In Retrospect
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Don't become a sharecropper.
Over the past few years as the big players have increasingly opened their platforms, many companies have started relying on these platforms as their sole means of revenue. Some have succeeded but most have become modern day sharecroppers, constantly investing resources in keeping up with platform changes (API, Terms of Use,etc.) instead focusing on doing what's best for their end user (which may include integrating with these platforms).
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When dealing with physical products, having resources is important.
The great part about software is that to create and distribute it requires, for the most part, only time, a computer and some bandwidth. Unfortunately the same doesn't hold true for real goods. Physical objects require many more resources, which makes it pretty difficult to bootstrap, unless you have a pay now, get later business model. I learned this the hard way with Hedonist.
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Great websites are made to evolve.
Maybe it's just my inability but I don't think it's possible to launch a great website. IAs, Wireframes, mockups, and thorough user testing will help, but unless it's the simplest of sites, something is going to change after launch. I believe it's much more important to focus on creating a site that can adapt to changing needs, be they business or content, rather than focusing on getting the details perfect.
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Technology is never a limitation for a great idea.
While it's very important to consider how technologically feasible an idea is, current technology should never be the deciding factor in scrapping an idea. If it's truly a great idea, certain compromises can be made knowing that tech can always catch up. For example, when Foursquare launched, GPS wasn't yet ubiquitous so they allowed a user to "check in" by manually entering a location. This solution wasn't ideal but it allowed them to test the market and as GPS enabled phones became more popular, the manual method was phased out.
Hedonist
Hedonist was a t-shirt company I started while in high school. I was a huge Threadless fan but I had always felt that the quality of shirts they used. I thought I could do it better and in August 2005 I decided to try it. Inspired by a trip to Spain I called the company “Hedonist”, took my savings and begun work. I spent the following six months creating an LLC, an online e-commerce system complete with social features and credit card processing, designing the first shirts, and creating a marketing campaign. In January 2006, the e-store was launched and over the next year I sold about 100 shirts. I then realized that physical products required many resources that at 18 I didn’t have and I decided to keep creating software and websites instead.
Recrio
Recrio was an experiment I did in early 2007. At the time, Javascript was getting really big and I wondered if I could create a browser based image editor. At the time companies like Picnik were trying to create a similar experience using Flash. Leveraging the MooTools javascript library and ImageMagick. I was possible to implement a wide range of features from multiple layers to various image effects. I hope to resurrect it and make use of new HTML features (SVG and canvas tag).
My Restaurants
My Restaurants was a venture started with the former owner of Campus Menus in 2007 in the heyday of. The goal was to create a facebook application that would allow users to share and discover new places to eat. It centered around a recommendation engine and leveraged the social aspects of facebook. It was well received and had a very passionate community. Due to the lack of available resources, and constant struggle to keep up with Facebook's changes it never reached critical mass, and in the fall of 2009 was "acquired" and as far as I know is still functional.