#saas

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…

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…

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…

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 I originally made the mistake of believing that it didn’t make sense…

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…

One of the most frustrating tradeoffs during these years that I’ve been working on Sifter has been the degree to which I’ve cut some corners with user experience. It wasn’t a decision that I took lightly, but it was a very deliberate decision. Now that…

There was a probably an easier way. Fortunately, it feels like we’re over the hump. Regardless, being a solo founder probably isn’t for everyone. I imagine it’s something like being a single parent. It’s not impossible, but it’s no cake walk. There’s…

We’re rolling out a new identity for Sifter, and while I couldn’t be happier with it, part of me worries about how superficial it may seem from the outside. Reading countless corporate-speak press releases over the years about new logos “synergizing…

In basketball, and probably many other sports, you always want to finish strong. That is, you don’t want to waste all of your energy getting to the hoop and then not make your layup. Often, it’s so easy to caught up in the first part, it’s easy to lose…

A few weeks ago, we released a significant update to Sifter. (Rails 3, Ruby 1.9, and a bevy of associated gems and other components in case you’re curious about such things.) Since then, there have only been a few fleeting moments of peace and quiet….

We spent the last 6 months doing hard work that isn’t fun or directly visible to customers. It just had to be done. It sucked. Building this foundation has been the hardest, most involved work with which I’ve ever been involved, and nothing has ever…

Just a random thought. As a solo founder, my time is our scarcest commodity. Making sure that I have free time and minimal interruptions has become one of my highest priorities, and it’s paying off. Some of the best investments I’ve made in Sifter are…

2.3% That’s the percentage of time that people interact with Sifter via Beanstalk or email integration. Certainly there are dozens of factors at play here, but I can guarantee you that number is completely disproportionate to the amount of time and…

Keith Jacobs and I had known each other and worked together fairly closely for about 5 years when he wrote a check for $16,000 so I could quit my job and start Sifter. What’s more interesting is that after writing the check, he didn’t look at the…

When I set out to build Sifter, I had a singular vision. Make a bug and issue tracker that non-technical team members would actively use. However, once it was out in the wild, things weren’t so clear. I failed to stay focused. I let myself get…

We’ve been contacted a couple of times with an opportunity to participate in promotions where we give away a few free Sifter accounts. We’ve always been curious and considered participating, but ultimately never pulled the trigger. Similarly, we’ve…

The most challenging thing about running Sifter has been balancing the countless tasks that fall on the shoulders of a solo founder. (Yes, we have other people, but all of the day-to-day tasks are mine.) Over Thanksgiving, I took some time to sit down…

A while back, i wrote a short opinion piece for .net magazine. Issue 205, to be precise. It focuses on how to handle and respond to criticism. Since it’s not currently available online, I thought it would be nice to share it here. Elbert Hubbard said,…

Sometime around 2002, I attempted to start my own business, not as part of the grand plan, but rather as a fallback for lack of options. It didn’t do so hot. I was living at home and the highlight of each week was meeting up with friends at a bar on…