Chap Ambrose

How to make money on iPhone apps

Chap — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 15:19:28 +0000

“I’m not an iPhone millionaire, but I’m doing quite well, all things considered. App Cubby has been a TON of work and caused quite a few sleepless nights, but these last 18 months have been some of the more fulfilling times in my life..”

David at App Cubby taught himself how to program because he wanted to make iPhone apps (wanna-be entrepreneurs take note). Now he’s making a living doing it. Pretty cool.

Great presentation on web design

Chap — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 16:20:06 +0000

Probably the best thing on design I’ve read this year, from Joshua Porter.

Two Years

Chap — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 20:25:55 +0000

Ramen Profitability

Chap — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 18:03:45 +0000

Ramen profitable means a startup makes just enough to pay the founders’ living expenses.
…
At any given time there tends to be one problem that’s the most urgent for a startup. This is what you think about as you fall asleep at night and when you take a shower in the morning. And when you start raising money, that becomes the problem you think about. You only take one shower in the morning, and if you’re thinking about investors during it, then you’re not thinking about the product.

- Paul Graham

I’m assuming that most techy, start-uppy, people have read Graham’s essays, but if not you need to.

Intentional Misleading Interfaces Result in Eventual Mistrust

Chap — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 13:50:53 +0000

How does deceiving your customers on newsletter signups make business sense? And it was checked by default. And what the hell is Fandango FanMail.

“Something intrinsically worthwhile”

Chap — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 17:06:30 +0000

“In time, success will come. And if it doesn’t, at least you’ll have spent your time doing something intrinsically worthwhile.”
-Eric Ries

If your project/idea/business flops, was your time wasted? Did it help anybody? Did you learn something new? That seems like a pretty good measuring stick for work worth doing.

Running a software biz

Chap — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 22:14:19 +0000

I just found this great blog by Eric Sink. You’ll love it if you’re an indie developer trying to live the dream. BTW he calls us ISV’s (small independent software vendor).

My favorite nugget so far:

“The ‘No Sales Guy’ Approach… Listen to your customers and give them what they want. Keep your customers happy (they’ll tell all their friends how great you are).”

Update: I probably should have just linked to his index of articles titled Marketing for Geeks.

“Shut up! Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them.”

Chap — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:54:31 +0000

-Derek Silvers

oops.

Start with a Problem, Not an Idea

Chap — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:11:05 +0000

“Potential startup founders are always looking for ideas to implement, when they should be looking for problems to solve.”
- Margin Zwilling

Fun with Adwords

Chap — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 18:17:24 +0000