Seeing Parse reach 100,000 apps is humbling. Everything starts from zero. I remember the early days when we would measure the number of apps that used us on a daily basis, and then write that number big and bold on a white board. This meant that for many days, we would look up from our desks and be faced with a big fat zero. Nothing motivates you more than zero. That summer, we coded as fast and…
A startup just had its big launch. The fundraising is over and the champagne has been poured. For some, this is the great beginning. But, for others, it's the zenith. The problem? Momentum is easy to lose, especially after a big adrenaline rush. Momentum is that invisible force that makes it easy to execute when things are moving, and difficult to get anything done in a languishing environment.…
When starting a company, it's essential that you get involved in every aspect of the business. This is true whether you're a hacker, designer, or MBA. No exceptions. The obvious reason for this is that getting your hands dirty will force you to understand all parts of your business, and eventually, your industry. This is knowledge that will give you key business insights, paying dividends down the…
Every so often, I meet an entrepreneur who has big ideas for their startup but who never seems to get anything done. It's a pattern that I see in smart people who haven't had experience building real world products. "It's gonna be huge! Revolutionary is only the beginning of how you would describe it." This is when they launch into their vision. And it is a grand vision, full of moving parts and…
In Part 1 and Part 2 of the CloudEdit Backbone tutorials, I showed you how to create a simple Backbone app using Rails. Now, I'll show you how to get rid of the Rails server entirely and convert CloudEdit into a Parse app using the Parse JavaScript SDK . As usual, you can follow along with the codebase on GitHub and view the live app here . Look Ma, No Servers! My team and I at Parse have worked…
People always quote the platitude "the only thing you have control of is how hard you work." But, ask most people what they thought were the big factors in the success of people they know, and you'll get a combination of timing and hard work. I argue that along with hard work, you need to know when to double down. You need to be able to recognize that moment in time when something just clicks. The…
Every product has a core—a feature that is the heart and soul. Everything else is secondary and is supported by the core. The product would not exist without the core. Parse => remote object storage DropBox => files Facebook => friends Netflix => movies YouTube => videos WordPress => blogs Successful products and startups hone and keep a tight focus on the core of their product. This may…
It would be an understatement to say that 2011 was a packed year for me. In one year, I Left my job Started a company (Psst.. we're hiring ) Made it into Y Combinator Raised funding Got married to the most beautiful girl Turned 30 It was a year of action. I barely had time to think. It was always go-time. And, I feel particularly lucky to be alive. This was probably my best year ever. Throughout,…
I was one of the first hires at Scribd , the social publishing site that garners over 100 million visits per month. My journey as a fruitful early startup employee has lasted over 3 and half years, and this Friday, that journey comes to an end. I will soon be pursuing my dreams of starting my own company. It's hard to put in words the amount of experience an early employee gets at a fast moving…
This article originally appeared on the QuietWrite Blog . I'm reposting it here because it may be of interest to my readers. At QuietWrite , we have a philosophy about the user signup process that we call Progressive Signup . Basically, we eschew the typical signup wall for a more gradual process over a longer period of time. As the user plays with our product, we gently prod them at certain…
If you like Backbone, you'll love Parse . Read Part 3 of this tutorial where I show you how to convert the CloudEdit app to use Parse without any server-side Rails code at all In Part 1 of the CloudEdit Backbone.js Tutorial , we developed a basic Rails application using Backbone.js that lets users create and edit documents in the cloud. Now, in Part 2, we'll do some refactoring to clean up parts…
Hackers tend to look inward. It's only natural: we spend our days thinking about intricate, abstract pieces of code. In order to focus on these concepts, your mind has to do away with distractions. You have to buckle down and think about the problem as it relates to your perspective, and how you're going to solve it. Notice the word you shows up a lot. But if you're a hacker that wants to…
I'm happy to announce that I've decided to open source Gmailr , a Javascript API for Gmail. It's the code that is used to run one of my pet projects, 0Boxer , which is an extension for Gmail that turns organizing your inbox into a game. A few days ago, the 10,000th user signed up for 0Boxer, so I figured this would be a great time to share some of the code that makes the realtime gaming mechanics…
If you like Backbone, you'll love Parse . Read Part 3 of this tutorial where I show you how to convert the CloudEdit app to use Parse without any server-side Rails code at all Backbone.js is a javascript MVC framework, and is the newest addition to my frontend toolbox. What's great is that DocumentCloud , the team that released it, is actively developing and using the framework, making it better…
Around January 12, 2011, news was quickly spreading about a potential change to the Zodiac system . Apparently, Parke Kunkle, an astronomer from Minneapolis, asserted that the Earth's axis has shifted over the past 2,000 years, resulting in a potential change to the Zodiac signs. I didn't know much (or cared) about the Zodiac. But, this was a hot button issue that got a ton of people riled up.…
It's been quite a while since I've rebooted my blog. So, I present to you the latest incarnation. I decided to finally migrate from a self-hosted WordPress blog to Jekyll , a Ruby-based static site generator. In my opinion, blogs should really be a set of static files, since each post is create once, and updated rarely. This has several benefits: Scaling is easy. Serving static files is trivial.…
It's been a fun ride over the past couple days. I launched Make Your Own Gap Logo (MYOGL) a few days ago, and it has since gone viral, receiving over 100,000 page views, and almost 10,000 logos made so far. This is the story of a viral news-based app and the frantic journey that launched it. October 4th, 2010: The News New hits the wire that Gap is rebranding with a new logo. In a sea of…
After traveling in Italy for the past two weeks, I learned a lot about how digital devices and various other tools can help with travel logistics. This was the first big international trip where I made a significant effort to use digital tools; it's stunning how much easier it is to get oriented when you're not only relying on static offline tools. Jailbroken iPhone All of Italy (and most of…
I spent the last two weeks traveling through Italy, eating my way through various provinces. Along the way, I was floored by the quality of food Italians enjoy. You can check out my photoset to see a glimpse . Eating in Italy is both liberating and intoxicating. Americans are afraid of food. We scrutinize our diets, contemplating levels of saturated fats and questioning the origins of every…
This past weekend, my credit card was declined at various venues. It turns out, there was a fraudulent charge made on my card. The problem with verifying fraudulent charges is that they make you do it over the phone. All online access to your account is locked. This can make it difficult to remember exactly which charge you made, especially if you're the kind of person who forgets the various…
I've recently been getting really into table tennis, a sport I've played for most of my life, but never seriously. My father taught me when I was just tall enough to reach the table, and I was hooked ever since. As I began to study table tennis (or more casually, ping pong) in depth, I realized it's one of the best sports for hackers. Here's why. 1. Table tennis is easy to install in any office…
Usability testing is an essential tool in any product life cycle, especially at startups, where you live and die by your product. It is the most effective technique to get real user data on how they are using and assessing your product--in real life. If the product stake holders are not already bought into user testing, you need to convince them, now. Usability tests are cheap, and have the…