“I’m got an idea for a new product. Do you know what investors I should talk to?” I always enjoy hearing about new ideas that people are working on, and this question is invariably one of the first that comes up in those conversations. My initial response is almost always “How much of your own […]
Building a Digital Assembly Line with Continuous Delivery
Imagine if you walked into the Tesla factory and saw all of the welding being done by humans. You’d probably wonder what in the world was going on, and you’d probably not buy a car from them because it would be too expensive and more than likely a lot less reliable. Yes, there are cars […]
May’s Must-Haves
Each month I’m going to provide a list of resources (podcasts, talks, blog posts, books, music etc.) that I consider to be must-haves. There’s no doubt that you’ll see recurring themes or resources throughout these posts. Here’s May’s list. I hope you enjoy / get as much from these things as I did: Just Enough […]
Untechnical Founder? No Such Thing
“There is no such thing as a startup that isn’t a technology startup” – Mike Schneider, CEO of First.io Whether your company sells shoes, on-demand custom fabric, vinyl subscriptions, or leads for real estate agents like First.io, there’s development of technology in your future. If you’re not leveraging technology, then there’s little chance you’ll survive. […]
APIs – Getting Under the Hood
In the first article in this mini-series on APIs for the untechnical, we introduced the building blocks of how APIs work. In our second article, we talked about how you read API documentation, and looked at a specific example using the Twitter Status Update. Here’s a quick review of what we’ve covered so far: An API […]
APIs – How to Read and Understand Documentation
In the first article in this mini-series on APIs for the untechnical, we introduced the building blocks of how APIs work. In this article, we’re going to talk about how you read API documentation to understand what’s possible with a particular API. Here’s a quick review of what we’ve covered so far: An API a […]
The Scott Barstow Show, Episode #005 – Matt Fiedler, CEO of Vinyl Me, Please
My guest for this show is Matt Fiedler, CEO and co-founder of Vinyl Me, Please. Vinyl Me, Please is a record of the month club unlike any other. Not only do you get an awesome, curated new vinyl record every month, but you also get a cocktail recipe and artist / label goodies you can’t […]
APIs – The Magic Fairy Dust Inside Your App
Wouldn’t it be cool if, instead of having to build everything your app needs, you could use all of the tools that your other fellow app builders have built? What if your developers could, with a few lines of code, use all the features of Twitter, Facebook, Google Calendar, and all of the other apps […]
“We Can’t Afford to Spend Time On Automation”
What does it cost you to test your product before every release? It’s common, especially in the early going of a company, to do all release testing manually. It usually takes the form of something like “Let’s get everyone in the company to test the app before we release it.” Sometimes there’s a formal test […]
The Scott Barstow Show, Episode #004 – Allan Branch, Co-Founder of Less Everything
My guest for this show is Allan Branch, co-founder of Less Everything, which is the parent company of Less Accounting and Less Films. Less Accounting is the accounting software for business owners who dislike bookkeeping. Less Films creates videos that help turn your web traffic into paying customers. I first met Allan in 2013 at […]