I read an awesome, inspiring post called "You've either shipped or you haven't" (http://scraplab.net/2010/07/17/youve-either-shipped-or-you-havent/) from Hacker News.  It's short and worth a read, but the point is that there is a huge divide between the people that talk (and criticize) and those that actually perform and deliver.  It reminded me of a great article by Anil Dash on the "Fail" meme (http://dashes.com/anil/2009/06/the-end-of-fail.html). 

I went back later so that I could subscribe to the blog in my RSS reader, when I found an unfortunate next post titled "Grey's" (http://scraplab.net/2010/07/18/greys/) where the author backtracks, pseudo-apologizes and points out that, of course, there is a middle ground.  It was almost enough for me not to subscribe, but I'm giving him another chance.  Anyone who can produce the original post is capable of producing more great posts, so long as he doesn't let the naysayers and his own self-doubt interfere.

Everything useful or inspiring will be offensive to some people.  Dividing your audience into those that agree strongly and those that disagree strongly is success in the blogging world (and possibly business world as well).  No one cares about the middle ground. 

So I had this idea to create a site that features puzzlers for programmers: logic, coding and math puzzles.  It has the potential to make money on its own via sponsorship or advertising, but its primary purpose would be to drive traffic to Code Anthem.  I have a few puzzles in my pocket from my interviewing days, and I planned to allow users to submit ones they've seen to source the site.  So I built it up in Wordpress today; it took maybe a couple of hours total to do the install, the template design modifications and here it is: http://programmerpuzzlers.com/

I tweeted the first puzzle out and BAM - 3 answers in 3 minutes.  THAT was awesome.  God, I love twitter.

There is a long-running discussion about whether it's better to be "King" (or "Queen" in my case) of your startup, or whether it's better to cash out.  Basically if you're willing to hold on to your business, even in the face of lucrative buyout offers, it's because you prefer to be King of your domain.  Most VC funded business are inherently focused on the payout at the end of the tunn

In this article, a CEO is slammed for insisting he make a $300K salary (and losing the financing deal in the process).  It's perfectly fair for the investors to dictate how much money gets to go to the CEO, since it is their money.  But the idea that a CEO can't make $300K a year?  Ludicrous.  Put another coin in the bucket for bootstrapping and being the master of your own domain. 

When and if my business is making more than $300K a year, I will pay it to myself if I want to. 

It just occurred to me that it's very egotistical, this starting a business thing. 

I think that I deserve my very own business over which I get to be the queen.  I think that I deserve to be the boss-lady.  I think that I deserve to make lots of moneh.  I think that I deserve to succeed where so many have failed before me.  In fact, I think that I should be allowed to do all this WHILE getting pregnant, having a baby, staying with him and working a generally reduced schedule.

So how do I reconcile this?

1) I think I am awesome.  Unapologetically.  It's frowned upon to think so in this society, but I don't think you can be successful in business without truly believing it. 
2) I think the value that I provide with the work that I do is disproportionate to any time-for-money payment scheme. That is how I will be able to work the same amount of hours and make MORE money.  Not with someone's permission but on my own.

That's it, I am so tired of people giving their prescription for hiring success, when it really boils down to hiring people just like them. 

I am hereby only hiring people who have breastfed their child until he was 1 year old.  Sure, it does mean they'll bring certain valuable qualities to the job: the desire to make your decisions based on facts/research, the persistence to push through something that may not always be easy, dedication to the job, etc.  Although really the real point would be so that I can hire people like me (and thus feel more comfortable with them) and probably share the same out-of-work interests too.  Instead of Quake Fridays we can have Homeschooling Wednesdays! 

Why does no one get that it's not about hiring the geeky hacker OR the creative type OR the whatever?

If you want a truly productive and innovative powerhouse, it's about diversity of the team!

These are the top 5 most useful/inspiring podcast episodes that I've listened to when bootstrapping your startup.  Many or all of the episodes in these series are worth a listen but these are worth bookmarking.

Startups For The Rest Of Us
8 Things We Wish We Knew When We Started Out Link

This Week in Startups
TWiST #46 with David Heinemeier Hansson Link

Mixergy
You Have to Hear How the Founder of MailFinch Built His Business - with Paul Singh Link

Escape from Cubicle Nation
How to Start a Business Without Destroying Your Relationship Link

37Signals Podcast
Jason Fried's Speech at BIG Omaha 2009 Link

Why is 37Signals always the counter-example to some popular business idea?  You don't have to raise money, you can charge from day 1, you can have a distributed team, you can enter a market that is saturated and still succeed - 37Signals did it! 

A single counter-example does not a paradigm shift make.  Conventional businesses may have bloat and waste but they also have success and if you can't learn from them just as much, if not more, than 37Signals, it's because you don't really want to succeed.  I really like 37Signals AND Rework and they have a lot of great ideas, but I'm tired of the startup elitism culture.

I am so tired of hearing startup founders or productivity gurus who talk about working so hard: skipping the Lost season finale or video games to put in a few extra hours of work.  I am a bootstrapping startup mother who is juggling being a mama practicing attachment parenting, working full time to feed and house us and bootstrapping my startup that is my dream. 

If you don't have kids, then you basically have ALL YOUR TIME to work on your startup, if you want to.  When you have kids, your spare time to do your startup (or anything) goes down to ZERO.  Not a little bit - but zero.  If you are not working in a way that is making direct and necessary money for the family, then you need to be actively caring for and engaged with your children.  Even the few minutes you get after they are asleep needs to be spent doing dishes, preparing food for other mealtimes, doing laundry, showering, that sort of thing. 

I choose not to trade my children's happy childhood with a present mother for my own dream: I want them both.  Where are the mothers and fathers that can show us how it's done?  Is it that it's just too hard - so they don't exist?  Or are they just to be busy to be blogging or social networking so they fly under the radar?

that one of the biggest personal reasons for starting this business is so that I can be my own boss.  So that I can build a product I am proud of.  So that I can work from home during the hours what I want.  So that I can take time off to have more babies without taking official "leave".  So that I can get things done without management getting in the way. 

Why would I want to risk ruining that by taking someone else's money?

Rob has a great post on when most startups are likely to quit (and how to avoid it).

I think they are valid (and he certainly has the volume to back it up) but I'm experiencing a dip of my own, and it's as we near the finish line close to our launch.  This may seem counter-intuitive because so much is done already and I am so close I can taste it, but it's true.  I remember talking to my high school counselor and him saying that the highest volume of students who drop-out do so in May before graduation.  Burnout.