1 point by zaidf 3 hours ago | link | parent For me school is a way to be connected to what is going on in the "real world". I entered school thinking it is EITHER school or entrepreneurship. But in last year my views have changed. I really think there is a middle path where you do JUST enough to stay in school all the while trying out new ventures. (May be the Steve Jobs route?)
School is an awesome platform to launch your site off and get quick feedback - ESPECIALLY if your venture fits in with the social networking ecosystem.
1 point by zaidf 3 hours ago | link | parent I gotta agree with you.
Though everything in this argument depends on the relativeness of things, in general I do think as ADD'd coders we love to simply code the next thing that comes to our mind. And that has its advantages. But as I've realized, it can be super healthy to explore the other end and instead of simply coding the first idea you get, to do few days of contemplation of making the initial idea better.
Get idea - Process idea - Code
I think there is too much of "Get idea - Code it" going on in this audience. A little mix can really help.
1 point by zaidf 7 hours ago | link | parent I already suggested alternating row colors on all news list pages.
-Zaid
1 point by zaidf 9 hours ago | link | parent In the last week of 2006 and couple weeks before the launch of our site, I had what I thought was a great idea(thankyou2006.com). I shared the idea with my partner, he liked it, we worked on it for a day and launched it.
I had to break my own promise to not work on anything else. And it made me a little nervous that this might cause the distraction we didn't need few weeks before our launch.
Keys:
1. Know your and your team's limits from past experience. What has happened in past when you worked on side projects?
2. Find some angle where the side project has the potential to compliment your primary company. In our case, if the side project it would have given us some much-needed $$$s for our main start-up.
--Zaid
1 point by zaidf 2 days ago | link | parent I would have appreciated if the article covered few common pitfalls and how NetFlix wrestles them when using the fast iteration cycle.
2 points by zaidf 2 days ago | link | parent MySpace.com...because it "works."
/goes back to throwing up.
1 point by zaidf 3 days ago | link | parent LOL! Trust me, if you can get 1% of this world's fools to use your product, you have a hit.
1 point by zaidf 4 days ago | link | parent Almost everyone I meet(there are exceptions) is pessimistic of all my ideas. Which is lots of fun because you can tell they don't quite get the "whole thing" as you have in your mind no matter how well you explain to them.
Co-incidentally I wrote a post titled "Mere ideas have never been this useless" just earlier today. You can read it here: http://www.zaid360.com/?p=63
--Zaid
1 point by zaidf 4 days ago | link | parent When displaying list of stories, it would make readability much easier if alternate rows were white. Current listing of stories requires too much mental engagement for me personally.
Alternate row coloring would increase page scability for story listings.
-Zaid
2 points by zaidf 5 days ago | link | parent I read this a couple times a month ever since I ran into it.
What I like about Jobs is that he has a story of ups and downs which better reflects the reality of the average entrepreneur than a one way constant linear progression.
0 points by zaidf 6 days ago | link | parent I've read this argument in several posts: you're on dope if you are banking on an acquisition.
What most of these folks writing the articles are missing is that entrepreneurs, however optimistic they may seem, already know of all the risk and unlikelihood of them actually being acquired. We dream about it - but don't necessarily depend on it.
That is not to say that in any market there are tops 10-15 great sites. And if you can be one of them(which isn't too hard a feat) - by most innocent calculation you have a solid 7-10% chance of being acquired if there is an acquisition. 7-10% shot at relative fame is not too bad for something you doled out in few months and kept growing for couple years.
3 points by zaidf 8 days ago | link | parent Failures without partners: over 5
Hits without partners: 0
Hits with partner: 1
Potential hits with partner(currently): 1
There is nothing like having someone else think and work 20hr days WITH you when you are starting up.
1 point by zaidf 8 days ago | link | parent I'm talking from personal experiences of my own so there is no point of disagreement;)
That said, you're right: people love "winners." The trick is you don't have to have sold a big startup to make a reputation. Even before my startup went live, I started getting emails from people across the campus about their ideas and working with them. That's when I realized a lot of attracting folks to work with you is about PR - backed by a real plan and intelligence.
2 points by zaidf 8 days ago | link | parent That's why I am headed to India this summer if all goes well:)
--Zaid
2 points by zaidf 8 days ago | link | parent Big part of the puzzle is to build value in your potential cofounder's eyes from your past ________ experiences. It is a two way street: your cofounder should need you as much as you need him. -Zaid
2 points by zaidf 9 days ago | link | parent It happened to my last 10 ventures: I would work couple weeks on them, launch, get bored and move onto the next thing.
That was until I sat down and decided to commit 6 months to iJigg no matter where it went. Yet, 5 months into it, I am already getting pretty restless with other ideas I want to pursue.
The only good thing in this episode of my "entrepreneur's ADD" is I am planning ahead. I am thinking by May I should begin work on my next idea which is in itself progress for me(rather than waking up one morning and abandoning one ship for another).
I simply need some experienced folks to tell me my killer idea can still be done six months down the line. The good thing about the nature of my idea is it relies more on implementation details than the concept itself.
Seeing the bad job the current players have been doing in the space for past two years I want to say it is unlikely they will figure out what they are doing wrong in the next six months. If only I can convince my mind of this so it can focus totally on more priority items:) How would you?
To be clear I am beyond the stage where I will ACTUALLY leave a venture that is going well prematurely for another. But that still does not take care of the mental buzz created by the new idea.
2 points by zaidf 10 days ago | link | parent Ah, 19 for another couple months:)
1 point by zaidf 10 days ago | link | parent Everything is cool - except the "CSS" part. What if some of those designs looked the same but used say...tables? I'm guessing they wouldn't make it on that list.
It is a dangerous path to become a standard fanatic for an entrepreneur and sites such as this encourage it. When my site goes live, the site layout showing up right in common browsers is more critical than having a "Trophy Homepage" powered by "Nothing But CSS."
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