DISQUS

6 days ago

in Leisure Time From Barclaycard - Fail on Jonathan MacDonald.com

You'd think companies like Barclaycard would be able to get it right by now wouldn't you!

Shocking!

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9 months ago

in My Head Is In The Cloud This Morning on A VC

Wayne,

Yes he makes a good point - which is why I agreed.

However when "outsourcing the rest" it's not just a question of if their technology is good (it probably is otherwise you wouldn't be outsourcing to them), you also need to factor in the additional risks you are now exposed to; for example, if your supplier has a problem are you important enough to them that they'll care about it, what if your supplier goes out of business, what if your supplier decides to stop offering the service, what if your supplier is taken over by a competitor of yours. What if your supplier suddenly increases their price.

None may be likely, but you'd be a fool not to consider the risks.

Regards, John

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9 months ago

in My Head Is In The Cloud This Morning on A VC

While I'd agree that Alex is right. The counter argument is that when it does break no one else is as motivated to fix it as you are, so the question "How can I possibly rely on these guys?" should really be "How can I make sure these guys are reliable" and you should then ask "What if these guys let me down".

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1 reply

WayneMulligan Hey John,

I think the way to look at this is: "What's the difference between Amazon going down and RackSapce going down?". They were both down for a few hours over the last 4 months, nobody seemed to go, "OMG, how can I rely on RackSpace, I'm ditching this solution for Cloud Computing!", but yet, when Amazon went down last week I can't begin to tell you how many people msg'd me going, "See, Amazon's solution sucks".

Alex makes a very good point - what makes you, me or any other entrepreneur think they can write a better solution than Amazon or Joyent?

I'm a big believer in specialization of labor - perform the tasks that you have a comparative advantage at and outsource the rest (assuming it's a commoditized process - and I truly feel that LAMP stack hosting is).

Just my two pennies.

-Wayne

9 months ago

in Mashups on A VC

That shes claims to be planning to "donate the proceeds to charity" sounds like she knows she is being unreasonable and is trying to justify her actions.

Personally if it were me I'd be only too keen to help fans promote the brand.

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10 months ago

in Pet Peeve: Blog Snobs on The Savvy Entrepreneur

I agree, I find it disappointing when I can't begin a conversation with the blogger. However I think some of the bloggers in question just suffered from too much spam.