Author Archives: crashdev

Reader Question: Local + Online Lessons Learned

Q: I have seen two articles about the local space recently (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/21/business/smallbusiness/21yelp.html?ex=1369108800&en=4491b116ff5db962&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink and http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/10/angies-list-gets-35-million-in-new-investment-from-battery/). Who did you sell Judy’s Book to? Any nuggets of advice on going through the sale process? Asked by Ben A: Hi Ben, thanks for the question. I still keep an eye on the local space and noticed both of the continue…

Right on Om! Small is beautiful

Great post today from Om Malik titled “Why Small Really Is Beautiful“. His argument is that bootstrapped (or “lightly financed”) companies can deliver both more fun and better financial returns to their founders than venture-backed ones. I’ve tried it both ways, and I can’t agree more. Boostrapping is stressful as hell, but if you love continue…

Is there a “killer app” in Groupware/ Online Collaboration?

As a companion effort to my recent deep dive on messaging, I’ve been trying to get smarter about the online collaboration / groupware space. Unfortunately, the closer I get to it the muddier it seems. I’ve now fallen back on the penultimate refuge of scoundrels, the 2-by-2 matrix, to try to create some order in continue…

Open Startup: Askablogr’s 4-month Birthday

Not a ton of news to report this month but didn’t want to leave anyone hanging (assuming there are folks out there who are still following this story…). A few stats to get you started: Members: 492 Completed Q&A: 768 Good News: We keep chipping away at feature tweaks (mostly based on member feedback) We’ve continue…

Open Startup: New Askablogr Features & Tweaks

Q: Hey Chris, check out the new changes to Askablogr. We’ve expanded the number of characters for questions to five hundred characters now. Question lists (like the front page), should now sort in the order that they are answered, instead of when they were asked. Also, if you don’t want to put the widget on continue…

Microsoft Research: Cutting-edge ideas for the cloud, trapped in a desktop mindset?

I have a new obsession (more on that below) and have been scouring the Web to see who else is already working on it (there’s always someone). The bad news is, in terms of running code, versions of the idea have been “in market” for years. The good news is that these products were developed continue…

Reader Question: Is Xobni the likely winner in Email 2.0?

Q: Hey Chris – have you seen Xobni yet? It may not be the end-all, but it’s on the right track. www.xobni.com Asked by Casey Woodrum A: Hey Casey, thanks for the ping. I’m definitely aware of Xobni, and they’re doing a great job of building buzz around the idea that the current conventions for continue…

PRM: Personal Relationship Management

Continuing on the “messaging” theme I started in on a while ago, here’s a deeper dive on the role of contacts and contact management, a.k.a. “Personal Relationship Management” (thanks to Om Malik for pointing me to a topical post by Tristan Louis). Here’s how Tristan defines it: “…provide me with a high level contact overview continue…

Simple but useful ideas: The Zeigarnik Effect

I’m a firm believer that every good application designer is an amateur behavioral psychologist at heart, and this conviction was reinforced (again) by two different product strategy sessions I participated in recently. Because I tend to work with startups at the earliest phases of the customer adoption cycle, I spend a lot of time thinking continue…

Messaging Mania

You know how it goes: as soon as you start paying attention to something you start to see it everywhere. For the past several months I’ve been working with two different companies (both still under wraps) in the “messaging” space. I was already aware of a few related efforts, including Xobni and Xoopit (plus Seattle-based continue…