Business and Technology Lessons for Web Startups

I am describing these lessons from my own personal perspectives. However, these lessons apply to most web startups, esp. those with severe restriction on resources.

First, you need to ensure the smooth distribution. Translation : Choose your platform well. Ask, "Can we really deploy your applications? Can we really pay for the costs of deployment? What about scaling up or down?" You must consider these issues even before you write a single line of code.

Second, you must keep the development and research costs down. A small web application that takes 2 years to research is not worth doing. You had better find better things to do instead.



Third, dogs must really like your dog food. Like Guy Kawasaki says, if you are not sure about this point, you should just develop the product for yourself. Be honest, do you really like your own app? Is it useful to you in a real way?

Finally, --- now you have got a cost-effective, deliverable, really useful product --- but that is not the end of the game. Like Trout says , your app/product/concept must "explode" in the potential customers' minds. Or else, you will have to burn wads of dollars to promote your stuff and still the success is not certain. Your site or app will be drowned out in the multitudes of similar offerings. How are you getting your buzz in an over-crowded market space?

In short, distribution, cost, usefulness and buzz, not necessarily in order of importance.

Lateral Thinking, Creative Thinking, Mindfulness and School Essays

MixWrite's Essay Planning Guide asserts that in writing school essays, having something to say and saying it in a clear, organized way is more important than a superb mastery of grammar and a ultra-rich vocabulary.

Here, we elaborate on "having something to say" part. I believe adults too struggle with this issue.

The Mix Write Guide recommends the following steps to have ideas:

"1. Be aware. Know your thoughts and feelings about the topic in the Question.
2. Follow them bravely and quickly.
3. Collect them in a clear/simple order."

The Guide is urging us to collect our thoughts and feelings about something.
Do you wonder if this will work for adult/corporate/professional world?

Let's see what the Literature has to say about this:

Lateral thinking: creativity step by step By Edward De Bono

De Bono's Course in Thinking

Six Thinking Hats

Conceptual Blockbusting: A Guide To Better Ideas

How Breakthroughs Happen

The Myths of Innovation

I can easily whip up hundreds such links here.
It will take you hours to read them all, hours more to spot the gems scattered all over the places, and more to take and digest your notes.

I want to save you time and hassle. Here, I give them away in just 3 sentences.

1. Know thyself, especially, thy thoughts and feelings.

2. If they are in the same-old same-old areas/zones/routes/channels/domains,
break free from them by leaving them alone or jumping out away from them.

3. Collect your new thoughts and feelings bravely and calmly.


I keep using the word "brave" here and there because bravery is required to think honestly, feel honestly, and capture the thoughts and the feelings honestly.

That is the topic of a future post.

MixWrite: Foundation for Written English

Please do check it out Mix Write web application.

We have tightened our focus on helping students learning English as a foreign language, and young students struggling with their English homework.

We specialize in WRITING. We guarantee you a solid foundation in Grammar, Style, Sentence Structure, Word Choice and Common Essay Topics.

You can start writing by using our Type/Templates. They provide you with step-by-step guidelines and examples WHILE you are writing! Not after you have done writing, nor before you have started.

Your Written Works will be saved for you. You can view and/or edit them later at your leisure! You can print out any written works on this site, your own as well as those written by others.

If you cannot find a Type/Template you want in our list, you can ask us to do it for you . Just tell us what you want ( purpose, type of examination or test, how long you will have to write, difficulty level, and so on.) We will create a new type for you the way you want it, in 24 hours.

Our types and templates are varied and rich. If you wish, we can cover from Primary school, to GCE, TOEFL/TWE, to SAT, GMAT, GRE, to whatever ! However, as we have said, we need focus to help our users more effectively.