Boris Mann's Link Blog

The technology industry is a lot like major league baseball circa 2000: it shares widely held, but fundamentally incorrect, ideas about valuation. Vendors and buyers alike, for example, behave as if software were a competitive advantage, when this is only rarely the case. As GitHub’s Tom Preston-Werner writes, there are pieces of software that represent “core business value,” and these are assets worth seeking and protecting. But those are, in general, a fraction of an organization’s overall software investments. Most software simply does not represent a competitive advantage.

Software is the New On Base Percentage – tecosystems

Teams, processes, culture. Who cares how much software you’ve built, how do you keep shipping it, maintaining it, and selling it to customers?

There are no “right” answers to any of these questions. Hugely successful businesses have been built at all points on the spectrum, and — since companies are fundamentally a reflection of their founders’ values — the most important question is “what feels right to you?”

But founders also need to be aware that their answers to these (and other) questions have huge significance to prospective investors. I know I have a “right” answer to each of these, some of which I”ll outline below. That doesn’t mean that I’ll never invest in a company that chooses the “wrong” path, but it’s a significant hurdle for me to overcome in making a decision to invest.

Crash Dev: Unwritten Rules

Chris DeVore goes over various typical starting-a-company questions, as well as what he considers to be the right answer for companies he invests in at Founders Co-Op.

Knowing what your answers are to these questions - or at least, how you go about discussing them with other people - is crucially important.

Lightning | Boris Smus →

Boris Smus’ Python based static site generator, if you like Python better than Ruby.

The really important point to underscore is that if you abstract the decision of how to serve ads and offload it to a server right off the bat instead of baking it into your binary you’re potentially saving yourself a headache.

Mobile Advertising Mediation | Mike Rowehl: This is Mobility

We’re only seeing more and more hosted services that let you make changes, monitor, or otherwise do interesting things by hooking them into your “native” binaries.

PhoneGap Beliefs, Goals, and Philosophy « PhoneGap →

Moving post by @brianleroux about PhoneGap.

PhoneGap

#PunkMoney - a gift currency you can use on Twitter →

“A gift currency anyone can print, transfer, and redeem on Twitter”. /via @sleslie

Perhaps the question about reward/performance isn’t the right one. Why do we do this kind of work over another? Because it speaks to us? Because it leading edge? Because it is challenging and engaging?

Monetary motivations aside, we do it because we want to, we are driven to create. Anyone doing it for money alone will never take the step beyond that. Being in the position to posit and debate this is a great one to be in and part of the journey.

Services to Product - Boris Mann

Linking to your own blog post is perhaps a bit weird. I had a great back and forth about these concepts with Jay, and the quote above is from Gord Christmas.

I am really enjoying the new blog platform. I don’t know if it’s the subject matter or the design, but the engagement in the comments has been fantastic - thanks everyone for participating!

services

One of the most radical ideas in the book [Maverick] is that every employee has full access to the company’s financial records. Nothing is sacred, not how much the owner takes from the company or how much money your boss makes. This sort of information is carefully guarded at most companies. At Lincoln Loop, its different.

Peter Baumgartner | Open Book Finances | scriptogr.am

Here’s the link to the Maverick book on Amazon.

Lincoln Loop is a company experimenting with product (Ginger) alongside their services work. I think this kind of openness is what is needed to excel as a true team.

I would be interested to hear if employees also “own” a piece of the company.

Now, e-commerce is not so much a business model as an essential approach to engage consumers. If your company sells a product online, regardless of how it’s delivered, you are an e-commerce company.

We’re All E-Commerce Companies Now - Bonin Bough - Harvard Business Review

This was from the point of view of a “Consumer Packaged Goods” aka CPG company.

I think fulfillment and joy barely enter into the calculus for most founders, and that’s a mistake. Why build a company — or anything else for that matter — if it’s not fulfilling?

How do I stop “analyzing” and pick between two good choices? by @ASmartBear

startups