FairSoftware's Blog - Latest Comments

Re: Start Different

Keith — Tue, 15 May 2012 20:18:48 -0000

I disagree. There comes a time when giving up after four years is the sane thing. Yes I have a great idea with two years of massive development and a model nobody has ever considered, and yes many front of house people see the potential, but trying to get techs to see it is like trying to get a plumber to come on board as co-general contractor and thus carry some of the risk. Techs are way overrated when it comes to recognizing business value and business development. Thus, trying to find a good CTO as a co-founder has been a nightmare for me. Looks like I just lost my best lead just a second ago.

Re: Co-Founder Issues (Slides from StartupConf Seattle)

Grainne — Sun, 13 May 2012 13:29:57 -0000

At what stage should one consider not having a co founder. ie if
one has gone it alone for so long, built the product, raised the finance, built
the team, but still pre launch, should one still consider co founders at this
point? Its been a long hard struggle - and it wasn't that I for one started off
thinking - I'm doing this on my own - but I did start off thinking "I'm
DOING this" and along the way, didn't meet “the one” in time (ie before
now). I mean that I didn’t find that person whom I knew instinctively would
love and drive the business idea to execution, be as enthusiastic, passionate
and focused about is as I am. The conundrum - as a non techie - but as a
business person - my network when I started out didn't include any
"techies" and so my network included plenty of smart business people,
but no techies. In hinesight, YES, if I'd had a techie co founder to begin with
- hands down we'd be further along the line - but I didn't, and we are where we
are - which is fairly decently along the line now albeit its taken longer and
been harder- so my question - at what point do we no longer need a co founder -
and do we just use money we have (when I say we, I’m majority shareholder with
some hands off Angel investors) to find “A” people and give vested options instead.

It’s easy to answer this question with – get a co founder anytime –
but at this stage, can you even really call someone a Co-Founder (a year in?)

Re: Freaky Scary Google Plus

Misogynistic Bastard — Fri, 04 May 2012 02:51:34 -0000

For every one person who has a problem like this, there are about 20,000 for whom this suggestion system works great

Re: Will You Be a Great Entrepreneur? How I Can Tell From Your Resume

Jonathan Taufer — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 18:22:02 -0000

Your "P.S." is absolutely ridiculous.

I had no idea how valuable my extracurriculars where until businesses started digging into them at interviews and telling me that those sorts of accomplishments where why they wanted to hire me.

I have gone back and fleshed out my extracurriculars now.

Re: Co-Founder Issues (Slides from StartupConf Seattle)

Deborah Drake — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 01:08:44 -0000

Alain,

Wow! I came home to a pingback on my write up of my experience of the Seattle Startup Conference and I said, "really?" Your opening remarks set a wonderful tone for the day. I was a sponge. And I learned so many good things that day, including that I had intelligently and intuitively chosen for myself a great co-founder for an idea we believe will help a lot of people! I couldn't type fast enough, but apparently I did! Merci tres beaucoup!

Deborah Drake - Authentic Writing Provokes
Bellevue, WA

Re: Why I Prefer Testing Over Coding

Modern Dining Tables — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:52:17 -0000

On one hand the version of Windows 8 we test with here, the Developer Preview is far from finished—it's not even ready to be called a "beta"—and code ...

Re: Why I’ll Buy Facebook Stock: I Saw Virality Firsthand

eenoog (one-eye) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:38:27 -0000

Getting likes is easy. Likes cost nothing (for the 'liker'). Yeah, I like Italian Opera, let's click that like button (and it will make me look so refined too, that will surely to impress my friends!).

Congrats. So people know about your event! Now try selling something on FB, e.g. tickets to your conference, and track conversion please.

We ran similar budget campaigns concurrently on FB and Google Adwords. Performance of Google's Adwords is a 100-200x better... because search delivers adverts in context, ie showing options to people interested in a particular topic/action AT THAT TIME.

FB conversion performance compared to Google's Display Network advertising, which we all know is "see what sticks-vertising". Useless mass exposure resulting in clicks that rarely convert.

Clicking like is very different from actually buying that Callas CD. My money is still on google.

Re: Apple vs. Samsung: The Trolls Win

alain94040 — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 18:05:26 -0000

The why is fairly obvious: it's easier to copy something that is proven, than take a risk. Look at the PC clone industry for instance. The fight was to build the cheapest hardware possible, not to innovate and differentiate.

In that world, there would still be some players who try to be different, but they are more likely to be crushed by the combined power of the clone industry.

Re: Apple vs. Samsung: The Trolls Win

Mark Probst — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 17:34:03 -0000

Why would making exact clones of the most successful products be the best business strategy, as opposed to innovating? It's only a good strategy if you can sell them at a lower price and still make a profit, but as more competitors join in that becomes harder and harder, whereas innovating puts you into the position of having something nobody else has yet.

Patents are not what kept Apple from entering the cell phone market with a handset that was a feature-for-feature copy of whichever Nokia phone sold best at that time. And they're not what keeps them from selling bog-standard Windows PCs. What keeps them is that those are not attractive markets because there is too much competition because all the products are more or less the same.

I could go even further and argue that if Samsung were able to sell perfect copies of Apple's products, after some time delay for development, that would result in Apple having to lower its prices and/or innovate even more, to set themselves apart.

Re: So You Want to Be a Rockstar? Rules for Pitching at the Founder Conference

Christopher — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 18:24:06 -0000

There's no "let's lunch" in Seattle. How does one get selected to pitch, then?

Re: Is It OK for a Startup to Use Warez Software? Ethics vs. Reality

contemporary bathroom vanities — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 04:28:22 -0000

Nearly all of these were "warez" distribution groups for pirated software--hacker communities that are explicitly and often fiercely non-commercial in ...

Re: My Users Say “No Thanks” to Free Money

omnidk — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 14:50:25 -0000

it's two dollars. offer me at least twenty then maybe we'll talk.

Re: Share Subscription Revenue for your Virtual Startup

Matt — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 08:59:27 -0000

My name is Matt Bauer and I work for Search Engine Rescue.

We have a couple of business clients who are interested in advertising or guest blog opportunities on your site.

Do you offer either of these? If so, could you forward me details?

Thanks for you help.

Kind regards
Mattmatt@searchenginerescue.co.uk

Re: The Startup Pitch Competition is On at the Los Angeles Startup Conference 2011

alain94040 — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 15:08:54 -0000

Good question. Yes, you do.

Re: The Great Startup Idea That I Can’t Reveal (Yet)

Jack — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 22:56:51 -0000

How about some ideas that really were valuable in themselves, despite of course also requiring a great deal of development and execution:
- tetrapak
- bic biro
- zipper
- safety pin
- velcro
- hypertext
- pre-paid mobile
- etc, etc.

Re: The Great Startup Idea That I Can’t Reveal (Yet)

Jack — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 22:55:26 -0000

Those you quoted are just crap unoriginal ideas, that are all in the execution, if they're even possible with todays technology.
Of course most ideas are largely in the execution, but some are actually original and valuable.How about some ideas that really were valuable in themselves, despite of course also requiring a great deal of development and execution:tetrapakbic birozippersafety pinvelcrohypertextpre-paid mobileetc, etc.

Re: The Great Startup Idea That I Can’t Reveal (Yet)

Gustavo — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 21:42:24 -0000

1- Overly generic, obviously good and technical nightmare. From the likes of "make a machine translation tool that translates text correctly, sensing context"
2- Already exists. There is several software that does this, although it's oriented towards gaming and tech communities - namely TeamSpeak and Ventrilo. They support several rooms, etc. TeamSpeak3 even supports 3D directional audio (like people were in such and such location in a real room). Would make a great feature on existing software such as Skype.
3- What do you mean by sharing revenue?
4- Yea, it's not so innovative, although interesting (could make that for a personal electronics project). But take a look at it's actual realization. If you made it using bluetooth tech I think you'd have signal problems. If you made it wi-fi the cost would be ridiculous. Anyway, how much would you pay for having this in your house? I know a few existing systems, but they're for "rich people", not a very innovative/scalable product.

Re: The Startup Pitch Competition is On at the Los Angeles Startup Conference 2011

Rypl Inc — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 12:20:12 -0000

fIf your pitch was selected, do you still have to buy tickets to the conference?

Re: My Users Say “No Thanks” to Free Money

Matt Bauer — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 23:55:32 -0000

My name is Matt Bauer and I work for Search Engine Rescue.

We have a couple of business clients who are interested in advertising or guest blog opportunities on your site.

Do you offer either of these? If so, could you forward me details?

Thanks for you help.

Kind regards
Matt

Matt Bauer
Marketing & Partnerships Manager
matt@searchenginerescue.co.uk

Re: The Cheapest MBA Program for CS Students Costs $99 and It’s Called the App Store

Texas Online Degree — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 05:06:32 -0000

Thanks for the information I’m thinking about having a Online MBA
program and after your information I think I’ll surely give it a try..
can you please provide list of colleges proving this facility..thanks

Re: Why I Prefer Testing Over Coding

Arnaud — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 04:26:31 -0000

Very true!

Other difficult matters with testing phase:
- management usually underestimate this phase and the only question they have usually is "when is testing phase finished?"
- it is difficult to design and structure a relevant testing phase, it requires very good analytical skills (like WoW...) and experience
- as management don't know this testing phase and the underlying difficulties, it is not easy to repport on this phase to the management. It requires specific communication skills as well to explain to the management how this phase is structured, the progress status, etc.

Arnaud

Re: Three Can’t Miss Meetings for Entrepreneurs Visiting Silicon Valley

Andrea Lucas — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 11:44:09 -0000

Good
read. Its helpful to know where to go
in Silicon Valley to establish some business relationships. Thanks for posting.

Re: Shark Eats Entrepreneur Alive

ClubAsteria — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 11:35:26 -0000

It was
interesting how they were using pressure tactics to get this entrepreneur to
invest. How often do you suspect this
happens to small business owners and investors?

Re: No CEO Is Worth Their Multi Million Dollar Paycheck. Except…

alain94040 — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 12:20:24 -0000

Or to rephrase it differently, if you are the worst of your class, maybe you should feel it in your paycheck :-)

Re: No CEO Is Worth Their Multi Million Dollar Paycheck. Except…

alain94040 — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 12:19:34 -0000

CEO's salaries are easily adjusted for inflation. But when issuing stock grants, I can't think of any way to adjust for inflation.