Startup

A core tenant of agile development is moving in quick, successive iterations.

Iterative product development saves time, solves businesses problems, and empowers your teams to pivot and adjust based on feedback whether it be from data, users, or dollars. Central to this philosophy is starting with the right technology and design foundations that allow you to start simple and quickly develop new features and functionality over time.

Recently, we have noticed a growing focus from leaders on innovative design and user experiences, which is a great thing! But we fear there is an imbalance being created, and your engineering department may be paying the price.

You may have noticed that ecommerce is booming! In the United States, the ecommerce market grew 15% in 2018 and crossed $500 billion dollars for the first time. Many brands are achieving unprecedented scale by serving unique niches in the market. In this post, we are going to discuss the pros and cons of 6 popular enterprise ecommerce platforms.

There are software-as-a-service (SaaS) products for every nook and cranny of your business, but these solutions don't always fit a company's exact needs. So when is it the right time to buy a SaaS product and when is it the right time to build custom software?

In this post, we are going to examine technical debt and why it is a startup killer. Dan Radigan says: "Technical debt is the difference between what was promised and what was actually delivered". The problem arises when your team has a culture of hiring junior talent, writing poor requirements, rushing to meet deadlines, and incurring unnecessary or unaccounted technical debt. For example, imagine you are building a web application for the financial services industry.

Our Founder and lead strategist, Rich Rudzinski, got the opportunity to speak about Progressive Web Applications at San Diego Startup Week 2019. His presentation gave an overview of the current software development ecosystem, and then explained the history of PWAs and their current support. He also dove into the key characteristics, requirements, and benefits of this new technology.

You will find a re-recording of his Startup Week presentation below:

 

When you are building a startup, there are always constraints and tradeoffs.

Most companies are bootstrapped or have limited funding, which means that they need to be budget conscious. Others have to meet deadlines set by investors, competitors, or customers. These external forces are stressful. At the same time, stress is also great mechanism for creating focus.

For startups, the focus in the early days has to be building the right team.

In our role, we are fortunate to talk to everyone from startup founders to technical leaders at global organizations. We are all connected by a passion for understanding, building, and deploying technology to solve difficult problems.

But something hasn't been sitting well with our team recently. When we talk to startup founders, they have an outdated approach to building modern software. We are sure this recipe is being taught at accelerators and incubators across the nation, and it may be hard to separate the good advice from the bad.

At its core, FreeFashionInternships connects candidates to internships in the fashion industry. The company, started March 2007 by Carla Isabel Carstens, attracts top fashion brands and tens of thousands of students who are seeking internships each year.

1. Behave differently- Choose a few cornerstones of behavior that set you apart from your competitors. Whether that's a stellar customer service reputation, a unique feature, or the background of the team you assemble. If you have something that truly sets you apart, it makes it significantly easier to show people that you are actually unique. Behave differently, and people will take notice.