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Category: startups

Management by Thoughtfulness

Management by Thoughtfulness

Steve Jobs would practice Management By Walking Around. It's somewhat ironic that the once-a-smelly-hippy turned CEO of Apple with no business school experience, and an attitude of anathema to traditional management school, would practice such a commonly-espoused management technique. Peer coding at StepOut. It's simple but powerful technique - just get up from your desk, walk around, roll up your Read the article >>
Startups @ Scale: Make the abstract actionable

Startups @ Scale: Make the abstract actionable

This post is pretty technical. If you don't cross your 1s or circle your 0s, then it's probably best to move on to something more fruitful for you, business monkey. I've always thought that a major challenge in building a dev team is continuously improving how effectively you can respond to changes in your metrics day-to-day. One of those tasks I face is a sweep daily of our error logs. If you, Read the article >>
Startups @ Scale: Log Everything, then you can Manage Anything.

Startups @ Scale: Log Everything, then you can Manage Anything.

One thing that hasn't changed during the span of my time at Ignighter is the importance of our in-house analytics.  Ever since our first lecture at Techstars 2008, when we were prodded to "obsess over core metrics", we've been obsessed with our usage data.  Having the right information on-demand is essential to being nimble in your decision making as a management team "If you aren't measuring it, Read the article >>
Know a kick-ass PHP developer in NYC? Ignighter is hiring!

Know a kick-ass PHP developer in NYC? Ignighter is hiring!

Ignighter is hot off the heels of our Series A and is hiring part-time PHP developers in NYC. We're a Venture-funded team of 6. We're young, fun, we've got some rapid growth in our target market, but we've got a chip on our shoulders and a lot of work to do. We've been in the game for a few years, we earned our wings during Techstars Boulder 2008. Do I fit the profile? If you're young, hungry, Read the article >>
Truckin’

Truckin’

One of the most amazing about startup life is how fantastically high the highs are, how quickly they can turn to dreadful pitiful lows and back again. Your professional life is quite literally one big question mark when you are building it from scratch. The instant you crack some really tough problem you're a genius. The moment the shit hits the fan, you're the worlds biggest moron. The stakes Read the article >>
Make your Site”s Usage Data Visceral & Ambient

Make your Site”s Usage Data Visceral & Ambient

I love data. I love trying to compare it with more qualitative analyses of my product. I love finding trends in it. But I hate spreadsheets. I need to consume data viscerally. In traditional retail, visitors to a store are in the same physical space as the employees, allowing collection of more ambient data about store ''usage'', e.g. foot patterns, visitor reactions, etc. Not so on the web. Read the article >>
Running a Startup? You”re standing on the shoulders of giants.

Running a Startup? You”re standing on the shoulders of giants.

I was having a conversation with my father the other day about the opportunities that advances in science and technology have created for the future-minded and tech-savvy in my generation. He''s a physicist by calling, so it shouldn''t have been a surprise, given the context, when he quoted the founder of classical physics, Sir Isaac Newton: If I have seen further it is only by standing on the Read the article >>
An Email Bill of Rights for WebServices Users

An Email Bill of Rights for WebServices Users

The are a few email faux paux''s I see which regularly find their way into my inbox. Chief among them is the block of fine print below: Please do not reply to this email. Replies to this email will not be responded to or read. To contact us, jump through hoop x, y, or z. Let me get this straight: You expect me to read your email, but you will not read mine if I reply? Morever, you expect me to hunt Read the article >>
Be a digital boyscout: What my laptop backpack looks like

Be a digital boyscout: What my laptop backpack looks like

One of the biggest distinctions between my previous corporate job and my role in a startup has been the lack of support and gear immediately available to me in the later. To compensate, I must be carry a hefty laptop backpack with lots of goodies. I carry around a good deal of gear with me in my travel bag. Here''s my gear list: Macbook Pro   DVI & VGA Adapters (for presentations)     Extra Read the article >>
CTO Tips #3 – Develop Code Standards (and Stick To Them)

CTO Tips #3 – Develop Code Standards (and Stick To Them)

-- This post, on code standards, is part of a series of ongoing tips on lessons learned & experiences I''ve had as the lead developer (CTO if you want to be fancy) of the online dating startup, Ignighter.com. Though these tips are focused primary at consumer startups, they ring true elsewhere too. For a full list of these tips, see 10 things I''d wish I''d known as a lead developer at Techstars. Read the article >>