Top Startup

AT&T or: how I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb

For those who don’t get the Dr. Strangelove reference, you need to see that movie.

Today, I replaced my b0rk3d hacked iPhone with a new one from Apple. Here’s how I did it. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 9% [?]

iCracked my iPhone - unlocked to use any Sim card

I did it! I unlocked the iPhone. I’m running t-mobile and it was all done with software. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 12% [?]

Don’t skydive without a parachute.

Books contain a wealth of knowledge. I’ve been reading The Monk and the Riddle. It’s a wonderful book about entrepreneurship from Web 1.0 days with many great lessons. As valuable as these are, I have one thought aptly described by a quote from the movie “Good Will Hunting”. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 12% [?]

Another shameless attempt at self-promotion

The site I’ve been working on, PrayAbout.com just got written up in the Boston Globe:

Internet start-up PrayAbout.com marries the ultimate in user-generated content — people’s deepest prayers — with the collective empathy of the crowd, in a variation on the social dynamics that have become common on secular sites.

“I was tired of seeing a video of a grandmother falling down or someone recommending a news story — this is trying to add some real value to peoples’ lives,” said Rodger Desai, who helped develop PrayAbout.

Read the whole Boston.com article ->

Popularity: 10% [?]

Hey business person, is that wool over your eyes?

Business people are the scorn of developers. “What does she do? Without us developers, this project would be dead”. Are you going to sit there and be ignorant to the mysteries of development? Or are you going to learn something about it? Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 13% [?]

Lucky 13 Party

The BetaHouse (that’s what the co-working loft is called now) had a party for Friday the 13th of July. We think 13 is a pretty lucky number. You can check out the pics on flickr.

Popularity: 4% [?]

My part-time gig - PrayAbout.com

Too long ago, I asked the question “What side job should an entrepreneur have?“. I also asked Dharmesh Shah, a software entrepreneur and angel investor the same. His recommendation: Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 8% [?]

Coworking for entrepreneurs - Get your butt out of the house!

At the end of June I attended Dev House Boston 2. Dev House is a fantastic one day event to bring a bunch of talented programmers together to do cool things in the space of a day. I worked on a team to build the very buggy Pairmatch facebook application. The event was held in a coworking space on Magazine St. in Cambridge. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 4% [?]

Open Coffee Club London is worth a visit!

I attended the Open Coffee Club meeting in London today and met some very interesting and inspiring people. If you’re thinking about starting up a business and you’re in the London area, it’s well worth a trip. I wish I could go next week, but I’ll be back in Boston. Expect to see me at the meet in Boston!

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 7% [?]

Money again!

Money is the root of all my stresses

• Because of my lack of money, I can’t justify getting in a long term lease which means I have to endure the stress of moving around a lot. (I’m trying to get that fixed by September 1st.)
• Because of my lack of money, Im screwed if something in my house in Houston breaks, and I need to find new tenants!
• Because of my lack of money, Im constantly having to figure out how to move around funds to make sure my bills get paid
• Because of my lack of money, I have to spend time doing less convenient things to avoid spending more.
• Because of my lack of money, Im distracted from doing what I really need to be doing.

I can’t stress to everyone out there enough, that if you decide to bootstrap, pay off everything first… and I mean everything. What you have to realize is that once you leave your job, your cash-flow shrinks to a crawl. When I was working, I was buying things for the company, going on business lunches. My income was somewhere around $4000 a month, but my revolving balance on my credit card was more like $5000 a month on average… I always had a lot of cash coming in and going out which meant that when I had a bill to pay, I more than likely would have that cash. Now, I’ve got 0 (or close to that) coming in every month, so if I get an unexpected bill (like an old $300 dentist bill from 2006 that my insurance didnt pay), it means I have to spend a lot of time figuring out how to move money around to pay it.

You’ll always have old dentist bills and the like creep up on you. I really can’t stress it enough: Don’t try to be clever and move debt to zero percent (for one full year) credit cards like I did, just pay the stuff off before you leave your job. Bootstrap first, then quit.

Lesson learned.

Popularity: 12% [?]