mqmouse

Hi,

I don't know python at all but I'm assuming you know enough to do a fetch from a URL. If that's the case, why not use YQL?

http://developer.yahoo.com/yql/guide/two-minute-tutorial.htm...

Sure. Send me an email at daniel@mindquilt.com and I'll send you my phone number.

That sounds like a great deal. Assuming you make the same amount of money and it wasn't an aberration...

2months X 4 weeks X 4K per week = 32K. Minus operating expenses for 2 months (Let's just use 500 per month here) = 31K Minus taxes (assuming 25%) = 23.25K

$11625 to have a clean corp that grosses 208K a year. Sounds like a no brainer for me... Pay him off, make him sign a final and complete settlement that previous poster suggested.

Wow. Thanks for reply! I'll work on a new draft now and replace the body later after getting more feedback. Thanks for your two minutes!

Ugg, don't do what we did. We basically turned on the PR waaaaaaaaaay to soon.

Get out your pen and paper, draw some screenshots, identify who your customers are. The thing here is that it may be more than one group.

i.e. do you need to sell to both bar owners and their customers? do you need to sell to the vendors? do you need to sell to the umbrella manufacturers guild? (also by selling I mean convince them to do something, not necessarily give you money for stuff)

Figure this business ecosystem out, put it down on a sheet of paper. Then for each of the groups identified, posit a sales pitch. Don't worry if it's terrible. It always is. The idea here is to get a starting point for these people to talk to you. Now go talk to these people.

If you're serious about testing the market, go get Steve Blank's book (whoa, do I sound like a broken record!!!) and go through the worksheets.

If you don't really want to do all the above, then go ahead and post your value prop here.

Just go to Steveblank.com

Seriously, figure out if there is a market before doing any work or spending any money. Just because things like istockphoto and cobras exists doesn't mean that there no opportunity. You just have to figure out why they suck ( if they do) and if anybody cares.

You said that you have only spent 30 Gbp so far in one of your comments. Spend another 30gbp and buy four steps to the epiphany by Steve Blank. Then I would go out and find some photographers and tell them about the proposition and ask them if they would use a site like that. If they all say, no I use corbis then I would drop it. If they all say that they use corbis but they hate it, then maybe you have something.

Well I planned on posting a rate my startup question this weekend since we're just starting a hackathon tomorrow to squash some bugs, but the way we think we're going is a online interactive walkthrough of the site when a user first logs on to give them an idea of what to do next. We tried to use amberjack but it seemed a little limiting so instead we wrote our own utility using jquery and expose. I would post a link to the library but I'm on my stupid iPad right now so just search for jquery and expose and you'll find the library we use.

To the question on hand: I'm from Texas and I have no idea what you are talking about when you say footfalls (insert joke about Texans here)

I would consider your target audience. Most likely they are brick and mortars SMBs who's core competency doesn't involve things like: Tweets, Likes, Deals, Check-ins

I would instead ask something like:

As a successful business owner, you know that customer referrals and word of mouth marketing are the bread and butter of business. How do you make it easier for your enthusiasts in the age of Twitter let their friends know how awesome your business is?

Eyesandfeet facilitates word of mouth marketing for new Y Generation.

If you like SciFi, I really recommend Ian M. Banks and his Culture Series.

Here is a link to the "first" in the series: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consider_Phlebas

Basically to give you a flavour, imagine a utopian society where energy is basically free and run by super intelligent benevolent AIs. So basically the citizens have nothing to do but live a completely hedonistic life.

Whenever they encounter "primitive" societies, they try to make them more human and civilized. Basically the opposite of the "prime directive". The organization responsible for that is called Contact. Unfortunately, in order to make these societies more humane they sometimes have to resort to some dirty tricks (like assassinating evil dictators, instigating civil wars, etc etc). The organization responsible for that is called "Special Circumstances".

Another author I find great is Sheri Tepper. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheri_S._Tepper

SciFi with a feminist bent. Examples are Grass / and the Margarets.

If you want something more acid, anything by Victor Pelevin. Buddha's little finger is brilliant.

I think your app suffers from the same problem my startup app has, which is the empty canvas problem. So basically your app seems to allude to a lot of power and functionality, which is paradoxically a little intimidating for a new user. Basically, where do I start? You have a lot of choices in the "what do to next" section.

What happens a lot of the time is the user says:

Wow! what a cool application! Seems powerful! I'll deal with this when I can properly think about it!

...and then promptly never visits your site again.

Somebody from Skype told me that they had the same problem and their solution was to funnel all users into a 5 step program. I would suggest that you "onboard" your users by forcing them into a N-Step workflow where at the end of it, it doesn't look like an empty canvas but a starting point to contribute more.

Edit: Like step 1 should be "Invite your SO". Encourage them to collaborate and plan together :)

If you are a company outside of the EU (like the US) make sure you mention that you are VAT exempt so they don't charge you for that.

Agreed. But note that it's more like a textbook rather than an inspirational read. Don't expect to "finish" over a few bathroom breaks (unlike rework (which is great also (but more "easy"))).

If you search for Steve Blanks course notes, you can read the first 3 chapters for free. If you buy the book, it comes with handy dandy worksheets (as well as the rest of the book).

I really like Drunk and Retired. It's done by Michael Cote at Redmonk and Charles Lowell at the Frontside. Can get a little offtopic sometimes (like tangents about Austin traffic) but in general really funny.

Here's one about sandboxed javascript...

http://drunkandretired.com/2010/03/04/episode165/

If you back those out (assuming that they had equal subscription so could be a random variable), what were the next two reasons?

Also if you explain that you are an American company (if you are), they will waive the VAT which bring down the cost per month to 44 usd or something.

A fast evolving tax situation. With the new laws regarding pfas, a lot of my friends have been trying to restructure. Ro used to have a great structure called the microenterprise. I don't know what's happened to it.

As stated in the other comments, there's really not enough information. I would lean towards #2 because of what Mark Suster calls, learn before you earn.

#1 you're going to have to figure out a lot of things on your own. Now that's not a bad thing, but the experience may come quicker if you have some more senior people to watch and learn from.

#3 sounds like a consulting company so the things you learn will be around how to run a consulting company

Now of course the big assumptions I have made are:

You interested in product oriented startups vs consulting

You are pretty confident in your ability to pick up technology. You are more interested in learning the process, etc

You're not in it for the money but the chance for eventual glory

If any of these assumptions are wrong then the answer of course changes

actually, if you know java fairly well, I can introduce you to some EU contacts that could make the move possible for you next month :)

If you (or anyone who wants to work in Germany) wish to send over a resume, I'll happily forward it. (no promises though!)

M8R-qhfq4p@mailinator.com

Germany.

The process is very easy. Just show up, show them your contract or if you do a lot of freelance work, register yourself as a freelancer. The only caveat is you will be required to start German lessons. The wife and kids should be fine also. There is a minimum salary you have to make as well.

Pro Tip: Go to a city where there is a lot of volume in foreign skilled labor such as Dusseldorf. (besides, imho, it's one of the EU's hidden gems)