Could you speak a little more to the point about how you feel Elixir actually adds to the complexity of Erlang? Was that comment mostly referring to the addition of those new concepts you just mentioned? Or were you referring to something else that the language does under the hood that adds to the general complexity?
I'm a full time developer concentrating on doing high quality front-end / UX work for web applications and startups. I can help you handle both design, app-flow, mockups, as well as the cross browser compliant HTML5, CSS3, and Javascript required to build it.
I also have especially good experience working with Ruby/Rails/Sinatra/Rack based applications (due to the fact that I've built many of my own from scratch as self produced applications).
I don't usually login to post, but I just wanted to say, although I do not know your situation at all, if you're putting it up due to burn out, please take a second look and make sure what you're doing is for the best. Startups always have their down cycles, so I would hate for you to give away your company if it could be retained in some way, as burn out / down cycle are problems that can eventually be fixed.
I say this as I was on the brink of shutting my own startup very recently before I found my passion and drive for doing it again (after a burnout that took 8+ months to recover), and I'm very glad I ended up sticking with it.
I agree completely. Startups can feel a lot like "swimming" a marathon instead of running one, but what great rewards when the really hard work is done. I'm sure there are many circumstances that take anyone out of the game, but I agree with you. Maybe they could wait a while longer and see if they get through their down cycle??? I wish them good luck whichever way it goes!
Maybe they aren't the best way, but contests can make things more fun if you don't take them so seriously. I don't think he's scouting for cheap work to capitalize on, rather he's just looking to get the Ruby community's help involved in building a pretty looking site (hence why he isn't offering it on 99designs) and offering a prize to make it more fun.
I have to say, I remember reading your first post when you decided to do this stuff full time, and I didn't think doing just Adsense and Istockphoto would be enough to keep you afloat. It really seems though that you have the drive to do this, and it seems to be coming along for you, so I'm really happy to see that.
Also, I'd love to see a post with tips about selling photos on istockphoto.
How is their current marketing and recognition? It might be worth it to start up an early marketing strategy and at least out-market them before you actually can launch. I don't know about the retailers, but some of them may be willing to wait on purchasing a product if they knew something better was coming along later.
I think you are right - and we're leaning towards that. Just get the conversation going so we can get some traction since the sales cycle will most likely be 3 months at least. Our product will be production ready by then.
My only worry is talking about products and someone really wants to go and we won't be able to right away.
I am not sure that your worry is warranted. If your sales cycle takes 3 months, it will be at least one month before anyone even decides that they want to "go". That should buy you some time.
I don't know about your product, but enterprises take a VERY long time to decide these things. And you can always stretch out the deal to buy some time.
If you think your sales cycle is 3 months, you should double that estimate. Sales cycles tend to be much longer than us optimistic entrepreneurs think. Just wanted to share our experience because knowing how long cycles really are would have helped us plan a lot better.
Could you explain a little bit more about the "logistical nightmare" aspect of self-publishing? I'm thinking about self-publishing a book of my own, so I'd love to hear more about the obstacles you came across and how publishers make it easier.
But for me, I didn't want to spend a ton of time and effort on marketing, and my topic was a niche within a niche at the time (I wrote the Ruport Book with Mike Milner -- ruportbook.com).
After a year or so, instead of being thousands in the black, we were hundreds in the red, even though the book sold a few hundred copies. So we just made it available at cost and closed the doors at that point.
This may be because the HTML version was available for free when we started. It may be because we set price points very low (I think our PDF was like $8), it may be because I started an LLC and wasted tons of money on absurd taxes just for keeping the doors open. It was a bunch of epic fail on the business side of things, and that at least taught me a lesson.
I talked to O'Reilly and though they were very inflexible about certain things (due dates, typesetting, etc), they were open to change pretty much everything that mattered to me, and did. As a result, my book shipped early and at a much higher quality level than I could imagine doing myself.
Of course, I could tell you stories about other publishers I either pitched ideas for, did tech editing with, or wrote chapters for that'd make your head spin. So I wouldn't say that professional publishers are good across the board, just O'Reilly pretty much let me run with my ideas and ended up being very accomodating.
This may have something to do with the fact that I blogged and wrote articles with them for a while before writing a book, and because my editor is also a friend of mine from the Ruby community. But I know folks who have pitched O'Reilly cold and had similarly positive experiences, so I don't think that's the case.
Ultimately, publishing is going to be what you make of it. Self-publishing gives you full control, but it also gives you full responsibility. I think you can make money on it if you market effectively, and I think it can be a worthwhile if you really want to do something unique.
But for me, someone who just wanted to get some ideas out there and maybe make a buck or two in the process, doing all of the work of self publishing really was horrible.
