The old blog
109 posts, 2010–2016: building and selling a startup from a dorm room, in public. Preserved as written—links may have rotted, opinions may have improved.
2016
- Sep 2016Pricing heuristics
- Sep 2016Would I do this for 10 years?
- Sep 2016One good trick for interviewing candidates at a small startup
- Sep 2016Should I OEM my product?
2015
2014
2013
- Sep 2013What I learned bootstrapping a 6-figure business from school
- Aug 2013You’re selling it wrong
- Aug 2013Public speaking for introverts
- Jul 2013How to get your first 10 customers
- Jul 2013So that’s what they were talking about
- Jun 2013Why you’re on a startup rollercoaster
- Jun 2013On negotiating your first few partnerships
- Jun 2013How to read a lot of books
- Jun 2013Why are you in such a rush?
- Apr 201319 things that should be fixed
- Mar 2013How to figure out what you’re good at
- Feb 2013How to make a million dollars
- Jan 2013Here’s what I learned hanging out with Jason Fried
2012
- Dec 2012The choices are fake and the truth is all made up
- Nov 2012I am a terrible programmer
- Oct 2012Taking off the rose colored glasses
- Oct 2012Selling Umbrellas in a Synagogue
- Oct 2012How to build a blog readership
- Sep 2012The regret fallacy
- Sep 2012Your goals are holding you back
- Aug 2012The “now” syndrome
- Aug 2012B2B is unsexy, and I know it
- Jun 2012Why I’m doing it all wrong
- Jun 2012Showing up is not enough
- May 2012Stop Taking Yourself So Seriously
- May 2012Success is in NP
- May 2012You Have To Get Good Before You Get Better
- Apr 2012This Is 2016 Not 2012
- Apr 2012Getting Started With SEO: Build A Base
- Apr 2012I’m Sure It Will Only Take You A Few Days To Code
- Mar 2012The Pragmatist and The Visionary
- Mar 2012What Does It Mean To Love What You Do?
- Mar 2012DomainPolish: From MVP To Exit In 6 Months
- Mar 2012Why a Venture Capital Bubble Is Good for Bootstrapped Entrepreneurs
- Feb 2012I Accidentally Blogged For A Year
- Feb 2012Programming Is Like Dancing
- Feb 2012We’re Running Completely Blind
- Feb 2012Design Your Website Like A Trash Can
- Feb 2012Beware the Irrational
- Jan 2012Say Hello To Airtime for Email
- Jan 2012How To Cross The Street
- Jan 2012SOPA: The Meek Shall Inherit The Earth
- Jan 2012Doing Away With Dogmatism
- Jan 2012What I Read Over Break
- Jan 2012How To Tell Someone You Won’t Sign Their NDA
- Jan 2012Why We Do Startups
2011
- Dec 2011How To Become A Competent Web Designer in 2012
- Dec 2011My 10 Hour Project
- Dec 2011“Damn” is a dirty word
- Dec 2011The Most Common Type of Startup Idea That Probably Won’t Succeed
- Dec 2011Taste Isn’t Everything
- Dec 2011B2B Sales Aren’t As Simple As They Seem
- Dec 2011Up and to the right
- Nov 2011Ode of Remembrance
- Nov 2011Interviewing at Y Combinator Part 2
- Nov 2011Calvin Coolidge on Persistence
- Nov 2011Life Lessons According to Reddit
- Nov 2011My Credo
- Nov 2011Getting Up Really Early
- Nov 2011Weird Things I Do: Memorize Things
- Nov 2011Gary Vaynerchuck
- Nov 2011Cultivating frugality
- Nov 2011Great design is all around us
- Nov 2011Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism
- Nov 2011My Goals for November
- Oct 2011What Makes Life Worth Living: A List of Beautiful Things
- Sep 2011DomainPolish 2 Months Later: $3,000 in Revenue
- Sep 2011Interviewing At Y Combinator Part 1
- Aug 2011How To Get Covered In a Major Tech Blog
- Aug 2011Why Social Proof Matters To Your Startup
- Aug 2011How I Made $350 In Two Days With Three Pages and Some Payment Code
- Jul 2011How Is Chess Like The Socratic Method?
- Jun 2011The Theory of Constraints (Or Why Bottlenecks Matter)
- Jun 2011My New Side-Project: DomainPolish
- Jun 2011Battle In The Boardroom: Why Groupon Probably Paid Off Its Early Employees
- Apr 2011#1 On HN: Our Traffic Stats
- Apr 2011Readstream: Our newest app
- Apr 2011Grim Tweeper – The easy way to clean out your follow list
- Apr 2011One Month Two New Projects
- Mar 2011The Daily Pennsylvanian
- Mar 2011What do you want to do least today? Do that first.
- Mar 2011Goal Setting and Time Management
- Mar 2011Nerd Culture
- Mar 2011Twitter’s Beginnings
- Mar 2011Difference between doing it first and doing it right.
- Mar 2011Good artists copy, great artists steal
- Mar 2011The Book of Five Rings
- Mar 2011Why Credibility Matters
- Mar 2011More on Limits
- Mar 2011On How to Live Your Life
- Mar 2011If you’re not failing you’re not trying
- Mar 2011Sebastian Marshall and Public Accountability
- Mar 2011Be a Blogger Second
- Mar 2011How We Went From Being Virtually Unknown to 3k Signups a Day in 5 Weeks Part 3 of 3
- Mar 2011How We Went From Being Virtually Unknown to 3k Signups a Day in 5 Weeks Part 2 of 3
- Mar 2011How We Went From Being Virtually Unknown to 3k Signups a Day in 5 Weeks Part 1 of 3
- Mar 2011Why I Don’t Develop iPhone Apps Anymore
- Feb 2011Pivoting vs. Creating Something New
- Feb 2011Our site was Featured on CNN and Mashable this week. Here’s what I learned.