Archive for the ‘Tech’ Category

How to Use Google Docs to Get Continuous User Feedback

27, Jul 2011

This quick post shows you how to implement a continuous feedback system using Google Docs Forms and a simple script which I’ve included. What’s Great About This Incredibly quick to set up (~5 minutes per survey) Realtime emails give you “the pulse” of your business The data is logged in a spreadsheet so you can [...]

Favorite tools for late night startup hackers

16, Jan 2011

Working flexible/crazy hours and from various locations is the norm in the startup world, and I’ve been meaning to write a quick post about some of the useful tools I’ve come across for helping collaboration in my startup, MediaPiston.  I just saw this tweet by @thinkmaya which inspired me to get the post out. Here are some [...]

New York Times 50 Most Challenging Words (defined and used)

15, Jun 2010

The New York Times recently published a list of 50 fancy words that most frequently stump their readership. They are able to measure this data thanks to a nifty in-page lookup mechanism, which you can try here. Try double-clicking the word “epicenter”. Since the NYT didn’t include definitions of these words, I decided to post [...]

Adding a Facebook like button to your WordPress blog

24, Apr 2010

Facebook launched their new Social plugins including the new “like” button, and in case you’re wondering how to add them to your WordPress blog, I found a great post by @ruhanirabin.  Here’s what I did to get it working on my blog. First, I’m using the Evidens Theme theme, so these instructions might not work [...]

If you want to ship, cut, cut, cut!

17, Apr 2010

I’m helping a startup founder who is outsourcing the development of a project. Tensions are running high on both sides as the project slips. The CEO is getting about two updates a week, mostly just “it’s ready to test now, the bugs are 80% fixed” and there’s no regular meeting. During the course of the [...]

Avoid This Startup Mistake: Losing Customer Focus

20, Feb 2010

In 2006 when we launched Snapvine’s first viral widget and phone app for teens, it went viral overnight. We were overwhelmed with success within 3 weeks: our servers were swamped with signups – 1 million of them within the first 7 weeks. This was one of those “good problems to have” — so “good” in fact [...]

Crowdsourcing Meetup Notes

23, Jan 2010

Last Wednesday I hosted a video-link at WhitePages to the Crowdsourcing Meetup that Dolores Labs put on in the Bay Area at the Samasource offices.  Check Justin.tv/crowdflower for a video of the event (coming soon). First off, THANKS to Michael Toomim for tipping me off to the event and to Lukas and Zack of Dolores [...]

The positive follow-up to complaints, failures and ideas.

9, Nov 2009

Complaints can be annoying, but when paired with solution ideas are valuable.  Failure by itself is a negative but when it comes with honest learning is the foundation of innovation.  Ideas by themselves can be worthless but when accompanied by follow-through can be worth millions. Therefore, next time someone brings you any of these things [...]

Does Seattle shun startup failure?

29, Oct 2009

Tonight I attended the UW CSE Annual Industrial Affiliates Meeting. As I walked around, I bumped into familiar faces close to the UW CSE and Startup communities. I asked people “how are we doing on entrepreneurship coming out of the department?” Surprisingly, feedback from 3 people very close to the issue was “we’re not doing too well.”

FiReGlobal West Notes

20, Oct 2009

Last week I attended FiReGlobal West as a guest speaker on a CTO Challenge Panel discussing how technology can help increase civic engagement at all levels of government. Here are a few rough notes I took (and my opinions interwoven) throughout the day.


top