A blog from the mind of falicon

It's not about what you do, it's about why you do it.

Thu, 06 Jun 2013 12:24:29 -0400

Stop sending emails, posting Tweets, and Facebook updates telling us about what your product does and start focusing on the story behind ‘why’ it does what it does.

From the developer, and company, side of the conversation it’s a *very* hard to thing to do. But it’s also the only way your going to have a chance to reach real people and gain even a little bit of their attention.

This isn’t something new, I’m just bringing it up because it appears people still haven’t learned this lesson…so to re-iterate:

The challenge I'm focused on

Wed, 05 Jun 2013 21:14:16 -0400

Historically the challenge has always been in getting access, but we are rapidly approaching the point where anyone can access anything from anywhere. This shifts the challenge to filtering and to focusing on quality, timing, and shared experiences/knowledge.

How do figure out what we want to pay attention to? And what we don’t or shouldn’t? How do we figure out who and where to engage in the types of quality conversations and information we’re actually interested in?

These are the challenges I’m focused on as I continue to build and evolve gawk.it

My online spending is keeping me up at night!

Tue, 04 Jun 2013 09:56:00 -0400

My dog woke me up around 4am to go outside this morning…and as is usual when he does that, I used the time while he was outside to do a quick check-in on some email and such. Turns out one of my data-collection processes had crashed. Annoying, but it wasn’t a critical one and I was pretty tired, so I figured it could wait until morning to be restarted. I went back to bed.

As I lay in bed trying to fall back asleep I was only mildly struggling with not taking the time to restart that service…instead what my mind got focused on, for no reason that I can actually explain, was a brief Twitter conversation I had with Albert Wenger earlier in the day.

After finishing up the audio book version of ‘Antifragile’, I was on Amazon looking for a book to put on my new Kindle (I went with ‘The way to go’ which is an intro level book on the Go programming language), and it inspired this tweet:

Of all the ‘internet’ companies Amazon gets the most $ out of me…AWS, Audible, Kindle ebooks, Prime, & random physical goods…
— Kevin Marshall (@falicon) June 3, 2013

To which Albert then eventually replied:

@falicon yes - but: who gets the most gross margin (not in percent, in total dollars)?
— Albert Wenger (@albertwenger) June 3, 2013

And I quickly responded (to quickly in hindsight):

@albertwenger still Amazon (because of AWS). Somewhat hypocritical of me but I actually don’t spend a ton of money online…
— Kevin Marshall (@falicon) June 3, 2013

But as I lay in bed trying to fall back asleep, I started to realize that I probably (unintentionally) lied in my last Tweet…I actually *do* spend quite a bit of money online.

In addition to all the Amazon stuff I mentioned, I also spend a decent amount each year with GoDaddy and other registars (for domain names) and I have active monthly subscriptions to Adobe Creative Cloud, Mailgun, Netflix, and Hulu.

Plus I participate in the occasional Kickstarter campaign and make various donations to things like Donors Choose and other things I believe in.

When it’s all said and done, I probably spend in the range of $300-$500 a month on all these online things…so not a ‘fortune’ but certainly not chump change either (I used to pay less than that in rent each month back in the day).

I still think overall, Amazon makes the most money from me (at least I’m sticking with that part of the response)…but the rest of the conversation kept me up long enough last night that I felt I had to at least expand a bit on my answer today…so there you have it!

Oh and yes, I did restart that crashed service already.

Now…I wonder if I can fit in a nap without my brain and conscience getting in the way…

A year in and gawk.it remains solid and steady. Still, this next...

Wed, 22 May 2013 16:48:51 -0400

A year in and gawk.it remains solid and steady. Still, this next year probably needs to be all about engagement and hockey-stick growth…

Introducing Dig Down Labs LLC

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 11:30:00 -0400

So now that I’ve officially announced the closing of Falicon Programming Inc.

I’m finally free and ready to announce the official formation of my new company, Dig Down Labs LLC.

This new company is what I’ll be building, releasing, and running all my projects from over the next few years (at least), and it will also be the vehicle that I do any/all freelance under.

It’s set up to be a basic passthrough LLC, and I’m currently the sole member of the company. So the taxes and paperwork issues that I mentioned for the previous company should not be as big an issue for this new one.

Additionally, the goals and focus of this company are much more in-line with my current thinking, interest, and approach to the work that I am doing and love.

Actually the core mission statement itself is pretty simple, and I think says it all:

“Building fun & useful stuff for a profit.”

In some ways, it’s all about getting back to my roots and just trying to build great and useful products. Products that start as very simple ideas. Products that are given time to evolve and grow naturally. Products that are supported by profits earned through traditional bootstrapping methods and efforts.

Simply, products that *have* to be good enough day-in and day-out to survive.

With that in mind the primary focus of the company will be building each of it’s products into a high-quality, subscription-based, service.

Occasionally I may explore other revenue models for a given product if and when it makes sense, but ‘subscription’ is what I currently believe makes the most sense and is the most interesting to me in the things I am building right now.

In fact, I’m starting off the company with a handful (12!) of products already somewhat live and you can get a list of them as well as a few details about each from the new company site -> http://digdownlabs.com

I believe to be really successful, you have to have determination and persistence. You have to practice, work, and continuously expand your knowledge base. You need to have a strong sense of direction and goals. A sense of purpose.

An idea not of just what you want, but what you don’t want and what you are are willing to give up, to sacrifice along the way towards your goals.

With that in mind, here is a basic quick list of personal goals for the new company:

1. Build small and focused products/brands that have personality, are useful, and do very few things but do them exceptionally well.

2. Always build towards the intent of long term and perpetual profit.

3. Solve my own problems and scratch my own itches first.

4. Strategically outsource and partner with experts to cover weaker areas and grow each product. Avoid adding in-house, salaried, staff for as long as possible.

5. Keep the resources for each product as lean and limited for as long as possible. Ideally start, test, and evolve each idea for less than 5k it’s first year.

6. Initially target 100k annual revenue goal for each product. Test, evolve, and tweak each product until the roadmap for getting to that initial goal is clear and well defined. Then move all project resources into executing on that plan.

And here are a few things I’m knowingly giving up and/or very willing to sacrifice as I begin this journey:

1. Outside, non-customer, funding. To be successful we will be operating at a small scale and much more like an agency or a client-services business. It is not the type of business that generally lands outside help or funding and so we will not waste any energy or thought on that route. The customers will tell us which products should survive and which need to evolve.

2. Speed to scale, growth, and overall rapid traction. We are not going to build the next Twitter, Tumblr, or Instragram. Our products are generally going to focus on revenue and profits to start above all else - and that means each will have a larger uphill battle to gaining traction. It will take serious time and effort just to get each to the 100k annual goal. Our product’s stories will likely not be sexy or overnight hits.

3. Free time. There will be no funding, and it will take time to get to any level of serious revenue, so this company will likely not be able to be my full time job for at least a couple of years, if ever. This will add to the uphill battle towards overall success.

So anyway…that’s the plan and new direction at the moment. I’m glossing over a lot here as usual, so if you’ve got any feedback, thoughts, or ideas, I would love to hear from you in the comments below!

The end of an era.

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 12:16:00 -0400

I have officially closed Falicon Programming Inc.

I started Falicon Programming Inc. Dec. 12th 2001 as a Delaware class C corp. At the time I was running Supermug, Draftwizard, and had also just started putting together the Statsfeed service. I was also working a full time job as head-of-tech. at reviews.com, doing a bit of freelance for a variety of sports-related companies, and had just recently gotten married.

Though the taxes and paperwork are a bit more complex, I chose to go the route of a class C corporation because I was already building a handful of products (and intended to build at least a few more). Each one, I thought had potential to eventually be sold or acquired, and so I thought it would be easier to do that as a class C corp.

I also had visions of eventually growing the company into a large entity that employed lots of people (with each product having it’s own team until it reached a tipping point on selling it). And again, I thought at the time if I was going to have employees, a class C corp. would eventually be required.

It’s true that I was doing freelance work at the time, but it was never really my plan (or dream) to operate a consulting company (probably a topic for it’s own post some day). But it helped cover the hardware and advertising costs for the company products, and gave us some breathing room to play with more ideas over time.

Also I had been living and working in the NYC area since the fall of 1999, but wasn’t really plugged into the NYC tech. or startup community at all…and I especially had no contacts or knowledge of the Angel or VC world at the time. So I was purely focused on bootstrapping and slow-growing my products - attempting to raise outside money was never in my mind.

So fast forward to today and reflecting over the 12 plus year journey, I am very happy to able to say that I experienced and learned a massive amount of stuff.

Here are a three quick big learnings I had to experience to really understand:

First - I learned that employees are expensive, and as much as possible, I want to avoid having employees on the books for as long as possible. There are simply too many hidden costs (and paperwork) involved in carrying employees, and it’s emotional and messy to have the responsibility of adding or removing them through the ups and downs of a company.

The best result I’ve found is to develop a true and tested revenue path that can be directly mapped to adding new employees. Once you know what each new employee will cost (and how much they will add to the company’s bottom line), it becomes a lot easier to make the call.

Ultimately, you’re better off building for profits than growth.

Second - It’s really hard to sell a semi-successful project. Profits alone are not enough (especially if they aren’t massive profits). If you are going to start a project with the intent of eventually selling it to another company, your best bet is focus a lot on process and documentation (ie. make sure you provide a high-quality instruction manual from day one). Even then, it takes the right connections at the right time having the right conversation to be able to pull off a happy outcome for all.

Ultimately, you’re better off building for profits than a sale.

Third - If you are not careful hidden costs, paperwork, and taxes will simply drown you. Especially if you are a one-man show like I have been for most of the past 12 years. The problem is that there is simply just too much for one person to know and do right - let alone well.

To get something bootstrapped to a self-sustaining level, I’ve had to focus just about all my energy and efforts into building, marketing, and being proactive at all the customer touch points. This leaves very little time or energy for learning the proper tax codes/rules, or various State and Federal laws for properly ‘doing business’. In all honesty, they aren’t very difficult things, but they certainly aren’t as simple as ‘build X, get paid Y’.

Ultimately, focus on profits and find a good, affordable, and trust worthy lawyer and accountant that you can work with and trust for the long haul (two crucial positions that are *very* difficult to find/afford actually).

There are of course many many other things I’ve learned over the past 12 years in operating Falicon Programming Inc. but I won’t bore you with them all right now (probably over time I will though - so be warned). But these three big ones bring me to today’s overall topic, closing down Falicon Programming Inc.

Over the past few years, I’ve been doing more and more for a variety of startups around the NYC scene and I’ve had the luck of getting to know a lot more people around various investment circles as well.

I’ve also continued to play with building out my own various ideas, products, and projects (a few still in the sports space, though many are now also in the social/discovery/recommendation space).

Throughout that time, I’ve continued to go through the motions with Falicon Programming Inc. but I have not at all been focused on profits or even really bringing in money for the company at all. Which means as a whole, I’m mostly just spinning my wheels around Falicon Programming Inc. and had honestly lost the passion and reason behind my orig. goals for what and why I started it.

It was time to accept that and free myself up for the next thing (which of course I’ve already started as well and I’ll be talking a bit more about in the next, eventual, blog post).

So After twelve years, Falicon Programming Inc. is officially no more.

As sad as I should be about it, the real feeling I have at the moment is one more of relief and being refreshed than anything else. I also come away much more experienced and knowledgeable, having developed some great friendships and connections, and even more focused and clear on what I *really* want out of my career and my work.

All of which just means…stay tuned because this end is really just the beginning of something even better!

What's missing?

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 15:53:15 -0500

Gawk.it has been happily chugging along from day-to-day for about 10 months now.

And while it’s already installed on some of my personal favorite blogs — avc, continuations, cdixon, aweissman, and thisisgoingtobebig to name just a few — it has not yet reached a critical mass on the traction front.

So I’ve been thinking a lot about how to grow the install base for gawk.it.

When I step back and take an honest look at the product, as a whole I feel like gawk.it is really good, but it’s still not *great*.

I want to make it great.

So great that when people see it, use it, or learn about it, they say “I have to have this for my own site”.

The problem is that I’m just not sure what the missing element is to get to that yet.

So I’m left wondering, what’s missing?

I would love to hear your honest, unfiltered, thoughts and opinions around this question in the comments below…

Hi! I know you're working hard to make blogs better. I wanted to get your feedback on this 'universal' subscribe button: SubToMe. [Seems like I can't link from a question, but Google does a good job!] It's obviously inspired by Tumblr's follow feature. I'd love to gear your thoughts?

Sat, 16 Feb 2013 18:44:34 -0500

Awesome - took a quick look through what you have on http://www.subtome.com

I really like the general concept of a universal subscription button…but I think it’s still a bit confusing for the average user on just what this does for them (and how they actually would use it).

Maybe a simple screen shot walk through from the user’s perspective would help?

I’ll dig a bit more into the publisher and developer details you have listed there and see if/what I can do to support it in my various projects as well.

Thanks!

hi, long list. i tried to look for 49ers on the search.

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 08:02:02 -0500

Did you get any results? I’m not sure if I’ve ever mentioned the 49ers on this blog (until just now)…I used to run a handful of different blogs dedicated to fantasy sports (and the Atlanta Falcons) so I know I’ve written about the 49ers a lot over the years (but I think I’ve kept that fairly sep. from this realm).

Also - did you try the search directly on gawk.it? We aren’t powering search for any sports focused or sports specific websites (yet) that I know of, so again the results might be sparse but you might find some interesting and unexpected conversations around the 49ers that way as well.

Really though, the bigger question is…have you considered switching to be an Atlanta Falcons fan? We would love to have you in the group! ;-)

Is conversationlist dead? :( Not working for me...

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 07:57:36 -0500

Sorry - yes.

I’ve had to shift my attention and resources to other projects…I tried to keep a version of it up and running without having to give it any attention, but ultimately that just made the service under-perform (and I don’t like offering services that under-perform).

A real problem - how to build an audience?

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 09:47:39 -0500

Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and all the other ‘social’ tools out there are making it *really* easy to share and discover links…but an interesting side effect seems to be that they are also making it harder to actually build an audience (people who identify and look to continuously engage with your brand, your content, and your community).

So I’m wondering, what tools are out there right now helping people build a real audience? Who is trying to solve this problem and what approaches are working?

Is it really just a matter of putting out consistent high-quality content over some length of time? Even if it’s a base requirement, do you think it’s enough?

Which is more valuable?

Wed, 26 Dec 2012 12:06:51 -0500

Which is more valuable? The content or the connections within a social network?

I think in a general social network like Twitter or Facebook, you would argue the connections are where the real value sits…but I wonder if this is also the case in a vertical social network?

If you look at a blog like AVC from a 10,000 foot view I would argue that it’s really a vertical social network (the vertical being Fred Wilson’s brain on a given day)…and at least in that case, I think the content is where the majority of the value sits (at least to start, over time some active members can probably argue that the connections became more valuable/important to them).

Though many people point to AVC as an outlier, I suspect that this situation holds true for almost all vertical social networks…and if that’s the case, then I also suspect that a subscription model works well within a social network vertical (assuming you can build the initial core, valuable, content to warrant a subscription price).

But do you know of any social network verticals taking the subscription route? How successful have they been and how defensible are they really?

...and...action!

Tue, 25 Dec 2012 14:45:42 -0500

Ideas are great. Thinking about the possibilities, the options, the details…all fun stuff.

But nothing counts until you actually start to take action.

It’s Christmas 2012 as I write this, and as such I’m thinking about many of my friends and family…my peers, my mentors, advisors, and even a business associate or two…but until I take a moment to actually send them a note, a Tweet, an email, or maybe even physically stop by or call them…thinking of them means nothing externally. They don’t know what I’m thinking, how I feel, or even that they are on my radar at all (and many probably don’t care).

It’s the same way with software and it’s the same way with startups. Until you actually do something, just thinking about it gets you no where externally. Nothing happens.

Anyway, just something to think about over this holiday season…do what you like with it! ;-)

The key to profits. Supply and Demand.

Mon, 24 Dec 2012 09:02:00 -0500

The hacker says “What can I build that a large number of people will want?”. The entrepreneur says “What do a large number of people want that I can build?”.

And guess what? Both can actually grow into highly profitable businesses!

The trick is simply to understand how to properly evaluate the profit potential of an idea — regardless of how you came to the idea.

How do you do that?

Well the key is to step back and try to be as objective and honest with yourself about your idea’s true supply and demand.

Here’s the very basics of what I believe you need to evaluate for each.

Supply:

1. Controllable. Can you ensure the market won’t be flooded with supply?

2. Scalable. Can you ensure enough supply to meet growing demand?

3. Defendable. Can you ensure demand remains directed at your supply?

It’s very easy to think you control supply, especially in the world of software, but the truth is that software and processes are very easy to copy.

What about your supply is truly controllable, scalable, and defendable?

Demand:

1. Large. Is there really a massive need for this?

2. Strong. How badly do they need it?

3. Anxious. How quickly do they want and need it?

Most people over estimate the size of true demand and incorrectly assume they will be able to generate or grow demand easily. Growing demand (marketing and branding) is *very* expensive and often *very* time consuming.

Does true demand already exist or will you have to generate it? How large, strong, and anxious is the demand really?

If you step back and think about these things honestly for any idea you’re evaluating, I believe it will become a lot easier to determine if an idea has a large potential for profit or not.

So - how does the supply and demand look for your latest idea?

'Tis the Season for a Tigerbow Post Mortem

Sun, 23 Dec 2012 09:32:28 -0500

porchdog:

Every holiday season, folks reach out to talk to me about the gifting market because of my first startup. It was called Tigerbow and it let people send real gifts to email addresses (and Facebook profiles, Twitter accounts, mobile phones, etc.) I poured my heart and soul into it for 2-3 years and it failed. Facebook’s (re)launch of Gifts and the holiday season got me thinking that I ought to finally do a post mortem. It’s been a few years and another startup so forgive my memory, but here goes….

Read More

Some good lessons for sure…the other one I would add is:

“Be mindful of where you are hitching your wagon” — it is a massive uphill battle if your path to revenue is tied to getting outside parties to help you (in this case, messing with their shopping cart software). It’s much better to have your revenue directly tied to something you own/control (duh?)

2012 Atlanta Falcons.

Sun, 23 Dec 2012 09:11:04 -0500

Anyone that knows me in person probably knows that I’m a HUGE Atlanta Falcons fan. And for those that only know me online, you probably guessed as much as well.

Heck even my online identity is born out of my love for the Falcons (falicon is a made up word from the combination of Falcons and icon — I created it in the early 90s to be a username I could generally get anywhere online).

So as you can imagine, I’m *really* enjoying this 2012 season.

If I’m being totally honest, I’m still very nervous for what will happen in the playoffs this year…but I have to say after suffering year after year of inconsistent play and performance, I’m really just thrilled the Falcons have started to be a year-after-year serious contender recently.

Hopefully this is the year we take the next step, and *finally* get that first super bowl win. If not, well at least we’ve had another great season that has been really fun to watch and full of hope (and anxiety)…and as long as we don’t regress next season, I’ll be mostly content for now.

Either way - I remain a fan and full of hope!

I am not an entrepreneur.

Sat, 22 Dec 2012 11:44:56 -0500

I love startups because I love building something out of nothing. Problem solving. Creating. Inventing.

I enjoy small, passionate, teams completely focused on a core mission or an idea. Teams that dream big but are starting small and focused.

So I talk with a lot of people about a lot of ideas.

Some are starting companies, some are creating art, some are just playing with and learning about things that interest them. I love them all and I am energized and inspired by all of them.

And of course as a developer, I have a skill set that can add the most value at the earliest stages of an idea. And I love to help get the movement actually started.

So I build a lot of stuff.

Sometimes I build stuff as an employee (I have to pay bills too). Sometimes I build things as a contractor (rarely these days unless I *really* need the money). Sometimes I build stuff just for the challenge and to be helpful to a team/person I like and believe in. Mostly though I just build stuff because I’m interested in it, I believe in the ‘big dream’ of it, and I can.

This all helps define me, I think, as a ‘startup guy’. And I enjoy that label. Or ‘a hacker’. I enjoy that label even more.

But the one label that is sometimes used and I don’t agree with is ‘entrepreneur’.

Because I don’t do any of what I do because I have a strong desire to build a business or work for myself. To me an entrepreneur is someone interested in business, especially in starting their own business.

Don’t get me wrong, I like thinking about the business side of each project.

Though I am not personally motivated by money, I do think a lot about how a project can and will make money. It’s one of the core things I think and talk about at the start of any idea.

And I’m actually *very* passionate about branding, marketing, and even sales.

What I mean though is that I’m not in it for the sake of building a business. I’m not in it just to be rich, famous, or even to take control of my own destiny.

These are all things I could find much more success with, much easier, in many many other ways.

No. I’m in it for the challenge, the journey, and the vision. I’m in it because it puts hope, excitement, and passion into every day of my life.

I’m building gawk.it because I believe it should be easy to find and access amazing content and people for whatever you’re interested in.

The people are already out there, they have already and will continue to create amazing content. More than any one of us can ever hope to fully consume or connect with. The internet has given us the ability to connect with all of them, past, present, and future.

What we need more help with now, and what I’ve been interested in over the past few years, is in finding and filtering. Relevance and relationships.

These are the problems gawk.it is being built to address. First within an existing community and website, then across specific topics and hubs, and with hard work and a little luck eventually across all of the internet.

It’s a big challenge and a big idea. I am starting very small.

I am focused on the idea, crafting and framing the story properly, the users, the product, and finally the business…and in that order.

So it will not be an overnight success. It is unlikely that I will raise outside funding. It will be challenging to find and build a core team. It will take a very long time before it can become my full time focus.

But, then again, none of that is why I’m doing what I’m doing anyway…because I’m not an entrepreneur…and that’s OK.

The Mayan prediction.

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 14:59:17 -0500

I’ve always been fascinated by the 2012 predictions (and predictions as a whole really).

I don’t actually believe the world will end, and I’m not even sure anything will happen at all (though there are some fascinating facts around how unique of a point-in-time it actually will be for our planet and solar system — so you never know).

In any case, I have to admit that I’m very excited that I’ll likely be alive to experience the actual date.

Think about it.

These predictions were made a couple thousand years ago. Thousand. That’s a long time for humans. There have been many generations between now and then, but this generation, the one we are all currently living in…this generation gets to actually experience the date.

Something that people have talked about for a very very very long time now and we won’t have to speculate, decipher, or really even think about it after the 21st of this month (just about a week away now actually)…because we’ll finally know. We’ll have experienced it.

How cool is that?

The long term goal for gawk.it

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 21:42:18 -0500

gawkit:

The long term vision for gawk.it is deep conversation search that reaches throughout the long tail of the internet and provides access like never before to the high quality people and conversations that are occurring throughout the unknown corners of the internet every day.

Along the way we’ll help fix search for bloggers, give them some search-related tools and analysis to help them improve their craft, and help them increase their readership quality, engagement, and volume.

So let it be said, so let it be done.

More than you ever wanted to know about my career path.

Sun, 02 Dec 2012 22:45:00 -0500

Inspired by the recently released USV Timeline, I’ve decided dump out a longish version of my own timeline.

What follows is a bullet format of that, with probably more rambling detail than anyone would ever care to actually have/know:

1992

Graduated Girard high school

Attended Edinboro University (initial major - Secondary Mathmatics, eventually switched to Computer Science Major but never achieve degree )

1993/1994

Picked up HTML from early issues of Net Magazine; built personal website hosted on Edinboro VAX system.

Hired at $5/hr to ‘build websites’ for local video production company (Pro Video Productions).

Taught myself Perl (thanks in large part to the O’Reilly ‘the pink camel’ book). Without any knowledge of databases, built listing service for local RE/MAX office (including very rough, but workable, CMS and search feature [taking heavy advantage of Perl regular expressions]).

1995/1997

Began to do a variety of freelance web development and programming work (heavy use of Perl, HTML, and Photoshop in these days).

Created a CD-ROM project in association with a local ad agency for Erie Institute of Technology (built with Shockwave)

Created a nationally distributed CD-ROM for Truck Lite sales staff (programmed in Visual Basic).

Took a full time position with Corry Publishing to be their ‘web’ guy (also did a large amount of networking and hardware support while there). Introduced to Coldfusion and began working heavily with Microsoft Access (and eventually MS SQL). Initial salary was $24k/year; ending salary was, I think, around $32k/year

Introduced to the concept of fantasy football (won the league the 1st year, 2nd place the 2nd — hooked). Begin to build web tools to help manage my team and our league.

1997-1998

Friend recruits me to American Express in Greensboro, North Carolina. Primarily work in ASP and MS SQL. Initial salary of $40k year (and chance to focus on just software/programming). The move to NC officially ends my college efforts (until this point I had continued to take one or two classes a semester; but had serious doubts about the usefulness of my major and was considering moving to a ‘business’ major because I thought it might be more complimentary to my now growing real-wrold experience).

Create tracking system estimated to save Amex over a million a year.

Begin to expand fantasy football software (thedfl.com at the time) to allow other leagues/users.

1998-1999

During weekend trip to NYC, meet my wife. Quickly decide to make the move. Do another weekend of 9 interviews, get 8 offers. Pick <KPE> because of the variety of projects the advertising firm connections brings, also buy into the environment and the possibility of incubating some of my own ideas there. Initial salary $90k (wasn’t highest offer on the table)

Move mostly back to client work with Coldfusion (doing a little ASP project work here and there). Heavy MS SQL for the backend and begin to dabble in Unix/Linux for server hosting. Also begin to dabble in Java.

Create and build BML (Barney Markup Language) as key part to the CMS system for the e-specially my Barney project (1st physical product I worked on and that was available in toy stores nation wide).

Pitch <KPE> on locagame.com idea (rate parks for pickup games and facilities/activities; run tournaments; etc.). Begin to have concept developed (eventually killed by higher ups for reasons never fully explained to me).

Slightly disgruntled by localgame experience and also concerned about lack of profitable projects coming in (compared to cost of parties and events being hosted) I change jobs moving to reviews.com. Finally break the $100k/year salary range.

Ideas and concepts for websites, along with hacking out initial prototypes and services begin to be a passion/hobby for me. Finally have the personal funds to start buying domain names for all of these ideas (will eventually cycle through at least 200+ domains and ideas; some still remain in my collection, many do not.)

1999-2003

Armed with screen shots and datafeed from the ACM, build small team and version one of reviews.com (Colfusion, Java, and Oracle).

Expand thedfl.com into Supermug.com (pitch as software/service to run fantasy football leagues for bars and promote specials to customers throughout the week; fail to gain traction). Never makes money.

Break out draft tools and advice within supermug to it’s own product Draftwizard.com (fantasy football help site/forum; subscription product; gain small amount of traction but break-even financial at best — make many great friends from all around the country via the service; become ‘fantasy football expert’ in variety of national fantasy football magazines). Invest about $40k over the years; Basically break even.

Build statsfeed.com service to help power Supermug and Draftwizard. Connect with other small fantasy services/sites via the Fantasy Sports Trade Association (FSTA) and get handful of b2b subscribers. Becomes solid lifestyle business during football seasons. Without realizing it, build one of the 1st b2b webservices of the time serving up XML on demand (primarily Java and MS SQL backend). Earns small 5-6 figure profit for a couple of years (mostly used to fund my other projects).

Begin to do a small amount of writing (primarily reviews for the reviews.com product; some articles for fantasy football publications and my advertising).

2004-2008

Thanks in part to a variety of factors, decide to take time off to stay home with my 1st born son (born Oct. 2003). Agree to remain as part-time consultant with reviews.com until they no longer need me (though very rare these days, still doing tidbits for them here and there).

While being a stay-at-home dad, give up on supermug concept and stop investing in Draftwizard concept (maint. for a few years before completely shutting it down). Continue to keep statsfeed as a small, niche business but lack interest to grow it (eventually shut it down as well to focus on other things).

Frustrated the effort involved in Java, the work and cost involved in trying to scale Coldfusion, begin to port all my personal projects and legacy systems to Ruby on Rails.

Mostly because of recommendation/introduction via the DBA I hired while at reviews.com (who went on to write the SQL Cookbook for O’Reilly among other great things), begin to contribute to some O’Reilly books. Eventually get deal to write ‘Web Services with Rails’ PDF for O’Reilly. This leads to a book deal with Apress to write ‘Pro ActiveRecord: Databases with Ruby and Rails’. Very little profit in writing, but earns me a lot of ‘street credit’, job offers, and better consulting rates.

Pitch book idea for ‘Adding search to your site’ to O’Reilly and get approval to write explore the idea a bit further (get side tracked on other projects and never end up pushing the idea forward).

Get approval from Apress to write a book on Amazon SimpleDB (write 90% of the book, but fall way behind on schedule and end up scrapping the project before publication [Apress was going through a large re-org at the time and since we had never done an advance on the project it was easy for all parties to just scrap once interest/passion was lost — and it became apparent SimpleDB was not going to be as big a hit as we initially thought]).

2008-2009

Decide I’m ready to get back into more ‘full time’ work. Recruiter places me at Bowker on a 1 year contract (and I pick up my activity with reviews.com again). After the initial year with Bowker, offered a full time position and stay for a couple more months before deciding ‘corporate’ (and layers of management) are just not my thing any more.

Upon request go back to reviews.com full time…with the communication/intent that it will be short term while I figure out what I really want to do long term.

Begin to heavily read blogs and learn about the NYC tech. scene that had developed over the years under my nose (without my knowledge or involvement). Connect with Charlie O’Donnell just as he’s starting Path101 with Alex Lines — these two become the root of my entire ‘tech’ network and become directly responsible for 90+ percent of the connections I’ve made since.

Having moved away from the sports and fantasy businesses, begin to take a heavy interest in social data and public/free APIs. Build out many quick hacks and prototypes of various ‘fun’ ideas (some with friends and connections, some as personal projects). All with an eye towards ‘starting something’. Start doing a large amount of PHP and have now moved most of my personal projects into a PostgreSQL backend (cheapest hosting options, with most flexibility, for my quick hacks). conversationlist.com is probably the most well-known of these, but many find various levels of limited success (for example appsigot, literally a 24hr hack that I never touch again, wins a runner-up status in the 1st Techcrunch NYC hackathon).

Via an introduction from Charlie, decide to join a small startup called Catchafire.org and help build out the tech. Enjoy the team, but not really passionate about the concept (hindsight, I made the jump more to jump than anything else). Believing my lack of passion will be a huge long-term challenge for the team, I quickly transition out.

Via an introduction from Terry Jones I meet John Borthwick and am recruited to work with bit.ly (mostly jump just at the opportunity to work directly with Hilary Mason; also like the idea of potential to work with Alex Lines; and fascinated from a distance by the BetaWorks model and the scale/data of bit.ly). I accept the deal as a consultant making it clear that I will eventually leave to do my own startup (though I didn’t yet know what that startup would be). While there I learn a ton about scaling, move heavily into Python, and fall deep in love with MongoDB. I build out the prototype/v1 of the bundles API.

Via an ad-agency connection (and friend) I take a contract gig to build out a BlackBerry, Android, and iPhone app for Novartis (the profit from this project ends up being used to fund a year of knowabout.it efforts).

2010-2011

Will Cole (another Charlie O. connection) and I decide to make run at turning knowabout.it into a real business. Because of growing concern that news.me (a bit.ly owned/operated product) will eventually pivot into what I was already doing with knowabout.it I decide to end my contract with bit.ly (attempted to leave in Nov. but was convinced to stay until Jan). This essentially puts me full time into knowabout.it for the next year.

I build out a handful of, non-critical to knowabout.it, support services. These include click tracking with halfbite.com and content-parsing with uridata.com (since killed).

Initially built as a social data search tool, knowabout.it evolved into a social discovery tool (it used the data you created across social networks to figure out, and perform on your behalf, searches for things being shared with you that you likely wanted to know about). System scaled well and processed/indexed millions of links a day…and generated an average of a 40% click-through rate for those that opened the daily emails…but ultimately failed to gain enough users, quick enough, to be considered a success.

Failing to gain enough traction with knowabout.it to raise funding, and at the urging of a recruiter, I pick up a gig with MyYearbook (hoping to replenish the bank account a bit). Quickly regret the decision (love the team, hate the product, so-so on the actual tech, re-discover that I’m not a good fit for the stage of the company [they were transitioning from small to medium; and had just sold for 100 million plus]). Express my concerns to the management and we agree (I think on good terms) to part ways.

Finally build out Android and iPhone versions of ‘Report to Santa’ app I’ve had bouncing around in my head for a couple of years (don’t push it enough or try to monetize it but it has now been downloaded by over 10,000 people).

Via an introduction from Darren Herman, meet with founders of Pubgears. Love the history, love the guys, love that it’s profitable, love that it’s a reason to get out of my gig with MyYearbook. Join the team with the intent of building out the tech. and help the company scale.

Begin acquisition talks with a couple of interested parties around knowabout.it. Fail to work out a deal (primarily because I’m already committed to pubgears and unwilling to be including as part of the acquisition). Decide to close the service down (to save on, out-of-pocket, server fees).

2012-time I wrote this post

In an attempt to cut down on server and domain costs (as well as narrow my focus) I begin to quietly shut down a large variety of my hacks and little projects that have no real traction (there are over 100 with some level/version of code in existence over the years by this point in time).

Focusing the majority of my time and energy into building out tech for pubgears, I find myself falling out of touch with sports news…so I build turfd.com (a system that crawls and indexes sports news from around the web; I then build a feature to automatically search that index for my favorite teams and send me the new results via email).

Sparked by a handful of offline conversations, I decide that the turfd system could be expanded into a number of interesting use-cases…and because of my interest/personal history with the AVC community, I decide that applying it to the discussions there might be an interesting start. I build out the initial version over a weekend, play with it a bit, and then decide to point it out to Fred Wilson. He bounces back some initial feedback and ideas that I iterate on, and then decides to install it on avc.com and gothamgal.com (as well as blog about it). I spend the rest of the summer days pushing pubgears tech forward as much as possible and the nights and weekends improving and pushing the gawk.it product/idea forward.