DISQUS

Thanks for the post Jimmy -- a lot of great photos! And thanks a lot of coming out, was great to see you and everyone else.

Isn't that true with just about any adjective of a business practice? Words like "innovative", "leader", "creative" and "dynamic" are a bit played out.

How about words in titles like "guru", "ninja", "expert", "senior", "director", "CEO" -- anyone with a domain name and a WordPress install seems to be the "CEO" and a "Web Start-Up" these days -- "passion" is the least of their problems; maybe the root?

The more immersed you are in something, the more you see the commonly used "buzz words" that really misrepresent everything and anything.

Nice way to see who reads more than the title of your posts! Cute story though.

Create designs that are extensible and flexible ... common sense?

What is the criteria for a "start-up"; is it money or time or both?

If you start a company with $100 million, are you not still a start-up in the beginning? If you start a company with $0 and stay small and nimble for 2 years are you still a start-up or just a small business? What is the difference between a small business and a start-up?

And most people associate start-ups with web entities; but a 10 year old that creates a lemonade stand on the corner has a "start-up". It feels as though people think its "cool" to be labeled as a start-up; people debating who is and who is not.

Essentially a start-up is a new company whose success is unknown. The more stable the company gets with respect to profits, revenue, funding and age the less and less it is a "start-up".

Great post, but you are killing me as a designer here! The greatest misconception about designers is that we make things "look good" -- that is just a small part of the role that great design plays on the web.

Real designers working on real initiatives are using visual aesthetic design to increase visual communication; a design tells a story, delivers a message and even persuades an audience. Real design is about designing an interface that is interesting, informative and intuitive. Design is about presenting the content, mission and business objective with respect to the audience expectations and desires.

Again, I agree with the fundamental point of your post, but getting a little personally upset when the job of a designer is trivialized too much.

A pretty picture does nothing for your business objectives or your audience, a real design does so much more and is much more powerful.

Don't all advertising based web start-ups generate revenue? You just need one person to pay you just $1 for advertising to generate revenue. My only question is, are they profitable?

Traditionally these *new* advertising platforms only make a name for themselves of any interest to anyone by offering ridiculously low rates to the advertisers with unusually high payouts -- obviously not a sustainable model; didn't work for Yahoo vs. Google AdSense.

But it is great to hear them raising 13 million -- they will go a long way for that business model; allowing them to continue to operate profitless at a high cost of operation.

Nice write-up! I can share the sentiment. Reminds me og a blog post I wrote recently, "Why I love My Mistakes"

Don’t be afraid to making mistakes; don’t seek them out but embrace them when they happen and look for them to be the turning point to something great. They say “two wrongs don’t make a right” – sometimes they do, when you’ve learned from those two wrongs to create the right. Greatness is many things; however, it is often the summation of mistakes whose parts are the catalyst for something new, something great.

I hate when I make a mistake, but love looking back at the mistakes that have made me.

I agree ... I think ultimately the most important thing is quantity and quality of work -- great work is what will ultimately make one stand out among the crowd.

After reading this, I might have to checkout BlogHer next year. And thanks Micah for the D.C. plug!