Seeking 2 Co-Founding Roles (Hacker and Buzz Maker)

About Me:
- Serial entrepreneur, never short of ideas. Created some useful and failed dot-com's in the past; learned from all of them. I now have what I believe is a great idea for a web service. The demand is constant, the advertisers' pockets for this vertical is pretty deep; overall, it could be a great thing.

What I'm Looking for:
Hacker - You know php, MySQL, html, ajax, CSS, JavaScript and all related scripting languages to help get the site off the ground. A design has already been established and I'm just looking for the right CTO person to make it all work. However, I want someone who has passion for their work, who isn't afraid to challenge the instructions if he knows of a better alternative. You should have some previous experience building large scale projects, code or blog for fun on your own time, and know the business implications of everything you do. If you are used to writing perfect code from the get-go and are willing to sacrifice the launch date by a few months to get it just right, then this position probably isn't a good fit for you. However, if you can write great code and realize it's an evolving process, contact me! I want a sprinter who can evolve into a marathon runner; not a sprinter who will burn out at the end of a 2 month intensive dev. cycle. (In all honesty, it's not even that intense.)

Buzz Maker
You can be a blogger, guerrilla marketer, SEO expert, a person with a ton of friends on Facebook and Myspace, a PR girl or guy or be a close friend of a celebrity. As long as your passion and talent lies in talking things up (whether it's the iPhone or celebrity gossip), then please contact me. I am *hoping* to get this new idea off the ground with a huge budget of $0. Can it be done? I'm hoping with the right person it can be. (*Actual budget amount may vary...)

I'm located in Atlanta Georgia. You don't necessarily have to be but if you are one of the two people above and are local to me, great!

I posted the following on Craigslist and Facebook groups about 2 weeks ago and have received great interest from a bunch of great people since. My goal was to write a smart ad that will appeal to other smarties and it seems like it has done the trick. From the people that I've had conversations with; one I actually met today at Emory for the hacker position. The meet and greet process went pretty well and I think we're both pretty pumped about the project. Now the search is on for the buzz maker.

No Plan, No Capital... No Problem!

I was forwarded the following video from an entrepreneur I recently met on Facebook. It's actually a VERY interesting panel interview for start-ups. If you're an entrepreneur; I'd highly recommend checking it out.

Web Design 101 - The Wire Frame

In my ten years of building websites and web businesses, I've come across many different methods to get a site from concept to online deployment. Depending on your personal skills and who you team up with; you may all reach the end by choosing different paths.

When I first started my web development business, I launched my company site and then proceeded to redesign it 7 times in 3 months. For whatever reason I was just not happy with the corporate look of the site and for those three months, I wasted time, effort and money and worst of all, no one paid me to design my own site.

So what are the different ways to build a website?

Designers who love complex layouts will start by composing (comp'ing) beautiful intertwined designs only to have to dumb it down when it's finally time to transfer it to code. Smart designers will design web friendly layouts; but I think deep down, all designers want to publish the most amazing, complex design that the world has ever seen.

Developers on the other hand will begin coding aimlessly tacking on piles and piles of tacky functions only to have to re-do all of them once a designer comes in to reposition every element. Don't get me wrong; functions are cool GREAT! But is it really that hard to ask for a developer who is also an expert in UI design? Seriously, more than half of the admin sites I've seen have search or checkbox forms without any kind of explanation text; how are we (the users) supposed to know what they're for or how they're used?

Business people will begin by drawing wire frames; not because of they're smarter or better; but because they want to make sure that if a site is to monetize through ads, the content will fit around the ads and not the other way around. (Check out this wire frame I did in 30 seconds for a brand new social network awhile back)


Which is the best route for product development? Well, regardless of which three categories you belong to up top, you should always, ALWAYS design things in wire frames. Putting too much effort into a design only to have to re-do everything when functionality is questioned is a waste of time. Putting too much time into code only to have to re-write the components to fit a new design is also a waste of time.

When you start a new website business, you do not have time (or money) to waste nor do you want to fully commit to a design or idea w/o talking to your audience. Who knows? Maybe 2 weeks into the idea, you suddenly will want to change your business model and how the site functions. If this is the case, then wire frames are your best friends because they are easy, fast and more importantly, cheap to fix.

My most recent hire from Guru.com was the one who pointed this out to me. While in recent times I've set a goal to do design before function; I think just prior to this project, I was still taking too much playing with all the pixels to make sure the final layout is perfect and pretty. (Again, totally missing the business goal of just launching the G** D*** site!)

If you want to learn how to do wire frame templates and shortening your design process, check out this link on building wire frames my new designer gave me. It really sums up the process really well.

Above all else, make sure you are creating a solution to a problem. Pixel perfect layouts or the most efficient code in itself are all worthless if they're not solving a problem.

Networking 101 - DO IT!

Web 2.0 is about networking right? So naturally... networking is necessary to ensure the project takes off on the right foot. I made a post on Craigslist a couple of days ago looking for a talented hacker as well as a natural buzz maker. The search is still on for these two positions but what I didn't expect was to be invited to the local Web Entrepreneur Meetup group to part-take in their activities.

I must say, I was very impressed with the people that came. Even though I did not get a chance to meet everyone, I did meet some like-minded people who I now can talk shop and bounce ideas off of.

If you're doing a start-up, I'd highly recommend you go out there, meet local talents and talk up your idea. This was something I KNOW I should have done in D.C. and at the local Business Bureau meetings but for whatever reason, I ignore what I knew and my idea never took off. Maybe I wasn't THAT excited about my first idea or maybe I under played the value of networking or maybe I was just too afraid; either way, you should learn from my mistakes if you're reading this blog and get yourself out there.

I never understood why when I ask my hacker friends for referrals they could never throw me a name. If I suck and you didn't like working with me, someone should tell me; PRONTO! However, if you are a developer and work with other developers in an agency, then shouldn't logic dictate you KNOW some developers? *Sigh*

Anyway, if you have an idea and are starting at the ground floor, you can ONLY go up. Networking isn't just important on the web via some random social networking site. Networking has always been important for jobs, referrals, and getting the back door discount on your daily services. Think of the last time you got into a club for free or a discount in meals... all that came with networking.

(www.atlanta-web.org is the group I met up with today.)

Web 2.0 vs. Web 1.0

For this new autos website we're building, the goal is to make it more web 2.0 than web 1.0; but what exactly does that mean? Is it the design? Is it a social network? Is it a more viable business than traditional sites? Well, I found this list from a blog that briefly describes the two. Depending on how you look at it, these could be subtle or drastic differences.

* Web 1.0 was about reading, Web 2.0 is about writing
* Web 1.0 was about companies, Web 2.0 is about communities
* Web 1.0 was about client-server, Web 2.0 is about peer to peer
* Web 1.0 was about HTML, Web 2.0 is about XML
* Web 1.0 was about home pages, Web 2.0 is about blogs
* Web 1.0 was about portals, Web 2.0 is about RSS
* Web 1.0 was about taxonomy, Web 2.0 is about tags
* Web 1.0 was about wires, Web 2.0 is about wireless
* Web 1.0 was about owning, Web 2.0 is about sharing
* Web 1.0 was about IPOs, Web 2.0 is about trade sales
* Web 1.0 was about Netscape, Web 2.0 is about Google
* Web 1.0 was about web forms, Web 2.0 is about web applications
* Web 1.0 was about screen scraping, Web 2.0 is about APIs
* Web 1.0 was about dialup, Web 2.0 is about broadband
* Web 1.0 was about hardware costs, Web 2.0 is about bandwidth costs

In the end, our main goal is to make the process of buying and selling cars easier, cheaper and more secure than current methods. How that's accomplished, whether through 1.0 or 2.0 is to be seen. Some other things to consider...

* Web 1.0 was about top bottom design, Web 2.0 is about bottom to top design
* Web 1.0 was about paid service/content, Web 2.0 is about ad supported (free) service/content

For those of you who still view web 2.0 as a fad word, all of the above may describe the same thing to you. I do personally believe there is a difference though... the air is definitely shifting for both big and small companies. People are looking at different ways to do the same business as older models are slowly phasing out; it's only a matter of time before the public controls all the content instead of relying on the few media giants to feed the public news and data.

edit: Oh yeah, there's also this video that helps visualize web 2.o.

The Funny Thing About Web Development...

It doesn't matter how many people are on your team or how much money you have backing your ventures... If you have a project in mind and you set a deadline, it seems without fail that the project will always take at least 2 times longer than your original plan.

Microsoft is constantly pushing back large launches of their software. Some of my current clients who do web dev. in house are pushing back re-launches months after the original proposed time line.

Is it poor planning? No, not necessarily. Then again, I've yet to work in a large scale launch where the time line is measured in years instead of weeks. I would assume even those long term projects suffer setbacks.

Is it under estimating the enormity of the job? I would venture to guess that at least 60% of the seasoned project managers know enough about the various technologies to estimate each job properly.

So what is it? That right there is the real mystery. Why is it that all projects take longer than the planned period? I know builders of some of the world's crazy sky scrapers have people working day and night and weekends to get the buildings up. While some software houses can be slave drivers (EA), it doesn't seem like they have a 24/7 crew pushing the release.

Either way, if someone knows the secret of the lost time, please share it with me.

The next big hit - EasyAutoSales.com

After a week long domain auction bidding war; (with one bid from me) I'm now the proud owner of EasyAutoSales.com. The name is not particularly short or witty but its clear in its offerings and that's all that matters. Now we just have to build a site around it.

Video Classifieds - The Future or Now?

TechCrunch had an article today about a new video classifieds autos website that launched or is in the process of launching. The website called HotSwap, focuses on selling autos through the use of user generated videos.

This brings up a good question. Is the public ready to do the work required to populate a site with video commercials? We know YouTube was a big hit with user generated videos... but I would venture to guess those are a bit more fun to make than 30 second to 4 minute long commercials.

On another note, the HotSwap site does have Web 2.0 design elements which is cool and it's something different than the other auto sites out there. Also, the TechCrunch article says the used autos ad market is at $370 billion a year. If that number is accurate, then this project is heading towards a great place.

Edit: I saw another article today that says U.S. online advertising currently tops off at less than 20 billion dollars. I think they meant to say $370 million dollars earlier...

The Quest for a Memoriable Name

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Small Detour...

This weekend while I was searching for more car related domain names I stumbled upon a web creation package that generates niche stores online. Even though the site seemed like a very mature version of a parked domain, the package that was sold on BuildANicheStore.com warranted a second look because it generated content that was unlike other parked domains that I've seen.

For anyone whose try to do businesses online, we all know what a parked domains look like. If GoDaddy or some other registrar isn't making money off of your domain, then some other company like Site Parker is. The idea of making money through affiliate links and paid-per-click clicks is not new; but trying to make a parked domain seem as a full blown legit business is quickly becoming the next phrase of this maturing industry; and it piqued my interest.

Even though I wasn't completely sold on the idea, because I did have 3 or 4 domains laying around that I could throw something up and make a few dollars from... I ended up splurging the $97 to buy this package to see what the software is all about. I figured if nothing else, I will take an early plunge in learning about Linux and/or SEO which will be needed for the autos website.

Well, the package setup was easy and it only took about 5 minutes to setup. Most of the waiting in the first 24 hours was actually waiting for the domain to propagate correctly so I can see the fruit of my 5 minutes worth of work. Overall, I am pretty impressed. The package makes becoming an eBay affiliate quite easy and if you pick a good niche, there's no saying you can't go far with this.

As it stands now, I think I'm going to do some very part-time/spare time promotion of my domain to see if additional traffic will help generate any sales for the site. I did receive some typed in traffic to my domain last year which resulted in about $8 in AdSense sales (hey, it paid for itself) so having this store will hopefully bump that number up some. I'm not expecting much but hey, what's 5 minutes of your time worth?

Pre-Production...

A one man start-up team is hard and it is one that usually fails; but sometimes there simply is no choice in the matter. While I am bouncing some ideas off a couple of my trusted friends, I really wanted to see if I can take this project on by myself without burning out or losing interest. Again, the end goal for me is to have something people will use and find helpful. It's be great if a lot of people end up recommending it but that would really just be icing on the cake.

So in the last couple of weeks, things have been progressing forward nicely. I found a logo designer from guru.com as well as found someone in India who actually showed some great examples of xhtml/css work to do the layout. Unfortunately the last time I outsourced to India the project did not come back to scope nor did it ever get completed. A few thousands of dollars later, it became a really bad and costly lesson. However, I am hoping for a different outcome this time.

Since the last project, I've done some research on how to manage outsourced teams. The common theme I heard is outsourcing is great for small projects but not so great when it comes to large, complex projects.

I think the key point here and one that I'm about to confirm, is that the project must be split up into tiny chunks and numerous milestones so that the hired help will stay in scope. It's not a matter of incompetency... but rather all contractors in any industry have their own on-the-job experiences and of course, pride. I think secretly everyone thinks they can do a better job than what was instructed by their client; myself included.

Therefore, if you are a stickler for doing something to your exact specifications even when you don't know what that is, then don't throw up a cloud of ideas and expect them to read your mind. If you throw them a large project w/o explicit details, then your dev. team will most likely definitely take a creative spin on their interpretation. To make sure you don't burn your developers and yourself out, break the pieces up and set tiny milestones. Is the registration form correct? check, Is the error checking performing to spec? check, etc.

Also, instead of hiring a one stop shop that does everything from logo to back-end development, hire the best of who you can find for each piece of the puzzle and get the BEST out of the different contractors for each part. No one has ever said "hey that java expert is an AWESOME logos/brand expert!" and vice versa, no one ever said a designer is a great .net developer. I don't even think they use the same part of the brain!

But anyway, the logo for the most part is done and I'm anxiously awaiting on the design comp for the layout. In the meantime, I need to find other developers to tie the back end to the layout as well as finding a java programmer to code a photo upload util or find me one. Photos... everybody loves em but they sure are annoying to code for sometimes.