What have I been doing?

Sifting through mountains of blog posts, mostly. I read an interesting one from Fred Wilson (a VC who blogs) about social networking, and so I decided to email him. His response: "I don’t know of anyone doing exactly this, but I agree with you that it is where social networking is headed". So there you go, I'm on the right track to create the next generation Facebook. Now, all I need is money and time :)

I've also been working on my business plan at PlanHQ. Not for the social networking idea, but for another idea. PlanHQ is pretty cool; it's basically an online business plan application, but one nice side effect is that my plan is effectively "backed-up" off my local PC whenever I work on it. I was trying to complete my plan ASAP, but have realised that the silly season is upon us, so I think it's probably a better idea to approach VC's in the New Year.

Finally, I have a neat little idea for a social-type app that I'm going to do either one weekend or when I have my 2 weeks off over Xmas. I think I'll try out a virtual hosting service like Amazon's EC2 (no link provided ... it's mangled).

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Cracked 100

My Facebook app, "At The Moment" has cracked the 100 installed user mark. It's not making any money, but it has been interesting to see the growth over time. I hope at least some people find it interesting ... :)

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Biz plan blues

Working on a business plan at the moment. Wow, where to start. I figured the best way to get things done was to put up all the headings, then type away. I changed tack once the headings were up though. What I'm doing is flitting around the headings, brainstorming stuff. Once I have a fair bit down, I'll be able to refine it and see where any holes are. I wish I could just get a VC to read my mind and then give me money ...

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On hold

I've decided to put X1 onhold for a week as I try and doc up a fantastic new idea I've had for monetarizing blogs and other web content. Watch this space!!

The plan is to write it up, then just go right for VC money. So that will be the third different approach; the first with MLTA is via my partnership with a friend using SCV, the second is going it completely solo and on the cheap with X1, and now the third will be trying to get funding up front and starting full time.

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More progress

Completed a fair amount of X1 on my holiday from RealJob (back tomorrow). I've worked out how to do ReST with Struts2, and also started to sort out the views. Clearspring still looks a winner for me, but it has two types of functional widgets (you can do images but they don't do much). One is web, basic HTML and Javascript, and the other is Flash. Now, I really want to do Flash, but it's over $1k for the license here in Oz. Oh well, HTML it is ...

One other thing I've found is that IE has it's own set of rules. I probably spent a good 2 hrs fixing little IE quirks that work fine in other browsers. I use a Mac (I <3 my Mac) but I use VMWare Fusion (I <3 VMWare Fusion too) to test all my web apps under windows. It certainly beats having to run a separate box.

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Clearspring

My new site (codenamed X1) has user content that I want them to be able to share, so I'm investigating Clearspring. So far, I've only read the blurbs, but it seems pretty cool. I'll write about my experiences tomorrow or the next day.

I've had today off from RealJob and have achieved so much. I've basically finished registration and search, while still spending a bit of time with the family. Hopefully one day I'll at least make enough money to support us for a year or two, then I can really go to town. I have probably 5 ideas in the parking lot at the moment, so at least I'll always be busy I guess ...

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Almost there

I've been pugging away with X1, and it's almost complete. Most of the back end stuff is there, and some of the front. I've done a few things that can be reused across other projects too, which is always nice.

I've also been working on a methodology for small tech startups, which I have outlined on my consulting website. It's nothing ground breaking, but it does 'separate the wheat from the chaff' so to speak. Many aspects of mainstream methodologies tend to apply only to big business (and even then that's debatable imho), so I've tried to focus on things that really add immediate value to small tech startups.