creativity begets creativity

Don't forget that customer value trumps hi-tech cool factor when it comes to actually having your new idea see the light of day

Thanks for teaching me a new term, I've not heard of astroturfing before.

Not sure how this will be applicable to any of my projects right now, but I've got to admit the demo's work impressively.

Ha, thought i was the only one who felt AWS insta-fear. Maybe i should try this just as a learning experiment.

I thought the same thing (with a gasp as a CTO myself :))

But I'm going to assume this article references companies where the Technology department is more of a cost center than primary operations.

For example a SaaS company that basically just has sales/marketing and technology/operations, the CTO is also acting as the COO, so I think you could attribute the COO salary to that of the CTO in a SaaS or high-tech startup.

how about "over promises and under delivers"

also, best linkedIn trolling is endorsing people for languages they despise but have had to use anyway :)

obviously this is the best solution: http://www.dilbertfiles.com

I love that quote and the idea behind it. Hard to implement, but good to keep in mind.

I'm currently reading Warren Buffet's biography, Snowball.

A lot of it has taken me by surprised. My long standing idea of Buffett was that he was careful and prudent, but I'm surprised to learn how highly intellegent he was. the book references how easy school/college was and that he was the only one to get an A+ in Ben Graham's class. It was also very interesting at how OBSESSED he was with earning money, from a very young age, all his efforts revolved around how he could earn more and more money.

All that to say, there were a lot of serendipitous aspects to buffet's success, but I think more so he was just an extremely unique individual able to combine 1. very smart 2. very ambitious 3. very concerned with increasing his capitol.

Any smart merchant won't add a Surcharge for credit, but instead a discount for cash.

An interesting documentary: "Helvetica" (free on amazon prime) http://www.amazon.com/Helvetica/dp/B002RIOGI0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=...