The Tech Dailies

I've been away for a week, and it brings up a new worry.

2010-09-16T18:26:00.000-07:00

I've been away for a week and wasn't planning on going that long between posts, the idea is to post daily, or as close to that as I can. There's a reason though, I've been having some pains in my side and was in and out of the emergency room a bit. Ended up being nothing important, just a slightly inflamed liver, not the alcohol style, just irritated. While I was lying in the hospital bed, about six hours into my second ER trip, I was glad I had health insurance. And I got to thinking about that, I'm twenty six now. For most of my adult life that wasn't the case.

Now, what about that middle period of a start up? When you quit your day job because you can meet your bills, but you don't quite make enough to pay for your private insurance. That's not a point I'm looking forward too, and is making Angel Investors look like a brighter image, despite what you have to give away for such a small amount of money. It'd at least help take some weight off getting an equivalent insurance plan, I don't want to go from a PPO to a bottom rate plan. Otherwise, things are progressing nicely.

Income generation

2010-09-09T19:11:00.000-07:00

I worked an eleven hour day today, happy to get the over time, can always use more money. Problem is, that took a good two, three hours away from working on my project. That seems to me to be the hardest part of getting our start up off the ground. The day when we approach angel investors is looking brighter every day. Being able to cut out ten to twelve hours a day with travel time. I've got so much to learn again and that's really slowing down progress. When the weekend comes and I can focus two solid days I'll be in a much better mood. And hopefully have some stuff to show for it.

GNU/GPL/ETC

2010-09-08T21:15:00.000-07:00

I'm fairly new into my start up and this would be my first business venture. I can't be too specific, we're trying to put a fairly unique product out into an incredibly crowded market. But, it is web based. I'm the head of the technical side of the business, and with our limited budget I've been looking over the different gpl choices out there. And having dealt with corporate technology for the last few years, I've been out of the loop. I'm glad to see the variety out there. Last time I was heavily involved with the free *nix and gnu software, there were still solid projects and a free version for almost everything you'd want to do, but now there's a ton of choices for everything you want to do.

I'm used spending most of my time fixing code and searching for one that'll fit every need I have or modifying the best to fit them. Instead I've found dozens of free versions that'll fit all of our needs except the unique ones, and I'm having to sort through them all. More of the small companies should start embracing this movement, compared to payed versions we should save a few thousand. And all of our initial budget is coming from our already strapped paychecks. Anyone else in a similar situation?

The first.

2010-09-08T20:47:00.000-07:00

As a new entrepreneur in the web industry, I'm going to be posting my trials and tribulations in trying to get two start ups off the ground. More to come.