May 2009
23 posts
“They say that when you’re trying to get into shape, the best motivation is...”
– from Diane Haddad’s Genealogy Insider blog on Family Tree Magazine’s website.
I see Genlighten accelerating positive results in the genealogy research process. As Diane says, “The best inspiration to do more research is getting results”.
April 2009
25 posts
“If you can’t manage chaos and uncertainty, if you can’t bias yourself for action...”
– Preparing for Chaos - the Life of a Startup « Steve Blank (via hiten)
Scary thought… I like to think I “bias myself for action”, but there are days where I feel I’m waiting around, too.
Rails alpha is up!
We took a big step today and pointed the www.genlighten.com domain at the Rails Alpha that Justin’s got running on EngineYard’s Solo service. It’s scary, in that there are public pages on the site that could use lots better styling and content. But it’s a good kind of scary — the kind that should motivate us to improve it quickly.
In the meantime, EV/SSL certificates...
Gillson Park Beach for FHE
Cyndy and I walked and talked at Gillson Park Beach in Wilmette tonight for family home evening. It was about 70 degrees out, overcast, completely calm, with just a few drops of rain. Hardly anyone else there. Pleasant place to chat and enjoy the quiet lap of the waves.
New England Regional Genealogical Conference
In 90 minutes, talked seriously about Genlighten to perhaps 15-20 people tonight at the booth. Most were interested in being providers. One follows me on Twitter. Another said “one of the speakers today was raving about your site”. Wonder who that was!
I almost always seem to get a huge amount of renewed energy and motivation from these conferences. Soon though, I hope to also see...
“But entrepreneurial leaders sometimes forget that in startups, you can’t allow a...”
– Steve Blank, Killing Innovation with Corner Cases and Consensus
I have already fallen victim to this… but I’m getting better at fighting it — and keeping the momentum going.
“I like to start with free customer acquisition channels since they obviously...”
– From To Pay Or Not To Pay To Acquire Users? by Sean Ellis on his Startup Marketing Blog
My take: this is our roadmap exactly… get enough revenue from users we acquire through free channels that we can afford to eventually pay for ads to reach additional users. It’ll be tough to pull...
“For example, I’ve talked a few times about how IMVU raised its first venture...”
– Eric Ries, “Validated Learning About Customers”, from his Lessons Learned blog.
This guy is amazing! He and Steve Blank together basically make most of the other stuff an MBA covers seem superfluous.
“Rise again, yes, rise again,
Will you My dust,
After a brief rest!
...”
– Choral text from the finale of Mahler’s Symphony #2 (“Resurrection”)
Adapted by Mahler from the poem Die Auferstehung by Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock
“It is, I think, that we are all so alone in what lies deepest in our souls, so...”
– Sheldon Vanauken, A Severe Mercy (via elwhit)
via This is going to be BIG! by Charlie O’Donnell
“We’d love to have professional genealogists join our provider network, but we...”
– Brainstorming a post for the Genlighten blog regarding the recent APG thread on Ancestry’s “Expert Connect”
“It seems to me that you have a huge opportunity to “do it right” in...”
– A well-respected genealogy blogger in a Twitter direct message to me today. He was commenting on the APG message board discussion of Ancestry’s new “Expert Connect” service, a direct competitor to Genlighten.
“…One of the great consolations of this Easter season is that because Jesus...”
– from a talk given during the Sunday morning session of General Conference on April 5th, 2009 by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
“I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down”
– Nehemiah 6:3, as quoted by Elder Dieter Uchtdorf at the Priesthood session of General Conference tonight. Am I doing a great work? Or is what I’m doing a sign that I’ve been “distracted” from the great work I *should* be pursuing?
“Getting revenue early will lead you to more revenue opportunities, and you will...”
– True Ventures: The VC Startup (RWW Interview) - ReadWriteWeb (via hiten)
Dean’s take: I believe this to be true… and it’s just about time for us to test it in the real world.
