Ilya Lichtenstein on the Fear of Money:
Their fear is justified, because the second you start charging for a product, all of the bubbly bullshit falls away. The market is cold, rational, and effective. It doesn’t care about your lean startup methods, your rockstar team, or your fawning tech press. All of your assumptions, vision, business plans and pitches are irrelevant.
You’ve either built something worth paying money for, or you haven’t.
Everywhere at Once: Chef Geoff Tracy’s Data-Driven Empire. Geoff Tracy and his brother use a set of 800 standards to measure the performance of their restaurants. A couple examples:
Did Elizabeth bring your Pinot Gris within three minutes of the time you ordered it? Were your appetizers delivered within seven minutes, entrées within ten, desserts within seven? Were these plates described at the table before they were set in front of you? Were napkins refolded when you went to the restroom? Was non-bottled water referred to as “ice water” (correct) or “water” (incorrect)?
On the Market. This is a really interesting peek inside the world of fine art auctions and trading at Sotheby’s Inc.
The business of bookmarking. Maciej Ceglowski covers the basics of Pinboard’s business. Fascinating look at what goes in to making Pinboard run effectively and profitably. (via Marco Arment)
What if a little site you love doesn’t have a business model? Yell at the developers! Explain that you are tired of good projects folding and are willing to pay cash American dollar to prevent that from happening. It doesn’t take prohibitive per-user revenue to put a project in the black. It just requires a number greater than zero.
maciej – Don’t Be A Free User.
What matters is that you get back to the basics — as my friend so eloquently stated — and focus on relieving stress. The hour away from work can greatly increase your productivity when you come back to the office more relaxed and fresh.
Use that hour to escape. For me, the only time I can disconnect my mind from my startup is when I go to the gym to play squash and to relax after the match in the steam room. Even when I’m sleeping, I dream of my startup, but thankfully I was able to find my escape, and know that I can go there when I need to.
Spencer Fry – Startups: Stress and Depression.
Hyperconnectivity makes informational asymmetries a thing of the past; every party to a transaction can negotiate a sale fully informed.
Mark Pesce – Hypereconomics.
The Rands Test. Fantastic set of questions to assess how your team, your company, and yourself are doing. Too good to pull out just one quote or point.