Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could just build a great product, put it out there in the world and then watch as willing users flock… — Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could just build a great product, put it out there in the world and then watch as willing users flock gratefully to sign up for your new masterpiece? It sure as hell would make my life a lot easier. Being a serial startup founder…

First, some history — First, some history In 2005 a South Park episode aired in which one of the characters, Cartman, gives a presentation in which he targets people with red hair, pale skin and freckles. Intended as a satire of how stupid racial discrimination is, the internet being what it is meant that of course some…

When the author of faker.js decided to delete his entire repository, it caused thousands of other codebases to break. Is open source a… — When the author of faker.js decided to delete his entire repository, it caused thousands of other codebases to break. Is open source a viable concept today? It’s happened again. Five years ago, a single programmer brought much of the internet to its knees by deleting some code in his own…

There is a great deal of misunderstanding around what the concept of marketing actually is. Many people, particularly in small businesses… — There is a great deal of misunderstanding around what the concept of marketing actually is. Many people, particularly in small businesses, consider it a bolt-on aspect of their company’s daily existence, something ephemeral whose role is to promote some vague concept of “brand” in the hope that new customers will…

Computer vision technology is automating a lot of things that traditionally require Photoshop skills, including image manipulation and… — Computer vision technology is automating a lot of things that traditionally require Photoshop skills, including image manipulation and airbrushing. Worryingly, it is becoming less and less subtle about the commercial applications of such tech in the realm of body image transformation, a fertile commercial playing field with young women the…

Have you ever tried submitting a support request to a major tech company? If you have, and you received a response, you are one of the… — In 2009, after one of Facebook’s major UI changes that invariably ignited a volcano of tantrums from users who liked it how it was, Mark Zuckerberg allegedly sent round a memo to Facebook employees stating that: “The most disruptive companies don’t listen to their customers”

Crowdfunding is all the rage, with new platforms popping up ever more frequently. Many consider it to be the future of investing, others… — The most important benefit to crowdfunding is that it makes investment in small companies and startups accessible to everybody. For this reason, it is more important than ever for people to fully understand this new world, as most of the negative publicity around crowdfunding is largely focused on misuse and…

Have you heard that 90% of startups fail? It’s a statistic that gets bandied about quite often and unsurprisingly puts a lot of people off… — 1) Believing that revenue is optional This is indigenous to the tech startup scene, but it definitely crops up elsewhere too. There is a mythology, perpetuated almost entirely by the Silicon Valley VC set, that a startup is somehow a new and trendy concept whose primary model is basically “raise lots of money, acquire as many…

You’ve probably heard of Bitcoin. You’ve probably also witnessed some of the hysteria that has periodically surrounded it. What you may not… — Crypto-what? If you’ve attempted to dive into this mysterious thing called blockchain, you’d be forgiven for recoiling in horror at the sheer opaqueness of the technical jargon that is often used to frame it. …