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• We are looking to hire good developers

  Notches is hiring developers . We’re looking to bring on developers to be part of the core engineering team. We want people that can contribute to the product in a myriad of ways beyond coding. We want people who can ask the tough questions and challenge us. We want people who are not afraid to take ownership over an area and really drive it forward. Our core platform is written in C# / .NET, so familiarity there will help – but ultimately we’re looking for smart, ambitious people with a good background in computer science, algorithms, and so on. Our offices are currently in downtown New York City (SoHo). We’re certainly flexible in terms of hours but we do want to spend as much time as possible collaborating in person – in other words, we’re not looking for offshore firms or out-of-town developers right now. You can find a more detailed job description here . If you’re interested or know anyone who might be, please contact us. Posted Jun 12 2008, 01:47 PM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Software Development, Personal, Web 2.0, C#, .NET, Entrepreneurship, Startup, Programming, Notches

• Distinguishing between a platform and a destination

  Charlie says that "the whole idea that you have a main site is dead". I couldn't agree more - I strongly believe that platforms are the future of the Internet. One clarification I'd like to make in this whole discussion is Facebook is both a destination and a platform. It's important to understand that these are discrete things - something can be a platform without being a destination and vice versa. Clearly, Facebook offers a nice API for integrating your code into theirs, but this to me is not what makes Facebook a platform. MySpace, iGoogle, and a plethora of Web 2.0 portals allow you to "embed" your code - Facebook just allows you to do it more seamlessly. If anything, these are all simply platforms - or rather, vehicles - for traffic. Of course, as Charlie and myself and countless others have said, traffic does not give you a business model. On the other hand, Facebook is getting flak for not being open enough with their data . As Fred says, being open... Posted Aug 21 2007, 06:15 AM by Tim with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: Software Development, Web 2.0, Business, Blogging, Entrepreneurship, Startup, NextNY, Notches

• Outsourcing and Startups

  Lee discusses the question of whether you should outsource development for a startup . If you’re in the software business itself, including all types of web-based software, technology is absolutely key to your product. [. . . ] Great software requires more than just implementation, it requires passion and craftsmanship . These can only come from a star programmer who’s fired up about your project. I couldn't have said it better. We briefly toyed with the idea of outsourcing for our first version but quickly decided against it. In our case, the team was very technical but had serious time constraints. Some of those have eased, some have not - but in the end, we felt that the core platform and API are just too important to leave to others. These are not only key to our product, they are the product. Guy Kawasaki thinks that "for version 1.0 of a product, the maximum allowable distance between the engineers and marketers is thirty feet." Joel Spolsky generally seems to hold the... Posted Feb 21 2007, 05:25 AM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Software Development, Web 2.0, Entrepreneurship, Startup, NextNY, Notches