Longform Writing

One of the most nefarious patterns that seems to be increasingly common is companies that accept payment online but then don’t let you cancel service with the same ease. The companies that do it don’t seem to care. This is wrong. Full stop. If your…

When I set out to build software on my own, one of my biggest goals was to have more fun creating that software. I wanted to create a tool that others could enjoy, but, more than that, I wanted to have fun while I did it. It has been fun. But somewhere…

The world needs more good news. So here’s my contribution. A year ago today, I had a surgery. The surgery went well. Recovery didn’t. In the time since, I’ve had 7 more surgeries, spent about 6 months in bed most of the day, 3.5 weeks in the hospital,…

It’s been almost three months since surgery number seven. I’ve started to recover from that, and we’ve even begun to talk in detail about what’s next. (Three more surgeries in the next 12-15 months if you’re curious.) I’ve recently started to stumble…

One of the most challenging aspects of running a business is understanding why customers leave or otherwise choose not to use your product. The underlying problem is that if a customer doesn’t like your product, they’ll generally just write it off and…

I now have a twelve inch scar on each leg that runs from my hip to a few inches above my knee. That’s where they took the skin to save my foot. Twice. After spending three weeks in the hospital, I’ve been home for almost a month, and things are looking…

For years I’ve been planning to work fewer hours. I really don’t work all that much, maybe 50 hours per week, but with the office at home, there’s little separation between work and everything else. My plans were always centered around this or that…

Whenever people talk about starting businesses, one of the most common deterrents people bring up is having a family to support. While being cautious and making sure not to put your family at risk is important, this fear assumes that there are only…

Tomorrow, Sifter turns five. During those five years, I’d say that all of my mistakes and regrets boil down to fear. Sifter supports my family, provides some income to good friends who do some contract work for us, and has thousands of people that use…

It’s been a while since I wrote an update, and a lot has changed. Today is 98 days from my first surgery. In the last few weeks, we’ve gotten some additional opinions, had an array of tests, and even a couple of surgeries. Several weeks ago, I was…

It could be worse. That’s what I keep telling myself. I have an open wound on the top of my left foot that’s about 4 square inches. Several of my tendons are exposed, and I’m going to lose the one connected to my second toe. (It’s ok, though. Several…

Historically, I’ve put an enormous amount of pressure on myself to constantly improve Sifter. Add a constant flow of customer requests on top of that, and there’s never been a shortage of feelings that Sifter’s not good enough. Until recently, my…

Imagine for a moment that you’re self-employed, married with a child and a mortgage, you’re the only full-time employee of your company, and the sole breadwinner for your family. Now, imagine having a minor surgery with an expected four day break from…

When I started writing Starting + Sustaining, payment processing was the most daunting topic. I felt that I had a cursory understanding of it all, but that turned out to be wrong. It is without a doubt the chapter that required the most effort to both…

If you’re building a company as a solo founder, you have a long lonely road ahead of you. The sooner you start putting together a team, the better off you’ll be in every possible way. I originally made the mistake of believing that it didn’t make sense…

Three months after deciding to write a book about building, launching, and maintaining a web application, the progress is good. I’d like to be further along, but took a break from writing to spend some time on Sifter. So where are things at and what…

It seems like many stories about quitting a job are dramatic and quick. i.e. “I had finally had enough and just quit.” It doesn’t need to be that way, and it’s probably easier if it’s not. Instead of thinking about giving your employer two weeks notice,…

At some point, we’ve all faced it. Do we rebuild from scratch or simply refactor? With personal sites, it seems the rebuild is the default option. We see an archaic mess of code and a design that’s atrocious. So we rebuild. With a web application,…

Prior to Sifter, I was a specialist. I needed to keep up with two or three high-level topics in order to stay current and not be left behind. I had a few RSS subscriptions and kept up with a few topics on Twitter. It wasn’t easy, but wasn’t impossible…

In order to fully commit your attention to building something that isn’t yet making money, you can either work more hours, or get by on less income. The former isn’t healthy or sustainable, and the latter isn’t easy. When you have the golden handcuffs…