Peldi, I blogged about you sometime at the beginning of last year. At that time you was already at about 10K in sales if I recall.
I'd be interested (and I am sure others would too) if you could do a post about the successful marketing techniques which have worked for you. I.e. what proportion of new clientele comes from your sponsorships of events Vs any advertising you do etc. etc...
The main problem most people I assume find is they run into a plateau of sales where it levels off, whereas you have gone like a rocket - so more on where your traffic is coming from would be great.
How about opening up your stats? (I know your all for openness's) would this be a step too far?
I want to ask people here thoughts on frameworks, this looks well suited to a project I have, but it is built on Twisted and the preferred option of frameworks seems to be Django, now I'm a PHP coder, who is just about to step up to the python challenge so I am thinking it would be better to start with a more established framework? Thoughts would be most welcome.
You're all a little young I suspect to know about the infamous "Limits To Growth reports" conducted by MIT CS grads in the late sixties commissioned by the Club of Rome.
They constructed computer models of population growth expectations against energy resources, waste, production etc. They concluded that unless society changed its ways DRAMATICALLY then a collapse would occur which would be unavoidable and would wipe out a large percentage of the worlds population.
The reports were widely dismissed at the time by the main stream media and other 'experts' however, many of their predictions are manifesting before our eyes as we speak, if not a little latter than originally expected.
Those that decry that technology will save us (and it may well do but we do have to create it first) the main unavoidable problem is capitalism = exploitation = waste / population which is increasing because of the high level of fossil fuel energy available / ( which is rapidly diminishing).
If any bright sparks here have a solution to this mathematical problem then I will be impressed. The reason I personally got into programming was to try and make some impact on this problem. Yet all I see here (which I don't blame you for) is naive youngsters who are deluded and indoctranated into believing that success is starting a startup and exiting with 1M+ cash in the bank. To me this = FAIL.
Those that were really smart would have an understanding of the unavoidable mathematical problems really facing us (which are not written about in our favorite math books) and would have a broader knowledge than that spouted by your ivy league universities.
Those bright sparks would be able to demonstrate 1) an understanding of the problem, 2) a deep understanding of the math involved, 3) an interest in solving the problem, 4) the capacity to think outside of the box and not follow the herd, 5) ultimately a working theoretical alternative which would be more robust than the current math which is the algorithm behind current capitalism (or what ever you want to call it, democracy etc.).
For those that think capitalism and democracy is the best system we have, do not bother replying! Your comments will be as limited as your 'intellectual' capacity and you would be better served spending your time on your fab new startup!
but hang on, before you get all up in arms about privacy and rights, this is a possible google adsense / adwords killer and there is going to blood shed before privacy gets in the way of profits.
I would agree with this completely but extend it to monolithic intuitions such as governments, legal systems, policing, armies, councils, schools, etc. I envision that the networking changes we are witnessing are much more profound than just for business, which will apply themselves just the same to the very structures that currently control nations.
Pownce had a better chance than many to make it work, what with the industry players backing it, such as Kevin and the press Leah garnered was amazing. I think the bigger story here is that despite all the advantages that they had, in this climate it failed.
Interestingly however DropBox has seemingly been a success which I believe offers a more targeted solution to the problem (file transfer), rather than trying to be all things to all people. If there is a lesson to be learned here I would have thought it was that. Like 37signals often says, try to do one thing really well. Don't try to offer too many features etc. and dilute your product into yet another (I got that feature too). That seems to be the mistake of Pownce.