Breaking Free

Random thought for the day: for the next version of Apple’s operating system, they should really think about synching all your programs, settings, etc across ALL your computers. Right now I carry a MacBook Pro between home and work every day because maintaining all my programs, files, and settings on two separate machines would simply [...]

I like the idea of a business that creates building blocks. In other words, your product may not be directly useful to customers, but it allows other people to create useful products. Amazon EC2 is a a building block.  So is Apple's App Store.  So are Heroku, WordPress, Paypal, and a bunch more. Some things [...]

Here are a collection of questions you can answer to come up with business ideas. These are taken from Paul Graham’s excellent article on the subject which is worth reading if you have the time. Sit down with a cup of coffee and force yourself to write out 10 answers to each of these questions. [...]

Twitter is currently trying sponsored trending topics, ads, and licensing deals to see if they can monetize their platform. But there is a much simpler business model right in front of them: freemium. Make it free for up to 10,000 followers. If you have more than that, it’s $5 a month. Over 100,000 followers maybe [...]

This is from the excellent book, Founders At Work, that I’m reading right now. I find new reasons every day why I’m thankful that we never took any kind of outside investment. Let me give you a small example… Jared had a friend that had an idea of some way that we could modify FogBugz [...]

I recently posted some screenshots of some internal dashboards I built a while back at UniversityTutor.com.  These are fun and addictive to check each day, but they can also serve an important purpose in your business of keeping you motivated and helping you spot trends. Here are some cool dashboards I’ve spotted around the web [...]

Here is a question from a Breaking Free reader that I though others might find useful (my response below)… Brian, I would like some feedback on a business idea… I’m thinking about a 3D scanning and 3D printing service with a website to solicit business. A 3D scanner is around $3,000, and a 3D printer [...]