Disqus - Latest Comments for KeithHanson

Re: Delivery Windows are Live in Autopilot

KeithHanson — Mon, 30 Nov 2015 21:31:50 -0000

It's like you're reading my mind!

Re: What Acquihire Really Means

KeithHanson — Sun, 05 Jul 2015 12:09:07 -0000

Totally agree about the disappointing desire for this as an exit.

It seems to me like this sort of thing (acquihires that are just soft landings) should go away once tech education starts to match tech hiring demands.

I think we can all agree buying a failed startup is way more expensive for a company than if they had reliable sources of plentiful talent.

But maybe that's idealistic? :) We will always have these situations, and will always have large tech companies with huge appetites for talent...

Re: What you think you know about mobile engineering is wrong

KeithHanson — Wed, 29 Jan 2014 00:54:49 -0000

I completely agree that developing natively for every platform is folly.

But no one said (in this article nor should they ever) to build for every platform. Even on Android, you have a major set of manufacturers you should be targeting with form factors that are well adopted. If your market segment and channels live in Android, largely on Samsung devices, then focus there. If they're all on iOS, then focus there.

I'm sorry to call you out, but if you know of "many examples" of apps that are well executed in mobile web, I'd like to personally see them, and would be happy to do some testing of our own on those apps that "work and look great".

Re: What you think you know about mobile engineering is wrong

KeithHanson — Wed, 29 Jan 2014 00:49:13 -0000

Full disclosure, I run a mobile design and development agency focused on first time founders, so my opinions are bias but rooted in actual execution for both HTML5 and Native iOS and Android.

We work with first time founders almost exclusively, where the CORE of their business is mobile. So yes, they should figure it out. But suggesting they go and do it on their own without guidance, advice, and best practices that numerous mobile firms have built up over time now is folly. If you want to pay with time, make the same mistakes that most teams make when starting from scratch, it's your investors money. It's easy for us, as skilled software engineers, to take the "do it yourself" approach, but I simply disagree that it's the right way to launch for nearly every other founder on the planet.

"If your app is mostly web content"... What exactly is "web content" these days? Nearly every major web app I've worked on or with has an API, and if you're developing mobile, you'll need one (unless you are creating completely self-contained apps, a rare for us one-off type business that doesn't come into our firm much).

Whether or not you actually have one, when you render out your content to a screen, the "web content" is actually just *content*. Not translating that "web content" into an API is lazy. You get your WebView to render the content for "free" (no extra work from programmers), but as stated in the article, your experience is going to suck. We've been waiting for years for HTML5 to be hardware accelerated, but by definition a cross platform development method will always put you multiple steps behind the latest and greatest advances in native development.

As for hybrid development, I think that is the *worst* advice you could give startups. You are creating not one but two layers for problems during your iterations. Syncing the two views between native and mobile web is a layer that is completely unnecessary, aside from the most trivial of executions (considering you are already working in native by definition).

Why you would ever want to get away from the very thing you yourself stated baffles me.

Namely: Native is more responsive and feels more natural. If it is your core business, why would you ever risk NOT ensuring those two things are taken care of for your customers?

Re: Why Founders Can’t Afford to Have Any Weak Links

KeithHanson — Wed, 02 Oct 2013 19:27:28 -0000

As always, great insights :) Being a futurist/entrepreneur myself, it's often so hard to remember that the future in our heads requires the time and perseverance you mention.

I think you could write a whole book on how to prioritize those tough daily decisions that all can seem important at the same time (spending time recruiting vs. time coding vs. customer development vs. business development; all important tasks for maker CEOs), and when to realize you're tinkering for fun instead of for the survival and growth of your company.

Re: Why Founders Can’t Afford to Have Any Weak Links

KeithHanson — Tue, 01 Oct 2013 02:46:14 -0000

I hate it when I hear other founders say things like this, but it took me years to build up to the point where I could replace most of my core functions that I created in the early versions of our company.

I'll admit, I like to get into the trenches with the team (sitting down for a debug session for a few minutes or diving into sales presentations with our business development staff), but I know that ultimately the best thing possible is to ensure that can happen without me. From there, I'm free to move wherever I'm needed, identify beachheads and how to get there, and let the talented people around me do their jobs.

And frankly, that's so much more fun, because everyone is way better at their jobs than I am, ha! I'm just there to make sure the vision is true, the runway is long enough, and there's cash in the bank :D

Great article. Made me think.

Re: Why Founders Can’t Afford to Have Any Weak Links

KeithHanson — Tue, 01 Oct 2013 02:33:20 -0000

I'm coming out on the other side of a quarter now since our co-founder left (on amiable terms, and he's quite happy in his new role). And while it's tough, if your team is like mine, the slack will tighten up as everyone learns the new directions you'll be taking. As Mark recently quoted, "Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm." - Winston Churchill.

Just so you know, it's not going to be the hardest thing you go through. Somehow, as an entrepreneur, that makes it feel OK to me. Good luck, or rather, prepare to make your own :D

Re: What Do Tijuana and Minneapolis Have In Common?

KeithHanson — Sat, 28 Sep 2013 04:13:06 -0000

Also... I love the tactic they're using in their templates, challenging the world to out-perform them and incorporating the best ones. That's such a great strategy, and reminds me of hubspot, wistia, and others.

Re: What Do Tijuana and Minneapolis Have In Common?

KeithHanson — Sat, 28 Sep 2013 04:05:16 -0000

I feel like if I hang around you blog long enough, I'll have a tool you've invested in for every aspect of our business :P I've seen multiple competitors in this space (LeadPages), but I *LOVE* the fact you can push the static pages to your own servers. I haven't done much in depth research on the competition, but everyone I've dealt with locks you into their platform and has you handle custom URLs and more advanced usage through their interface, which is incredibly annoying to me.

Can't wait to take this for a whirl.

Quick bit of constructive feedback: Does the 6 minute intro video seem a bit much to you? You noted they've built stable revenue pre-financing (IMPRESSIVE), so I guess it's working, but everything we've learned (see: http://wistia.com/learning) says to do otherwise. What do you think? (*EDIT* - to clarify, I mean the length of the video. The actual video itself seems great!)

Re: One Real-Time Communication System to Rule Them All

KeithHanson — Thu, 05 Sep 2013 16:18:43 -0000

Not sure I understand that thought process either. When I saw the integrations that my company could use from Flowdock, I signed us up pretty much at that moment. That doesn't include bi-directional stuff, of course, but that was compelling enough.

As well, I have employees who like other tools for collaboration with clients, as opposed to internal collaboration. I would pay a premium for bi-directional communications that made sense in all these cases and allowed a company to communicate more easily across the various tools we use.

@bfeld: If Kato had an easy bi-directional integration with their competitors, I'd already be trying it out and creating buy-in here haha :) I love the non-silo'd interface (an unexpected thorn in my side after using FlowDock for several weeks now).

Re: The R/GA Connected Devices Accelerator, Powered by Techstars

KeithHanson — Tue, 20 Aug 2013 13:57:19 -0000

I have been speaking with an increasing amount of startup founders that are working towards hardware + mobile products and ideas. I've seen resistance because of the high cost of entry into the hardware market. Excited to see how this new endeavor helps more smart devices make it to market!

Re: Battlestar Galactica KPI

KeithHanson — Wed, 31 Jul 2013 17:57:54 -0000

Ryan pointed this post out to me and, after reading it, we've decided to implement it in our own company :) We rolled it out this week, explained how the business works and how that number is affected. Comparing the goal to actual felt like a wet blanket (shouldn't it feel that way when you're actively improving? :D), but now I'm seeing our team rally around the number and try and creatively figure out ways to bring that number up.

We'd been debating for a good while about being even more transparent than before, and this post kicked us into gear to make it happen.

Thanks for the inspiration!

Re: Overtime is Morphine - Ernie Miller

KeithHanson — Tue, 16 Jul 2013 14:53:30 -0000

Well said, Ernie. An ounce of prevention goes a long way :) I think easing your management into this structure early is key. We used to work over 70-80 hours in our first year of business. There was finally a time where all the "difficult" projects were out of our pipe, and I made the decision then to never allow that to happen again.

Since then, our shop has operated nicely in the 40-50 hour/week range (50 when the inevitable crunch does happen), but no more than that, and our culture has improved dramatically from it. Happier clients and staff all round :) It took a lot of work to eliminate mistakes further up the chain, but it was so worth it.

Your symptoms are spot on with many of the early mistakes we made. Great article!

Re: Get Off Your Throne and Lead from the Trenches

KeithHanson — Tue, 09 Jul 2013 13:41:18 -0000

Phillip, great advice, especially about not being able to do this without a stellar management team in place.

While I've climbed up through my own company, and done practically everything but design and marketing, I could only do what you recommend in earnest *after* our process and team knew how to move forward without me (thankfully that's the case!).

Which is a whole different beast and could probably be a post all it's own, right? :D

Great post!

Re: Why You Should Start Your Startup In Shreveport, LA

KeithHanson — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 11:39:26 -0000

I agree with this, Gayle. Ultimately, we'll always be compared to SV, though. Especially with nicknames like the Silicon Bayou, haha.

But mostly, we're a few entrepreneurs who know that there's talent locally that we can foster. And many times, circumstances don't allow for people to uproot their life and move, even if the costs could be affordable.

That said, I'll die with my boots on (as quoted from one of my employees, haha)! It's hard work, and honestly, John Grindley has done amazing things for the community here, so hats off to him. But... we have great advisors for our company, awesome designers and engineers, and there are plenty of other tech companies in the area that have been here longer than us that have talent as well, doing very large projects.

It's come a long way I imagine since 17 years ago, haha!

Re: Why You Should Start Your Startup In Shreveport, LA

KeithHanson — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 11:26:57 -0000

As a local as well (from Twin Engine Labs), I definitely agree with Mollie and Rob. We have some amazing opportunities for those willing to get in on the ground floor of something.

But that said, you're *right*, John. What's great is that we're very aware of the shortcomings as well, and are striving to change those things.

The airport is completely frustrating and many are voicing their opinions about it. As for engineering talent, I agree that we're not a hop and a skip from a poach from Groupon, but I've had very little trouble finding excellent engineers with loads of experience, all *locally* or in the region.

As for the conference, there's so little reason not to have a conference here that I'm going to start talking to those that could make that happen. We have several places where a conference would be easy. As well, we have casinos, and great local bars, with local food.

Finally, get your ass over to Nashville. I have *three* clients doing iOS apps as funded start ups that I know for fact will be looking for talent soon ;) There's an even better startup climate over there from what I've seen during my stays.

Anyways, ultimately, you're right. SV has been thriving for so much longer than we have, it's very hard to compete, and we're only just beginning to. But for those that are interested, it can be a pretty awesome start for all the reasons the article mentions. And, we've only been *really* picking up steam in the last two years. I'm very interested to see what the next two hold.

Re: Dear business people, an iOS app actually takes a lot of work!

KeithHanson — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 13:34:08 -0000

Twin Engine Labs is located in Shreveport, Louisiana :)

Re: Make the Most of Your Meetings: Upgraded Apps & GoToMeeting Integration!

KeithHanson — Thu, 10 May 2012 18:24:56 -0000

Wow. *awesome*

We're about a month in to using Podio, and it seems we came at just the right time. Really great stuff everyone! I love the new layouts, the "slidey" technology, and now this. Exciting!

Also, to those of you complaining about $50/month... If you aren't making $50 a month off of all of your meetings combined, then you are doing it wrong.

I cannot imagine trying to give a pitch and sell an idea or presentation using Skype. So, personally, this will actually convert me from the free trial user I was, considering it's completely integrated.

Re: Scan a QR Code & Save Your Place on the Restaurant Wait List

KeithHanson — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 10:37:53 -0000

It's far less about the technology and much more about being able to get into restaurants with no advance reservations. You can walk up, ask for a table, see the wait time, and leave, because you'll either get a notification when your table is ready from the native Android or iPhone app, or you'll get an SMS notification if you only left your number. This frees you up to make a trip around town or go have some drinks at your favorite pub while you wait, instead of the current model where you're chained to the restaurant.

Not to mention it's a far sexier, more reliable way to manage your restaurant's front door.

Which brings me to the point... we already had SMS integration and _working_ with all platforms before Mashable made the point in their article :)

@Adam: The man doth protest too much, methinks. It seems that you yourself are simply focusing on the technology and are refusing to see the tangible benefit, so let me say it simply: You are untethered from your wait. That simple fact is a game changer for restaurants that Open Table doesn't service; namely, those that don't take advance reservations.

As well, as mentioned above, we have a lot more avenues for the technology than just restaurants. Do you not also think that waiting in a doctor's office for an hour or two is a problem? One that is solved by this?

Re: I believe... you can fly

KeithHanson — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 03:16:29 -0000

:'( I'm such a nerd when I've been immortalized on the web.

Re: Passion for Travel and a Career

KeithHanson — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 22:49:25 -0000

"One thing I am just now realizing is how I never got to choose a career, never got to think about what I really wanted todo for the rest of my life."

Wow. How can you simply drop that in your blog post and not elaborate man? Haha. This resonated with me, though I can't really tell you why I feel the same. Maybe it's the typical 7-10 year programmer burn-out or something. From an objective perspective, I felt like everything fell into my lap and I made the easiest choice about my career path. But my gut makes me feel otherwise.

Would love to hear some follow up on your perspective...