The startup community is not only alive and well in Columbus, Ohio - it's flourishing. When I joined the BULX team in July 2010, I was completely new to the tech startup world. I had always considered myself an entrepreneur and had founded a handful of my own companies. But it wasn't until my involvement with BULX, TechColumbus, and social media that I became conscious of the incredible network of people and programs available here in Central Ohio. As we work to grow and evolve ChatterJet, the network of talent people and the number of resources we have at our disposal are … [Read more...]
Lean Experiments
January 17, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Launching a startup is about more than just building a great product or service. In fact, in the early days it is as much about making hypotheses and testing assumptions as it is about actual product development. Many a talented entrepreneurs have embarked on journeys that led nowhere because they failed to ask two simple questions: Am I solving a problem that people actually want/need solved? Can I build a solution that people will actually use? At ChatterJet, we are dedicated to understanding how small businesses currently use social media. Most importantly, we are interested in … [Read more...]
Good is Great (When Learning Is the Goal)
January 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment
We all want to do great work. Inspiring, life-altering work. But the way we frame "great work" is different to each of us. My newest venture, ChatterJet, is a shift in the way I have approached business in the past. By utilizing a new framework, we are applying many of the concepts from Eric Ries's The Lean Startup. Perhaps most exciting is our willingness to ship early, continuously deploy new features, constantly collect feedback, and evolve our product based on the hard data and soft feedback from our users. To me, this is shaky ground. I'm a reformed perfectionist. In the past, I … [Read more...]
Why New Beginnings on New Year’s Day?
January 4, 2012 By Leave a Comment
“You may have a fresh start any moment you choose...” -Mary Pickford If this is the case, why does the beginning of January create such a surge of new resolutions, goals, and commitments? Why not July 16th or November 3rd or February 22nd? We have the opportunity and the choice to start new ventures, make new decisions, and form new habits at any given time throughout the year. Yet most of us wait until until 12:01AM to "get healthy" or "make a million dollars." I have two theories on this: The first is that the start of a new year allows us to quantify our results and place … [Read more...]
