Looking for a bit of career advice. I started back in '99 as a developer, and was fortunate to make my way to CIO of a small IT service company. I like people, understanding businesses and how technology can help, and I always kept my fingers dirty in tech, but never really hardcore development.Four years ago I decided I wanted to build software products, so I left for an opportunity with the...
Anyone out there successfully sold a SaaS app to small/offline businesses? Essentially those such as landscapers, architects, accountants, lawyers, etc.Since these aren't necessarily as captive an audience as say developers are, meaning they may not be online, looking for the latest and greatest, I'd like understand what worked best with respect to marketing/obtaining leads...was it all...
Assuming folks perform a bit of their business via email correspondence...do you currently track and bill for this time and/or what do you use to track the time?
In alignment with your benefits, I just feel that in this day and age, as a buyer I shouldn't have to spend countless hours looking for the best deal. Especially if I know exactly what I want, people with it should be able to give it to me and compete for my business.
I envisioned showing only information about the requested item, and then charging sellers for access to contact the person...this helps to weed out people that aren't serious about selling/don't have the item in question.
Obviously you could use this for any tangible item, but I saw a big benefit when buying a car. As the process stands today, you submit via the manufacturer's website that you are interested in model X, then you get hit with a ton of emails from dealers in your area, typically offering you everything but the exact make/model/color you want. Cut through the noise and management of those emails and get what you want.
Feel free to hit me up if I can help in any way: shawn.arnwine at gmail.com
Good luck.
Having recently bootstrapped and launched a workflow SaaS app, my (non-technical) co-founder is working on the marketing of it. The problem is, his current fulltime job prevents him from being public about his involvement so anything he posts or signs up for is all run through my accounts (i.e. LinkedIn). While that's all well and good, it adds more administrivia to my plate as I'm left...
I'm a RoR newbie and looking for a good tutorial/examples on customizing the errors/alerts (via flash, etc) that are returned with Rails. I'm especially interested in those using Rails 3.2. Can anyone point me to some good ones? Thanks.
I see the occasional post on here for jobs, but what other sites have you used to find good opportunities...especially contract/telecommute. Thanks.
I'd suggest looking at some of the writing around the Lean methodology, especially Customer Development. For example, you can create simple surveys and send them out to potential customers (find customers on forums, FB, wherever), during which you can gauge interest and if they'd be willing to pay.
Everyone has a story to tell, big or small, success or failure, so if you'd like to participate, please visit http://leanboots.posterous.com and drop me a line.
Or if anyone has any specific thoughts on stories or direction, I'd appreciate it.
Thanks!
http://leanboots.posterous.com
HN Readers: I've learned a ton over the years by reading about others who have bootstrapped. Whether its via 37Signals, Bootstrapped and Profitable series, or other blog posts. But I haven't found a blog/site dedicated to bootstrappers, and the challenges they've had to overcome or weren't able to.Everyone has a story to tell, big or small, success or failure, so if you'd like to participate,...
I'm working full-time for the govt, while bootstrapping my SaaS product. The govt job is mind-numbingly terrible, but does allow me the flexibility to work on my product.With that being said, its hard not to want to leave to follow my passion, especially when the environment I'm in for 8 hours a day is depressing, but I've got a family and bills to pay, so I'm doing my best not to lose my...
I'm bootstrapping my web application, and while I have a non-technical cofounder, he is strictly business-oriented, which leaves the product management/direction, development, configuration/infrastructure, etc all on me. In previous jobs I was part of a team, where each of us had a discrete role (development, config mgmt, testing, etc.) How do others out there, that may be in a similar boat...
I've gone through the process of qualifying a need for SAAS product I'm currently building that targets a niche within the (non-technical) "work from home" market. And while I've gotten great feedback/support from 50 or so folks looking to sign up when we launch, its the other thousands/millions that I want to reach, but am struggling to do so.The "work from home" market is fragmented, with a...
Apologies in advance for the length of this.I'd spent the previous 12 years in IT, starting out as a programmer and making my way up the management chain until I was CIO for a smaller IT services company. It was a great opportunity, but I was commuting 3+ hours per day and working 100+ hour weeks...needless to say it took it's toll on me and would have on my family had I stayed put. I'd...
Any successful 30+ startup founders out there? I'm 33 (considered a dinosaur by most startups) and just dipping my toe into the startup space, but am straddled with a fulltime job, mortgage, bills and a wife, so I'm finding it difficult to pursue my passion while balancing life and keeping the lights on. I realize that being in your 30s really isn't any different that any other time, but I...
I know this question has been asked before, but none of the previous responses seem to work/are relevant. Can anyone recommend (preferably free, or cost-effective) travel APIs, to grab flight, hotel, etc info? Thanks!
My company is in the process of modernizing their apps/infrastructure. In doing so we are attempting to achieve as complete as possibe for any new apps, separation between data, business logic and UI (MVC). Eliminating where possible any logic in the UI, and hoping to simply pass tags/data. With that being said, we are exploring possible UI frameworks/rendering "engines" that while relevent...