techmatters

I'd also add that you should find common requirements that customers have and build your solution around those.

Much better to have 100s of customers using a product with 1 feature, than 1000s of customers using a product with 1000s of features (with the corresponding overhead).

I feel some detailed documentation on how to integrate, and how it works could be useful, including any vulnerabilities to XSS.

Cool, although you'd maybe get better takeup if this info was available before registration.

It would be great to see an example of a weekend location, itinerary & recommendations. Also, would be useful to have a "couples" price. And a different cadence (once every 2 months, once a quarter)

Some comments:

I have 2 children who need to take meds and would want to buy 2 x medmanager.

- Maybe allow customers to choose more than 1 of the same touchable type.

- Can these be mix/matched across multiple devices ? Can touchables pair with multiple clients ? Can you change the pairing ? More info would be useful

Love the video!

I have come to the conclusion, over many years, that microservices are simply a runtime solution to a compile-time problem. Why can we not develop code in a modular way (to separate concerns & isolate) , but deploy it in a monolithic way (to reduce latency/reliability concerns). This is what we did when OO was fashionable.

I understand that we shouldn't treat RPCs like local calls, but that doesn't mean we cannot do the reverse. If we design services properly we don't need to tie the design and the deployment.

I just can't see the purpose of making something permanently flaky at runtime for the sole purpose of keeping developers on track at design time.

"A failure to comply cancels the transaction. You can get your money back and keep the goods. If the sale was for a service or a digital download, the contract is cancelled and no further payments are due." I would think that, under contract law, you get your money back and you return the goods - that would be cancelling the transaction. Likewise for digital downloads or services. Can anyone explain why the provider would be penalized further ?

It is your data - Facebook, Google etc are just custodians of your data and you have the right (under EU law) to have that data removed or anonymized.

The legal requirement is for the information to be published (once) and then, in the normal course of events "forgotten" after a period of time.

It is not the publication that is a concern, it is the permanence of it, and the ease of access that the ruling deals with.

It is not necessarily deletion, but the "right to be forgotten".

Anonymize the data to the extent that the customer is no longer recognizable as the user, but you still have your information for accounting purposes.

* Run a spell check over your blog entry. One or two are acceptable but there were so many that it detracted from what you were trying to say.

* I didn't understand what the product will do for me (as a product provider) and how I can use this to increase the number of people who buy my goods.

Writing code will be the least of your problems. Java will do just fine.

> I think it's more likely older people expect to get paid more for their experience,

Myth : The highest paid are in the 30-40 age bracket. See http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171778_241497.pdf (UK-focussed, but the US is probably similar)

> are less likely to learn new things on their own like younger people are,

...but they already know so much more that learning is less important. They know it already!

> are less likely to start up their own companies like younger people are because doing so is risky.

Myth : http://www.kauffman.org/what-we-do/research/2009/04/educatio...

Nice story. Whilst there is a growing number of women in IT, there is still a noticeable lack in development roles. Only time and attitudes will change that.

We men are not that different. Last week our garden wall was damaged in the storms here in the UK - I had to Google for "the rounded stones on top of a brick wall" (coping btw) so I could sound knowledgeable enough to builders I called for repairs.

They knew I didn't know what I was talking about - and polite enough not to mention it.

Agreed. A little more information on what you do and how it can benefit me would be great.

And this believes I'm in Liverpool; FreeGeoIP thinks I'm in London, but I'm in Sussex.

> Considering that most businesses fail within 5 years

Business closure rates (at least here in the UK) are around 10% a year. So although your statement is technically true (it would reach 50% after 5 years) these are not necessarily "failures", just closures, and many businesses last 20 years or more. I started 1 business in 1992; have had 3 others that I closed after 6 months, 2 years, and 6 years respectively. 2 were unprofitable, 2 were highly profitable. How does that skew the figures?

Entrepreneurship has never been a young person's game until recently. Older people have more cash and fewer liabilities - children have left home and mortgages are paid off - so have more financial flexibility.

Investing 12K from savings is no big deal when you are older and actually have saving to invest. And as for paying yourself - you have a retirement income.

I've found meetups to be frequented by many different types, including those that think they are not very social. Don't be put off by that - you'll find your common interests help guide you through. Or go with a friend if you feel awkward.

This is just Godwin's Law played out.

This experience relates to a startup in 2005 that folded during the credit crunch (2008). I am now working on a new product suite whilst continuing to consult.

The Mortgage Portal was an online marketplace for mortgage brokers to find appropriate products for their customers. It started with an idea that I spent a month building in my spare time. I worked with a colleague (both of us consulting in the mortgage technology arena) to bring it to market.

I started with a flexible mortgage that I drew salary against - so £0 capital. We then went around hawking the idea to the marketplace. We met a lot of resistance from established players (owned by the big banks, so no way we could disrupt the marketplace), and in the end pivoted into a platform for new lenders to get to market quickly. We helped a handful of banks launch new channels in a few months, which was a great selling point. Then came the downturn.

Our sales model was monthly fee + per transaction fee. It was never profitable.

We didn't look at grants/loans. There are some around, but my opinion is they are probably a distraction at this stage. If you're interested look at http://www.j4bgrants.co.uk/ - they have a wealth of information.

The most valuable thing we did was pivot. We didn't pivot fast enough which made things untenable. We never scaled (started with two, ended with just me), and we failed for various reasons. I could blame the market - all our remaining customers either went bankrupt or closed within the space of a few days - but the reality was that the idea was just a starting point and we didn't move from that.

In my view, if you have an idea, your first step is to go out there and find a customer. Don't build anything (that is the easy bit) before you have someone willing to give you money. We should've done that - taken the idea and then asked what our customers wanted to do with it - rather than impose our views on them.

As for resources, there are many available and it will depend on what your trying to achieve and where you're located. If in London, I'd recommend the Google Campus (http://www.campuslondon.com/) as a good starting point. Then look for Meetups in your area.

Good luck.

I am interested to see how this grows. There are many commercial sites available that provide this service, and there is certainly space for others if they focus on particular niches.

How do you intend to promote this? How can the community help to get the word out?

Agreed. You need founders who can turn their hand to anything, not just their primary skill. I ran a startup back in 2005 with another founder who was primarily focussed on marketing. It was a SaaS that was heavily dependent on data which had to be manually maintained. When he said "I'm not going to sit there wasting hours of my time entering data when I could be selling" it was the beginning of the end. From then on, I couldn't trust him to help out when needed. We folded in 2008.