Category Archives: Business
A WordPress hosting cooperative
Maybe you make WordPress sites for cash. Maybe you design themes or write plugins. Then, after your work is done, your clients (or friends, lovers, etc) need to be supported. Somebody needs to keep WordPress and her plugins up to … Continue reading
Posted in Business, WordPress
Tagged coop, cooperative, hosting, press hosting, WordPress, wordpress hosting, wp.coop
23 Comments
Announcing my retirement
I am going to retire on 1 July 2009. In a little over 2 months, less than 2 months after my 27th birthday, I will retire. retire v.intr. To withdraw, as for rest or seclusion. To go to bed. To … Continue reading
Introducing Chris Guillebeau
I read Seth Godin’s blog. Seth wrote this about Chris Guillebeau’s newest manifesto called 279 Days to Overnight Success (pdf). I have just finished reading the manifesto. I’m inspired. I agree with probably 30% to 50% of the content, but … Continue reading
Posted in Business, Personal, Recommendations
Tagged 279 days, Chris Guillebeau, inspiration, manifesto, Seth Godin
2 Comments
Book Review: Built to Last
I’ve just finished reading Built to Last by Jim Collins and Jerry I. Porras. I picked up a copy of Fortune magazine on my Frontier Airways flight from San Jose, Costa Rica to Los Angeles. One of the articles that … Continue reading
Posted in Business, Reviews
Tagged book reviews, Built to Last, business learning, Jerry I Porras, Jim Collins, visionary companies
2 Comments
My Manhattan office
I went to the New York OpenCoffee meeting this morning. I’ve been to a few OpenCoffee’s around the world and I like the events. They normally give me a quick flavour of the tech scene in a place. The meetings … Continue reading
Posted in Business, Techy, Travels
Tagged Ashley J Heather, business startup, dotbox, incubation, new york city, NY, opencoffee, startups
2 Comments
Satellite versus roaming
Satellite broadband runs about $5-$7 USD per Mb. It seems expensive. I thought I’d compare that to global roaming charges. Vodafone NZ charge $10 – $30 per Mb depending on the region! At these kind of prices, it looks like … Continue reading
Posted in Business, Techy, Travels
Tagged bgan, bgan pricing, data roaming, rbgan, roaming, satellite phones
3 Comments
There’s still time…
… to apply for the alternative MBA. Applications due tomorrow (Sunday). I’ve just sent Seth my application. It’s done. It’s in. I can probably still make changes, I guess Seth won’t see it until Monday morning. But I won’t, it’s … Continue reading
A non MBA with Seth Godin
Wow. I just woke up and read this. Awesome. I’m physically excited. My first thought is, apply, do it right now, immediately, without hesitation. Ok, reality check: I have 6 months of expenses saved, I can afford it. I could … Continue reading
Posted in Business, Personal, philanthropy
Tagged education programs, MBA, new york city, nyc, Seth Godin
10 Comments
Thinking bigger
I think Seth Godin’s is my favourite blog. His posts are short, concise and usually thought provoking. Seth avoids the mistake of writing too much, too often, and writing crap just to keep the content flowing. Today Seth talks about … Continue reading
Posted in Business, Ideas, WordPress
Tagged Business, Seth Godin, startups, straightpress, thinking big, WordPress
3 Comments
StraightPress is born
After much deliberating and some procrastination, I have a new business name, StraightPress. I’m working with Alan on the finishing touches for our tagline(s). They should be ready by the end of the week. In the meantime, I’ve whipped up … Continue reading
Where to incorporate?
I’m starting a business. It’s a purely online business. We’re going to manage WordPress sites. Customers will be global. A grandma in Detroit, a professional blogger in Sydney, or a teenager in Bangkok. As the principal owner of the business, … Continue reading
Inspiration from Seth – stay true
Seth posts this. Inspirational. It’s inspiring to see somebody at the point in their life/career where they can be true to their principles. I think it’s harder to remain true to one’s ideals at the earlier stages of a career. … Continue reading
Smile launch faster payments
Changes are afoot in UK banking. I just received an email from Smile telling me about faster payments. Dear Callum At smile we’re always looking at ways we can improve the service we offer you. This is why we’re pleased … Continue reading
Posted in Business, Personal
Tagged email disclaimers, faster payments, Smile, uk banking
2 Comments
A vision for Lonely Planet
Lonely planet publish books. They’re a book publisher. Books, in their traditional paper form, are dying. I attended a talk by Frances Linzee Gordon on Wednesday night at Gleebooks. Frances is a travel writer for Lonely Planet. She’s a great … Continue reading
Posted in Business, Ideas, Predictions
Tagged book publishing, Frances Linzee Gordon, Lonely Planet, publishing, publishing trends, trends
6 Comments
Meeting Jason Calacanis
I met Jason Calacanis at the blogger breakfast this morning. Duncan Riley was there, although I didn’t meet him. Somebody said he (Duncan) was a big wig, so I was checking him out online after the meeting. I came across … Continue reading
Posted in Business, Personal
Tagged duncan riley, jason calacanis, mahalo, techcrunch, workaholics
3 Comments
Talking down the competition
I was at the Cape Town Vespa store a few days ago. All the sales people we met were talking trash about the much cheaper Vuka bikes. One chap said to us “The brakes fail after 500km.” When pressed, what … Continue reading
Posted in Business, Travels
Tagged competitors, competitors products, marketing, vespa, vespa cape town, vuka
2 Comments
I don’t have a resume
I’ve never been a fan of resumes. It always sounded like such a boring job, cataloguing all the things I’ve done, listing all my various endeavours. Seth Godin has an excellent post on why great people don’t have resumes. People … Continue reading
Posted in Business, Personal
Tagged curriculum vitae, cv, job applications, jobs, resumes, Seth Godin
7 Comments
Dinner at Savoy Cabbage
George and my crew at SmartHippo organised a R1’000 dinner at Savoy Cabbage (their web site is being updated I’m told). I worked miracles a few weeks ago in producing some truly mind blowing javascript (at least it blew my … Continue reading
Posted in Business, SmartHippo, Techy, Travels
Tagged george favvas, mind blowing javascript, Savoy Cabbage, SmartHippo
4 Comments
Cape Town Facebook Developers Garage
I was at the Cape Town Facebook Developers Garage last night. I have the badge to prove it! It was an interesting evening. Pizza was generously provided by Butler’s Pizza. If I’m not mistaken their delivery staff arrive wearing a … Continue reading
Posted in Business, Events, Photos, Techy
Tagged butlers pizza, cape town, Facebook, Facebook Developers Garage, joyent, memcache, South Africa
2 Comments
Cape Town January OpenCoffeClub meet
I went to the February Cape Town OpenCoffeeClub meet yesterday. I had lunch with Nur (Nomade One) beforehand. We had a really interesting conversation around religion, values, ethics and business. I look forward to meeting Nur again. Internet at the … Continue reading
Posted in Business, Events, Openness
Tagged cape town, ethical business, google groups, OpenCoffeeClub, skyrove, wifi hotspots, WordPress, wordpress.com
4 Comments
Seth Godin on Monetization
Apparently Seth Godin’s blog is read by “more people than 95% of all the magazines published in the US”. Impressive numbers. A reader asked why he doesn’t monetize his blog. To which he responded: I tried to sum it up … Continue reading
Posted in Business
Tagged blog marketing, blog monetization, monetizing blogs, Seth Godin
2 Comments
Open source and adding value
There has been an interesting shift in Intellectual Property over the last few years. Particularly, the rise in popularity of open-source software. Companies like MySQL, Zend, RedHat, and others are pioneering a new way of doing business. Their core “product”, … Continue reading
No Y Combinator This Time
As I suspected, my application for Y Combinator was not successful this time. In some ways, I’m relieved, I’m not sure if I was ready for the commitment of a full-on startup. So now I have time to focus on … Continue reading
Amazon EC2 Adds New Instances
Amazon EC2 has added two new instance types. Their standard instance has 1 virtual CPU and 1.7Gb of RAM for 10c (USD) per hour. The newly launched Large Instance has 4 virtual CPU cores (2 cores x 2 CPUs) and … Continue reading
