What is a sustainable startup?

John Locke — Wed, 16 May 2012 18:00:24 +0000

Block and Tackle Businesses. That's what my father-in-law calls them, regular businesses that aren't going for sexy venture funding, but critical to a functioning economy. Businesses that perform a valuable function, and grow on their own revenue more than anything else.

A business is sustainable when it has a positive impact on the world. A sustainable business is one that not only generates profit, but does so without overly exploiting the resources around it, and improves the world in some way while doing it.

A PHP Apology?

John Locke — Tue, 08 May 2012 18:23:36 +0000

Via the Seattle Tech Startups list, I came across probably the most vehement, well-written, detailed critique of the PHP language I have seen yet. The author, "Eevee", writes:

PHP is an embarrassment, a blight upon my craft. It’s so broken, but so lauded by every empowered amateur who’s yet to learn anything else, as to be maddening. It has paltry few redeeming qualities and I would prefer to forget it exists at all.

Seed money for sustainable startups

John Locke — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 15:26:00 +0000

Starting a sustainable business is like starting any other business in one way: you need some capital to get it off the ground. What differs between different kinds of businesses is how much you need.

We'll make it up in volume

John Locke — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 16:52:19 +0000

April 2012

I learned an important lesson last year. Ok, three important lessons. You would think they would be obvious to a smart guy like me, but I can be stubborn sometimes.

The big one? Pricing some services below my cost.

Client Spotlight:

Crossfit Games/PLY Interactive

Freelock News:

Freelock News

A lot has changed around here! We've got a really solid team going right now, a few big projects ramping up, and some exciting internal projects we're in the midst of creating.

Among other things, we've put together a marketing plan and are working on a revamp of our own web site. With our next newsletter, you'll get a taste of our new branding. We're doing more consistent blogging on our site, with a mix of business, development, and fun.

Our most exciting projects at the moment revolve around event management, project and contract management, and e-commerce. If you know anyone who needs help in those areas, be sure to put them in touch!

Meanwhile, I would love to hear from you. Drop me a line at john@freelock.com, and let me know how you're doing, and what technical or business challenges you face, or leave a comment on our site!

Dojo Toolkit with Drupal

John Locke — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 23:57:57 +0000

The rest of my team may not agree with me, but I greatly prefer the Dojo Toolkit to jQuery, when it comes to Javascript libraries. Why? Perhaps it's because I want to justify the hundreds of hours I've spent learning and re-learning the API as it continues to evolve. But I like it because they're inventing the future, actively trying to make Javascript a full-fledged environment for any kind of programming.

Key milestones for sustainable startups

John Locke — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 17:10:47 +0000

I read recently on Dan Shapiro's blog that VCs don't want to invest in profitable businesses, because it means they aren't necessary and don't have the bargaining power to negotiate as good a deal, and therefore get the big payout!. They want to invest in businesses who are spending more money than they are taking in, to reach as many possible customers as possible and build out functionality before it's needed and make the biggest splash possible.

Ask Freelock: integrating e-commerce into your site

John Locke — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 17:42:45 +0000

Marc asks:

I am building an ecommerce site in Joomla using Virtue Mart as shopping cart to sell MP3 downloads of original music; small site but fun (doing in my spare time)
Using Virtue Mart but has some distinct limitations; any other suggestions for carts that integrate seamlessly with Joomla?

Hi, Marc,

In my experience, nothing integrates seamlessly with Joomla. That's why we switched to Drupal ;-)

yes, i have heard similar things about Joomla but my dev guy is more familiar with Joomla...how much of a learning curve is it for Drupal if someone knows Joomla?

Changing the creative approach.

Mike Brandt — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 00:43:48 +0000

What an interesting time to be working in and around the internet! Mass protest showed MPAA and Congress that ill-formed, top-down actions like SOPA and PIPA are unacceptable solutions to the challenges facing the entertainment industry. In the wake of such a clash, fertile ground is overturned for innovation in the creative process. Case in point: Double Fine Adventure.

Keeping your site safe online

John Locke — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:37:35 +0000

Why do websites get hacked? Websites get hacked for a bunch of different reasons:

Static Brochure sites are easier?

John Locke — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 15:50:37 +0000

We've had several clients recently chafing at how confining Drupal sites can be -- it can be a lot more work to make individual pages vary from the template, and if you have build web sites using a tool like Dreamweaver, you can't tweak the layout the same way.

We call these hand-built sites brochure, or static, because they are a collection of files you build once, and then don't change very often. Drupal is a Content Management System (CMS), a program that helps you manage content.

So what's the difference? Why would you want Drupal over a static brochure site?