Comments on: Developing SharURL: Lessons learned developing a new startup

By: SharURL « bradt.ca

SharURL « bradt.ca — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 23:28:32 +0000

[...] I developed for the project. For more details behind the development of SharURL, see my blog post Developing SharURL: Lessons learned developing a new startup. The site is currently in invite-only beta, so the following invite code is needed to signup: [...]

By: bradt

bradt — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 04:34:55 +0000

@idlewords I didn’t say free services are a mistake. I said that the “free model” in the particular case of a service where you’re giving away bandwidth and storage space is a bad plan. “Free model” referring to a 100% free service that gains value by accumulating data rather than a revenue stream.

As for the lack of paid options, they are on the way. I made the decision to launch with this option and many others in the spirit of what I say in “Don’t be afraid to launch.”

By: idlewords

idlewords — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 04:13:54 +0000

It feels like a lot of these “lessons learned” posts are just beards for a startup launch announcement. In this case, it’s not clear at all how the author could have any lessons to share, since the site has _just_ launched and he has no basis on which to evaluate his past decisions. Parts of the article are simply incoherent. For example, a talk by the Rails guy convinced him that free services were a mistake… but his site right now does not even offer a paid option. It would save time and noise to have a special section of the site for this kind of thing; I’m sure a lot of us are willing to poke at one another’s projects, honestly presented.

By: Jack

Jack — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 13:34:45 +0000

Hi Brad, found your blog in the strangest of ways (google keyword alert for “new startup”) but I’m glad I read this post, as I’m in the middle of a web-site start-up myself.

I just checked out, and signed up for SharURL. The concept is promising and the site design is nice. So far, everything works.

If I may share a model I plan to use myself: forget trying to be “free for everyone” from the start. Instead, provide a free limited-time subscription code (like the code in this blog.) That way people know from the start that it’s a pay service but it gives them enough time to get hooked. I feel like offering an upgrade path doesn’t really buy you anything … it just leads to a whole lot of “free rides” that eat into your margins. I don’t think it’s fair to your paying customers (or you) to have to support them. Offer a great service to your customers but make them paying customers from (almost) the beginning.

Whatever you do, don’t cripple the trial in any way and please, for the love of all that is holy, don’t spam (I don’t get the impression that you’re that type of guy anyway but you never know what people will do for a buck

By: bradt

bradt — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 01:03:38 +0000

@Karthik Thanks for the kind words. The feedback has been very positive overall.

By: Karthik

Karthik — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 12:40:43 +0000

Excellent advice for people doing Startups. A lot of these things really apply to the life of a technical entrepreneur. Your bits about the “framework” and the “urge to start new project” ring very true with my own Journey.

As developers, we always want to write the most elegant / generic / indirect code but thats not always good for launching quickly.

The design of your website and blog is beautiful. Wish you success with your SharURL, it looks like a great service with a lot of room to grow.

By: My daily readings 07/06/2009 « Strange Kite

My daily readings 07/06/2009 « Strange Kite — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 11:41:24 +0000

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