Author's posts

Five entrepreneurial lessons in 54 hours: Startup Weekend DC 2010

I'm proud to say that our team, iSpeedShop, won the competition for our mobile shopping app! Here are five lessons I learned during the weekend.

Startup Weekend DC 10: Wow.

I am blown away by the commitment and skills of my team members: It's 1AM and we're still going strong.

Ten annoying status updates and how to fix them

Speech balloons

Annoyed by people's facebook status updates and twitter posts? Let's make them more polished and productive!

Shopping high and low: Upgrading and treasure hunting

Jewelry and boxes

It's not surprising that there are both upscale and low-price stores. What is surprising is that the same people now shop at both of them.

Intuitive, minimalist user interface design

While simple user interfaces can be good, they can also be counter-intuitive. Here are two examples.

Lean startups: Find the business' core, then build the periphery

Core and periphery

A lean startup business should find its core (business model), then build the structure (engineering) around it.

Women shop and men buy: Gender differences in shopping part 2

When you're a woman shopping, you buy things that will "turn you into other, idealized versions of yourself: That dress makes you beautiful..."

Men shop and women buy gadgets: Gender differences in shopping part 1

What Women Want: The Global Marketplace Turns Female Friendly by Paco Underhill

When it comes to technology, men shop and women buy: men browse, looking for something cool even if they may not need anything at the moment.

How to use the freemium model: Four lessons from my yoga instructor

Piggy bank

How can developers best use the freemium approach to their advantage? My substitute yoga instructor demonstrated a great technique.

How smart is your app? A smartphone app hierarchy

Maslow's hierarchy of needs

There is clearly no shortage of iPhone apps. But what kind of mobile applications are most worthwhile, either to develop or use?