Maybe its not your skills but how you display your skills in your resume/cv. Be sure your resume is up to par with what your competitors are handing out.
the question you ask "do i deserve more ?" seems to really reach into the core of your problem. You may not believe in what you are doing at the present time.
The question you should really ask is why do you want to work? what do you want out of it?
Money?, Interest/passion? or a big ego?
whats the driving factor for you?
Its not really if you deserve it or not, you have more control over this than you think. Many people work ridiculous hours at work and get next to nothing in return. But they do it because they are not really in it for the money. Yes they get enough to pay the bills and save a penny here and there.
But they truly have found what they are passionate about and thats what gets them to wake up in the morning.
Or they love the fact that they are well known at work and have take pride in being a leader or mentor and show it when they can.
I would like to know what size of the audience of these porn websites are accessible users. Really.
Sometimes people who study accessibility get so harped up about it that it becomes a must for them to implement on almost everything they do regardless if the audience size may be minimal to none.
It's a dangerous thing just like an entrepreneur who is blinded by the fact that his idea is not useful and is not satisfying a need yet he still plugs away at it hoping one day a dollar may be extracted from his beliefs.
Step back and take a look at it realistically. You need to be effective and efficient.
In almost anything we do the majority outway the minority. And it should be.
A very good video on project plateaus: http://vimeo.com/13399691 which addresses exactly what you speak of.
But from what I've seen it seems there are a few in a startup who are creators and innovators as they get excited at the fact of generating ideas and talking about them but when it comes time to follow through, things get tough and interest wanders.
Having a few partner as you have is ideal as there is some accountability. Everyone should be motivating everyone else.
Also try to keep building from small iterations and tasks instead of having a very large goal. Break it up into small cycles and most importantly get feedback on each of those cycles from potential users outside of your family.
You seem to be a ceo of a blog currently. but you do seem to be blogging quite frequently. If your looking for fame and glory I would roll the dice and make a video blog then try youtube.
be sure to be yourself, I think your unique enough.
You should make it as quick and painless as possible, first thing in the morning and on a Friday. (so that they have the weekend to think about what happened and so that they dont show up on say tuesday if you fired them on monday...awkward)
Get everyone who sits around them first to be occupied in a meeting somewhere else.
5-10 min later...
Then arrive at the employee's desk and tell them that you would like to speak with them for a moment outside. just make a remark as they get up to get any personal belongings.
walk them out the door and let them know that you appreciate their efforts but seem to come to a conclusion that they will not be needed anymore and that HR will have anything they really need from their personal work desk at the end of the day.
First thing Monday let everyone know in a one on one meeting that the employee has been discharged in a serious way.
I look in the mirror the day of my interview and ask myself if I'm worth it and can they afford me period. Look at glassdoor.com for related positions and salaries.
When employers ask you what your expected compensation is, you reply: "what ever industry average is for the job title plus 15%, because I'm worth it"
wait for the awkward silence and add "...are you?"
Alright so here I go, within a total of 20 seconds of skimming though your resume as any HR would:
1) I would update your career objective as it has a few limitations. the only thing to keep should be "To become a Software Developer in an exciting atmosphere"
Could need some TLC though, maybe:
"Aspirations to become a "specific job title" in order to propel myself in the professional career of software development."
2) when writing points remember to answer the "what" the benefit was ex: "Developed software for analyzing large sets of data"
- developed what type of software?
- analyzed what type of data?
- what was the benefit?
So your point could become: "Developed an algorithm for the CS department which analyzed large sets of student record data in order to successfully predict student behavior"
3) remove this part: "Various: Cashier, Stockboy, Waiter, Bartender, Valet"
You are telling HR that you like to work two jobs at once.
They only want you to be focused at one thing. Also this is not relevant to your profession thus it works against you.
4) Join a few meetup groups too, there are many free ones around your city. find them on meetup.com related to software development. Then include them in your resume replacing your interests section with it.
5) This line should be removed: "I'm at home on the
command line and regularly write scripts or use crazy shell commands to automate work"
This whole section should be compiled into a chart consisting of languages, platforms, and OS thats it. 3 rows and two columns. (no fancy talk)
6) It seems you have took a portion of your cover letter and squeezed it under "Expertise" on your resume. This should be in your cover letter. (they are cool)
7) I would not use points which don't relate to programming such as: "Fulfilled student and staff needs by working at my dormitory's front desk"
Think of working at a programming job which also got you to mop floors and wax shoes. Now when you apply for another job, you really wouldn't want to mention the violent mopping and aggressive shoe waxing, right? same thing. If you need points to replace those in your resume keep reading my points below.
8) I don't see any self management points such as estimations, work breakdown structures, checklists, tech release notes or even mention of process or best practices. Don't forget to mention these as you may have used some sort of deliverables or even sat with a manager to talk about the best way to proceed. Use it as best practice discussions and ongoing process improvement.
9) remove the work "Hacker". not every startup knows what this means. especially the HR rep who works at these startups. I'm in IT and it still pulls the word "criminal" in my mind.
10) also include some points on how you managed your career path within the organizations along with educational paths. Leverage the names of thought leaders in your specific industry.
other than that don't forget to expand on every related point as stated in #2.
Also don't forget to volunteer your programming efforts so that you can use some of it on your resume. join Odesk or Elance and get paid for small gigs. plus you can put these on your resume if your lacking experience.
I'm sort of the opposite, where when it comes to development the most I can do is create a nice feedback form. My biggest achievement thus far is printing to a text file.
But I have realized that the time I spend on trying to find out how to completely code what I need will take far too long and should be complimented by someone who eats and sleeps development.
So sir my point is maybe instead of trying to learn a whole new profession it would be wise to partner up or even outsource that part of it.
And if you need it done for free try bartering your dev skills for design skills.
It would actually help Mailchimp to educate their users or potential users on how to get newsletter subscribers.
maybe even a youtube channel or video blog would do them good.
Your best bet is to contact a patent lawyer. You actually have something here as it's called "prior art". Your product is prior art and they have stepped on you somehow. Let it be loss of revenue etc..
Basically your product predates theirs and you have a case.
Also let the lawyers handle any communication as you may be stepping out of bounds. (let them handle it)
And be happy that someone is copying you, It's a sign of flattery. Plus they have made their Android users as a few marketers for you for free. Every time an Android users comes in contact with a iphone user who appreciates that app they will look for it in the iphone app store.
You may just be a creative who may lack the skills which are needed in combination to get you moving forward such as "Leadership" & "Organization". Thus looking into partners or mentors who have those two will only help you along.
I have found this video helpful as it explains further:
The project plateau http://vimeo.com/13399691
If you have hacked together a site and are ready to start analyzing customer acquisition & lifetime value costs, Id suggest looking into the following:
1) Video Blog (start up a series of about 50-100 separate really short 2 min videos discussing about individual topics in the industry your site is in. (host these videos on the top 5 major video hosting sites including itunes)
Also embed these videos into your daily or weekly blog on your own site while incorporating sharable options for users to share your page with others. (transcribe your video blog into text for SEO benefits)
2) Add facebook and twitter badges on all of your sites pages for people to become a fan or follow on twitter (this is like a mailing list)
3) SEM (PPC) through Google adwords, yahoo search marketing, facebook ad network, linked-in ad network.
4) Leverage well known blogs in your industry and ask to place an ad in their email newsletter or ask for a solo ad.
5) write guest blogs on related blogs within your industry while writing a review about your site and placing a like back to you. (check sites link reviewme.com etc..)
6) Get a writer to write a press release then send it though the top 3 PR sites online. (don't bank on this too much)
7) Use tweet adder to find relevant topics to your industry people are talking about as well as people who state your keywords in their profiles. add them and contact them to offer free offers. (help them first... give then get)
8) use twitter by hooking in google's voice tweet app through your phone and constantly be tweeting about relevant topics in your industry. As natural as possible. replace your twitter background with one which shows links to your site. (also add link in your profile)
9) create a facebook fanpage and start adding the same tweets to the status.
10) Find podcast websites which talk or interview in your industry. They are always looking for content or wanting to interview related topics. become an interviewee.
11) create 10 unique relevant infographics and post them up on your blog while trying to promote them on stubmleupon and digg.
12) Find biz or dev partners where you can leverage their audience and they can leverage your technology or your audience.
13) Start a little beef. Find a fellow blogger who is interested in playing an intense back and forth argument about a sensitive topic in your industry. Both of you will reap rewards.
14) Don't forget to provide an incentive for users who refer users through your site. Provide a free whitepaper, space(mb), internal credits etc...
15) Allow potential partners to become affiliates for your site. (will need to plug in a app to your site for this) Then contact the top 50 relevant bloggers in your industry and tell them about it via email or even ask to call them.
Just a few off the top of my head in addition to ones stated by others.