ambient

Some thoughts I put down over at the Gridjit Blog.

This is just a meditation, not a peer-reviewed academic piece (which will become quite obvious), but I thought I would share it for anyone who might find it relevant to their work lives. Think of it as a devil’s advocacy piece to anyone (including myself) who finds themselves dreaming up and building technology solutions for a living.

Google (and others, of course) have successfully trained an entire generation of technologists to think like marketers and that might not be a good thing.

There are many benefits to the way technology development is shaping up. Hackers / developers, engineers, etc. are learning, in greater numbers, about how to run businesses on fewer resources, speak with investors, automate critical processes and sell useful products without the help of MBA / marketing types. This is certainly a good thing both for investors and for entrepreneurs as it removes unnecessary and expensive layers of management that, in many cases, should not exist in early stage companies.

As a result of all this contact with VCs and exposure to a business mindset, however, we have formed a few habits that probably require some thought. Primarily, it is this: hackers these days have a tendency to view their applications as marketing channels, best or most easily monetized by some sort of advertising / affiliate reward / product upsell.

Don’t get me wrong - in the business we’re in, these are often perfectly legitimate business models and I don’t blame anyone for wanting to build a profitable business (I certainly do). But something about either the nature of the apps we all spend so much time building or the state of the industry we’re in has created deep channels in our brains about what type of applications to build and how they will be monetized. Furthermore, due to the ease and common acceptance of these models, more and more businesses are completely virtual  and contain some element of leveraging user data to provide targeted or better marketing.

I do happen to agree with Google that relevant advertising is no longer advertising but useful information. All I’m saying is that we shouldn’t let ourselves fall into the trap of thinking that technology is not first and foremost a media / marketing channel. Or it shouldn’t be.

Most entrepreneurs I know treat wealth as a secondary (or tertiary) interest to building something new, innovative or useful. But I wonder if we haven’t been brainwashed to think about what constitutes new, innovative or useful by the dominant technology players (who have a clear agenda) over the last few years. Fake Steve Jobs articulates it well:

Plus you make a big deal of only hiring these super-high-IQ kiddies and the fact is that most of them truly are smart, but then you put them into this horribly dull and easy drone work on AdWords and AdSense and they’re all bored to tears and totally disappointed because they really really really thought they were going to do something meaningful with their lives and now they’re just worker bees — pampered worker bees, sure, but still — and maybe they should have taken that offer from McKinsey but they really thought Google was going to be so cool and blah blah blah.

And you know what? There is something really evil about taking thousands of the world’s smartest young people and using them to sell online text ads more efficiently. Really. Think of all the really interesting and important things that this pool of brainpower could be addressing.

Think of all the really interesting and important things that this pool of brainpower could be addressing. That’s the one phrase that comes to mind every time I think of a new product (dozens of times per day). I decided to write this post precisely because I found myself struggling to think of all the really important things I could be addressing that didn’t include new ways to market stuff. That’s not good and so I’m trying to change it.

I know and care very much that Africa is getting fucked by the rest of the world. I have serious suspicions that the G-8 summit in Hokkaido isn’t really going to result in anything groundbreaking and it really bothers me. And I am incredibly frustrated by fake technological cures to real problems (ethanol being a particularly insidious example).

I’m sure that my luddite friends would tell me that all of this technology is the problem in the first place, and there may be some truth to that.

But I’m also an optimist and I truly believe that every person has the opportunity to improve the world. My point in writing this is just to remind myself and anyone else who happens to be reading that this is true and we shouldn’t forget it.

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A frequent comment that entrepreneurs hear when they share product ideas is “Hasn’t someone already done that?”

It’s probably one of the most annoying comments one can hear, not because it’s not true (it is) but because it glosses over the entire history of innovation and assigns way too much credit to incumbent players. Think of it as the inverse to the mind-numbing “is y the new x killer?” worldview.

It’s a big market out there. If you think you can do something better, give it a try. Just don’t start off by wanting to kill something else. That’s not very creative. 

As a response for anyone faced with this question, I decided to create a short list (of 20, albeit somewhat from a  geek’s perspective) products that came after “someone had already done it before.” These randomly popped into my head as I started to catalog what I use on a regular basis:

1. Google Search (and their revenue model)

2. Adobe Flex

3. iPod (and almost all of Apple’s products)

4. Firefox

5. Southwest Airlines

6. JetBlue

7. Reddit (and News.YC )

8. Java, Ruby, Python, etc.

9. WordPress

10. Twitter

11. FriendFeed

12. Gmail

13. Skype

14. TextMate and others

15. Facebook

16. Google Reader

17. Mint

18. Mint

19. CouchSurfing

20. You - don’t overlook the unique perspective you can bring to anything you happen to be interested in. If you build stuff that you find useful, there’s likely to be a market for it. 

One final thought.

In the above list, if I had to identify one or two key factors that contributed to the success of these innovations it would be “simplification” and “ease of use.” Something to keep in mind.  

Additional suggestions welcome. I could spend all day doing this and not run out of examples. 

According to a recent thread on Twitter’s API discussion forum, they have decided to disable an API method that Gridjit relies on in order to provide its service. This is due to the scaling / load problems that Twitter has experienced in the last few months.

It is odd that they decided to remove the method if nobody was using (as they seem to conclude from the messages on the forum) and it wasn’t causing any problems for them. Obviously this isn’t the case for Gridjit.

In the short term, Gridjit is essentially unusable, and for that I apologize. Very soon, however, I will be releasing a new version of Gridjit that gets around this limitation.

Twitter, in this decision, however, has removed a very valuable part of their network - the discoverable, open nature of the platform. This, in my opinion, was a key differentiator for them from FriendFeed (which Gridjit 2.0 will also support). I do hope they change their minds. If you agree, please consider dropping them a line and asking them to re-enable the support for this method. 

In the last two weeks, Gridjit traffic has skyrocketed (over 10x what it was before). It’s been getting lots of great reviews in at least 5 different languages. It’s great to see how much everyone enjoys this app.

With that in mind, I’m happy to make the following announcement:

Gridjit is currently undergoing a major overhaul in order to support a bunch of new features. The next release (coming soon) will add support for FriendFeed and a couple of extra goodies. I’m too stoked about this release to write anymore - as soon as I post this message, it’s back to work.

For now, here’s a screenshot of how things are shaping up:

I was a little surprised (in a nice way) by this:

Thanks to David Krug at the Blog Herald for the kind mention.

Because I just launched my company, I spend a lot of time reading / thinking / discussing with others about what it takes to succeed.

Without having been at it very long I am, nevertheless, beginning to build a philosophy that I think will end up guiding me through the coming years. Here’s what I’ve come up with so far.

1. Certain people were just never meant to be employees. Those people have to be more creative in order to survive.

I’m one of them. I’ve worked at various companies for 8 or 9 years now and the one thing I knew when I left my last company was that it was the right thing to strike out on my own. Success or failure, as commonly measured by others, is irrelevant. As long as you’re surviving and you’re not hemorrhaging money, you can continue on your own. And that’s far preferable to living out somebody else’s vision as an employee.

People like us operate in a different economy. Money and stability are nice but there are more important things. And it turns out, you can survive remarkably well while you’re building that world-changing company on less than you were used to making when gainfully employed.

How do we stay sane every time we see people living the good life on either someone’s salary or when picturing life in the shadow of an upcoming recession? We are optimistic that 1) things will work out one way or another and 2) that we’ll know what to do when we get there.

2. I’m really uncomfortable with two common startup doctrines: that free is a viable business model and that the only way to succeed is to get bought or go public.

Since 2006 or so, people have bandied around the idea that we’re in another bubble. We were certainly in a real estate bubble and I just knew, beginning in about 2003, that that particular asset class was not a good bet for my money.

The question is whether the same is true for internet tech today. But I’m not an investor in this case. I’m an entrepreneur. So I’m already in the game. The question is how am I going to stay in the game?

Inevitably, the question of business models comes up. According to people like Paul Graham and others, whom I respect, they say not to worry too much about the business model at first. I can understand that and I try to take their advice. On the other hand, there are lots of people who hear statements like that and interpret it to mean that the current ad-supported model of “free” internet services is an endless pool of money.

I just spent the last two years building technology to help the largest companies in the world optimize where their money is spent on advertising. They may not be there yet but, let me tell you, eventually even large advertisers are going to start looking at the low conversion rates that your free service provides to them and simply pull the plug. Poof. There go thousands of free services when this happens at scale.

So, I’m not saying you have to figure out your business model right away. I certainly don’t have mine completely figured out. And I’m not saying acquisition is bad - I’d love it to happen to a company that I build. What I am saying is that, given the direction things are going, you’ll want to do everything you can to make your business self-sustaining along the way. But only do that if it doesn’t compromise the quality of your product. Embrace constraints, as they say, and deliver a quality product that people want.

3. The phrase “social media” already makes me want to puke.

Until very recently, I was favorably inclined towards social media when it was just hackers talking about it because they actually had the skills and background to execute on their ideas and build new products to connect people in new ways.

But now, the people most using the term are just endless droves of consultants. I’m not saying consulting is a bad business. I engage in it myself to fund my company and there is certainly a need for companies who use technology to pay better attention to their users. But there is something about the term “social media” and a certain group of consultants who really turn me off to the idea. It feels manipulative and gross.

The reason I bring this up in the context of building companies is I’ve figured out that there is always going to be some fad. It usually starts, in this field, with some game-changing technology development. Then, the consultants and media come out of the woodwork and everyone, including more hackers, starts to build companies around it.

Pay attention to your own feelings about these trends. When you start to get sick of it, it means everybody else will get sick of it in a year or so. Geeks are susceptible to hyperbole but they also get bored quicker. My theory is that all boom cycles are completely at the mercy of boredom. You don’t want to build a business based on something that people are going to get bored of. Unless you can get acquired really quickly.

4. You need to focus. And fight the traps associated with focus.

All entrepreneurs have ADD. Maybe not literally, but close enough. So we know we need to focus.

Then, you have to find a way to fight the desire to shrink into an overly obscure niche, mislabeling it “focus.” We do that in order to avoid competition and - even worse - the line you get at parties when you explain what you’re doing: “Isn’t somebody already doing that?” (Yeah, welcome to the history of innovation.) It is possible to be too focused on your obscure niche because it means nobody wants what you’re building. That’s bad.

If you avoid that trap, then you have to think big but execute small. Build the simplest version of your service as quickly as possible.

I’m still just getting started in my business, but I’ve learned this once so far. I launched the current version of Boompaste primarily so I could learn how other sites like PopUrls worked and what the opportunities were for innovation. In the process, I found a product idea that I really liked (and will probably end up being the future of Boompaste because the current version’s sorry ass is about to get shut down). But instead of just going with a simple implementation of that new product idea, I came up with a grand vision of what the next version of Boompaste would be and it took me months to get anywhere. I went through that existential doubt that all entrepreneurs go through where they question the value of everything they do. That part of startups sucks and not many people talk about it. Maybe talking about it does no good.

Anyway, eventually, around January I realized that the next version of Boompaste was going nowhere. I got honest with myself. Within 24 hours, I had the idea for Gridjit. I was able to launch Gridjit within days and it was immediately useful to many people. It’s been relatively successful, given the small amount of marketing I’ve done.

What was the difference? The site did one thing and it was quick to implement. People liked it. As I add new functionality, I’m very careful to keep myself focused. My rule is becoming if you can’t launch the next valuable set of features in 7 days, you’re not focused enough. I’ve scrapped 2 versions and narrowed the scope again as a result. It’s hard, but I’m learning to trust that instinct. And as a result, Gridjit doesn’t have a bunch of shitty features that nobody needs.

5. My best ideas come when not working.

From an evolutionary perspective, staring at a 15″ screen that virtualizes communication with billions of people at the same time is probably one of those things that physical anthropologists will point to 1 million years from now as the turning point in human physiology that enabled us to turn into super-beings that dominate the universe (if we don’t blow ourselves to pieces before then).

But me? I’m stuck with a homo sapiens brain that evolved to its present state a little over 100,000 years ago. This means that I’m hard wired for creativity when I’m not staring at that 15″ screen. I’m sure there’s some name for this mechanism, but I don’t know what it is. Only how it works. It’s why people are most inspired in the shower or when jogging or when hanging out with friends. Very rarely do I have good ideas when I’m working. Work is to execute on those ideas. If you’re running out of ideas or you feel like you’re current ideas need re-validation / invigoration, take a break. Go somewhere. Shut down your machine for a few days.

6. Working at home has made me realize that I miss a lot about life sitting in front of this computer.

Every time I hear my son playing outside while I’m stuck inside working reminds me of two things.

First, don’t think you can defer the good things in your life until some point where you achieve “success” (whatever that means - certainly money doesn’t compare with watching my son play).

Second, it reminds me to actually get out of my chair and go play with him. Or take a walk with my family. Or go on a trip. I started my company because I want freedom. Yes, I work my ass off most of the time. But I don’t want to shut out the most important people in my life for years on end for something that may not achieve my goals for it.

Luck is a part of business too. Don’t think that money or your drive to provide for your family differentiates you in their eyes. Quality time and communication is the only thing that differentiates you.

7. I wasn’t ready to start my company until now. Two things prepared me. And 33 is not too old to found a startup.

It probably sounds funny to people outside of the tech industry to hear someone say that 33 is not too old to start a company. In their minds, of course it’s not too old. 33 is young! But there’s something about this industry’s culture that worships youth.

Whatever.

It really comes down to how well you live below your means. You need to do that in order to survive as an early stage startup. Paul Graham talks about this a lot, but I didn’t steal this from him. I figured it out on my own when I traveled a lot a few years ago.

That’s one of the things that really prepared me for this. In 2005, I quit my job so my wife and I could travel through Asia, New Zealand, the Middle East and Eastern Europe for almost a year. In a way, that was my first startup. I learned exactly how much money I need to survive for a year (and still have a really good time), what I was capable of (quite a lot, as it turns out), and how to adapt to an incredible variety of situations. It was on this trip that I really gained the confidence to start this thing.

The other thing that really prepared me was my work at Covario, the startup I worked for after our trip. I came in at the very beginning and learned that you almost never know how to solve the problems that are going to come up. You just have to trust that you’re smart enough to do the right thing when you get there.

Sometimes you mess up. That’s life. The fact that you messed up at the time / place probably means that someone was watching out for you and let you make that mistake earlier rather than later, when the stakes would be even higher. Be grateful. Move on. Be like a Navy SEAL (except don’t kill people). Adapt. Live off the land. Do whatever it takes to survive and succeed.

That’s my list for now. I’m sure there’s a lot more, but these are the notes I’ve taken so far. I’ll write down more as they come up and I have time.

In case you haven’t heard, the food in Japan is out of this world. But sometimes, I find myself longing for some favorites from back home. In particular, I really miss good Mexican and good Pizza.

After Googling around a bit, I happened upon the recipe site from one of my old blog buddy’s sites, Simply Recipes. I had forgotten how much good stuff Elise has there and I spent quite awhile browsing through an amazing collection of pizzas, tortillas, sandwiches and more. I highly recommend it.

I just pushed a new version of Gridjit live. Users now have the ability to post to Twitter from within Gridjit. It’s a simple enhancement, but as a user myself, I’ve noticed that it greatly enhances my experience and usage of Twitter.

In order to post, just click on “What are you doing?” and a text field will drop down.

Most of the quirks should be worked out, but if you run into issues, feel free to comment here or ping @gridjit on Twitter.

Additionally, I’ve been hard at work designing the next version of Gridjit. There’s lots of neat stuff in store, so stay tuned!