Startup Next Door

For a long time, I stayed away from JavaScript.  I would use it for very small interactions, but for major functionality like menus and UI, I stayed away.  The reason was twofold:

• Was too hard to test and get working across multiple browsers
• Was just so confusing! Gah!

So I missed the big Ajax revolution and opportunities thereof.  Even when I finally caught up with Ajax at the end of 2005, I was still trying to use cross-browser goodness via if/else statements.  Even as late as 2007, my berating of JavaScript could be heard amongst co-workers.  Such encouraging phrases as “it’s object-based, not object-oriented” didn’t help me.

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I posted an update to one of the most popular articles, “The Benefits of an Umbrella Company” based on correspondence with a reader.  The update is at the bottom.

This is an article I’m posting just for fun.  We’ll get back to bootstrap startup advice next time.

I ran across a spreadsheet I made in 2000, when I was just figuring out what skills I would need to become a professional web programmer and get paid the big bucks.  I had pored over numerous job postings on Dice.com, and from that I created this data:

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Every web developer tries to save time and effort when making a website.  The sign of a good developer is the ability to turn laziness into efficiency.  Instead of doing the same boring thing again and again and wasting time, a good developer will create ways to do it again in a way that reuses work they’ve done before.

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OK, So GooberBlitz is not a real startup, and a $20.45 round of funding isn’t likely to make TechCrunch.  TechCrunch reports on startups and businesses in the Web 2.0 space that are dealing with large VC and angel funding. TechCrunch rarely reports on bootstrap startups unless they are doing something exceptional.

That’s a problem!  Where can the home-grown startups go to share the good news on what they are doing?

Let StartupNextDoor be the TechCrunch for the home-based/lean/bootstrapped startups!

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As I mentioned before, my bias for Linux comes from me being cheap.  And since it’s my responsibility to provide free and low-cost options for you to build your business, I’m sticking with it.

If you have VC or angel funding, you can spend money without regard for current or future costs.  Lucky you.

If you’re building your business on a shoestring, free is great.  But you don’t want free stuff that will cost you an arm and a leg later.

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If you read my last post about servers, you may be wondering how much this is going to cost to get a server.  Don’t worry.  It’s not as expensive as it once was.  Let’s go over the options.

Why can’t I just run my startup on my own computer?

It’s a noble thought, and you wouldn’t be the first to think it.  First of all, your ISP is not going to approve of you running a web server on their network.  Second, your IP address at your home will change from time to time.  If it does, your site will be down because your domain (www address) will be pointing to the old address.  There are ways around that but just don’t.

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The regularly scheduled post will be a little late, as I’m waiting to hear back from Rackspace. So a little diversion…

Great video from This Week in Startups, featuring an interview with David Heinemeier Hansson of 37Signals, whose remarks mimic the Startup Next Door philosophy, where your revenues dictate the scale of your business, and how taking other people’s money is a mistake that stifles your “hunger” in building your business profitably and efficiently.

This video begins 47 minutes into the show, where the interview starts, and after a brief history of his programming career, we get to the meat of the interview.

If you’re a programmer writing web software, you don’t need this article. Move along, please.

This article is for the businesspeople.  You’ve got a great startup idea but you don’t know much about web server technology.  You want to build your business, and will be looking for a contractor or programmer friend to build out your prototype or the whole thing.  This article will guide you to what’s out there as far as server environments.

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I mentioned yesterday about a service that will record a professional voicemail greeting and phone directory for you.  Today I’ll go over a service that offers professional voice recordings exclusively.

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