When I first looked into what equipment we should use for our startup, I had a feeling we’d be going with Apple — as Joe, the Google Man himself, is a little Mac-biased. It also made sense because each employee we hired would use an iPhone. This holds true for our contractors, too. Might as well keep everything in the Apple family, you know, to support the businesses we feel are meeting expectations. We could have probably saved a good deal of money on initial equipment costs by going with a cheap, uh, Internet Explorer-based computer and a different mobile device, but that would terribly defeat the purpose of doing things the right way the first time, wouldn’t it?

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Daughter: “Dad?”

Dad: “Yes, honey?”

Daughter: “I love you.”

Dad: “I love you too, honey bear.”

Daughter: “Dad?”

Dad: “Yeah, hun?”

Daughter: “Can I have _____?”

And so goes the sale…

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Being back from a trip to the sunny beaches of Mexico has got my mind thinking of many different things, all while working on a few of our upcoming projects. Specifically, I started looking at eBay and, after reading an article that came across my email entitled EBay still tops, but its traffic drops, Nielsen says, I started to really think about the online reseller market.

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The state of Minnesota has a very vibrant technology and Internet community, and we at DoApp feel very fortunate to be a part of it. In decades past, our state was dominated by IT giants like Control Data, Unisys, and Cray. Those firms either greatly downsized, being disrupted in one form or another, moved, or split up into many pieces and parts, scattering talented people in all directions, many of whom stayed here in the state and started their own ventures. (MN map image courtesy Minnov8.com.)

Fast forward to 2008, and Minnesota still has some big players in tech, not the least of which is the long-standing presence that IBM has in Rochester, MN (where two of our team members played prominent roles in Internet development and user experience). Our state also now has some other, newer powerhouses that have surged to prominence, thanks to the Internet — Digital River, Internet Broadcasting, and such ecommerce heavyweights as BestBuy.com, Target.com, and ShopNBC just to name a few. Read More »

I guess I couldn’t take on a four-hundred-pound gorilla, but I am taking care of my 3-year-old just a week after being released from the hospital. The surgery is complete. Um, great — but, damn, it still hurts! I figure by Monday I will be ready to take on that gorilla again. Of course, by gorilla I mean that ever-illusive goal that is working on business development for DoApp! Its like the “free beer tomorrow” sign at your local tavern: always within site, but you never quite get there.

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What a wonderful thing to achieve, graduation from college. This week, I finished my last paper at UMD. It was on the economics of our healthcare system, studying all of the upcoming potential presidential candidates’ healthcare proposals. I can’t even explain how glad I am to be done!

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This Saturday, May 10, at least four of us DoApp team members, maybe five, will be attending our state’s all-day Barcamp conference, which we call Minnebar here in these parts. This is the third annual. It should be fun, getting out in public a bit, wearing our DoApp t-shirts for the first time and all. And our illustrious head of development, Dave Borrillo, is even participating in a panel, on managing distributed/virtual teams. It’s at 2:00 pm. He’s had a lot of experience at that, and has presented on the topic before.

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Well, I’m down in Rochester MN again at the Mayo Clinic (an hour or so southwest of the Twin Cities). This makes my third appointment to discuss the pros and cons of surgery. I can break it down for you pretty easily. The pro is that, if it works, I will regain strength in my fretting arm and get relief from the constant pain that has plagued me ever since the incident. The con is EVERYTHING ELSE. Yet, it doesn’t seem that I really have a choice. The atrophy is noticeable in my arm now, and if I stop the Gabopentin I know what that pain feels like.

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During my weekly reads of fyi news, I stumbled upon a new business play by Audible Inc. that made me realize if we work hard enough we can truly promote illiteracy one iPod at a time. Here’s the article: Internet Retailer: Audible Inc. launches an audio book site for iPod savvy kids.

Audible Inc., a subsidiary of Amazon.com, is launching an audio book site for kids to download to their MP3 players, with an initial launch of over 4,000 titles. Send me the “Hooked on Phonics” audio version, baby!  Ok, a little harsh maybe, but think about it.   Read More »

Let’s get one thing straight right away before some of you computer geniuses start judging me. I am a business development guy. I have business relationships in my heart, not endless acronyms for the sake of showing off one’s pristine memory and superior intelligence. Just kidding, just kidding. Okay, so I’m actually a huge fan of computer nerds and am trying hard to be one on the side, which is happening slowly but surely. Hey, at least I’m good at using Google…

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