startup

Startup Secret 44: A rose by any other name

"You make it mean something."

--Don Dodge, Developer advocate, Google

Don and I were at the Launch startup conference talking about goofy company names. It turns out he's sort of in favor of them. New companies spend way too much on securing what they think are important, common-word short URLs. And then they try to back into the justification. Color, for example. Or Path. I can tell a company has paid too much for a domain name when I ask the CEO what it cost, and they turn red and quietly answer, "We'd prefer … Read more

Startup Secret 43: It's not you, it's me

"Fire your worst customers."

-- Name withheld

A PR friend of mine (the flack-writer relationship isn't always adversarial) who also started her own agency and thus has startup chops, told me how liberating it was to "resign" clients and partners with whom neither she, nor anyone else in her company, enjoyed working.

"It's not beneficial to either party, if you can't work together harmoniously," she said.

A bad working relationship doesn't build value for either side. It doesn't lead to reference relationships you can use in the future. It … Read more

Foursquare's latest move: A partnership with Time

Time and Foursquare today announced an arrangement making them exclusive partners for the 2012 Democratic and Republican political conventions.

Individuals checking in or around either of the conventions will be able to unlock unique badges from Time and Foursquare. For those of you who aren't badge collectors, Time will use Foursquare to aggregate and visualize updates, "from reporters, newsmakers, and VIPs as they check in."

In addition to this partnership, Foursquare has made a number of other announcements in recent days. Earlier this week, it dispatched with Google Maps in favor of the OpenStreetMap movement.

It's … Read more

Startup Secret 42: No time like the present. I mean, future. No, past.

"We were too early."

-- numerous founders

It's a common self-criticism of the founders of flopped startups that they launched a product into a market that wasn't ready for their brilliance. Few regret it, though.

As Ole Lutjens of MX (Reporters' Roundtable: The Second Screen) says of his previous and mostly fizzled venture, Beta Lounge, "Maybe I should have waited. But the upside was experience, and defending the idea, and making connections to people who otherwise wouldn't be interested in talking." He says that people remember enthusiasm and conviction, which, if you've … Read more

AOL says bye-bye to Brizzly

Thing Labs is killing its social media client Brizzly.

When Brizzly launched in 2009, the Web-based client used Google Translate to offer inline translations of tweets. It also distinguished itself by providing definitions for topics trending on Twitter.

Trends would be its defining feature. Brizzly went so far as to launch the "Let's Be Trends" API, giving applications access to its trend information.

In 2010 AOL, acquired Thing Labs. Co-founder Grant Shellen said then on the startup's blog:

First things first: Brizzly is sticking around. Of course anything can happen in the future, but nowhere on … Read more

Startup Secret 41: Young at heart

"Being a startup is a state of mind, not a company size."

-- Christian Springub, co-founder, Jimdo

Every time I hear some big-company exec say they run their company "like a startup," I am convinced I am listening to delusion. I have worked on startup teams and at several big companies. The difference is huge.

Maybe I'm not working at the right company. Christian Springub, co-founder of the Web site creation and hosting platform Jimdo, which I reviewed in 2007, reached out to tell me that his company just turned 5. It's got 5 … Read more

Startup Secret 40: The trinity of startup disciplines

"It's easy to develop something innovative that is still useless."

-- Mark Drummond, CEO, Jildy

Mark Drummond is one of those technology-focused CEOs. He creates products that tend to have their science a bit closer to the surface than many startups I see. Check out his latest product, Jildy (story), which does network analysis of your Facebook friends. He previously worked on the social search startup Wowd before social search was a thing.

Mark sent me an interesting confession:

When I first got into startups, I thought something was worth doing if it was fundamentally innovative. It … Read more

Startup Secret 39: Go where your users take you

"There's more than one road to the destination."

-- Dan Kurani, CEO, Thumb

You have a road map? Prepare to rip it up. You can still get to where you're going, but the route might be the scenic one.

When Dan Kurani started Opinionaided (now Thumb), the original plan was to get people to ask others for advice on products they were thinking of buying. He saw a nice built-in revenue stream attached to consumer opinions on products (category sponsorships, product ads, etc.), and Dan and his team wanted to focus users on those products so … Read more

Why business co-founders ought to learn code

In the new Internet economy, code is king. Taking the time to learn the basics of programming will help you succeed in business and entrepreneurship.

A few days ago, an aspiring entrepreneur e-mailed me with a simple question:

"Do you need to be an expert in coding to build a successful startup, or can you employ experts to do the technical work for you?"

This person has demonstrated success as a businessman and a salesman, but he caught the entrepreneurship bug and couldn't shake it. He wanted to start his own company.

I knew what he wanted … Read more