For Work And Play » Start Up

Introducing Mastodon Labs

Andrew Woods — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 00:49:21 +0000

I’ve been in web development since 1999, when I started at Animated Designs as a contract Perl programmer. I spent 6 years there learning an array of web technologies in the areas of programming, databases, and Linux system administration. I left to seek out new adventures outside of California, which brought me to Seattle. Since arriving in Seattle, I’ve had the opportunity to work with great people at a variety of companies, both as a contractor and as an employee. I think now is time to take my next step. I enjoy the agency environment, and want to return to it. Also, since I was a teenager, it’s been a goal of mine to have my own business one day. I couldn’t imagine what form it might take. Now I can. Without further adieu, I’d like to introduce you to Mastodon Labs. Mastodon Labs is a web development agency whose focus is to serve the needs of American small business. Yes there are many companies that build websites, but what’s different about this one?, you ask. There are 3 key differentiating factors. First, is to design every website to be accessible by all audiences. Companies in the United Kingdom are required to do this. However, it’s largely not done in the United States. The web standards movement has been making some headway in bringing it to the attention of developers, but it’s not pervasive yet in the industry. Secondly, I have a strong interest in the mobile web and want to make that a key component of Mastodon Labs offerings. As mobile device manufacturers catch up, and consumers increasingly use their intelligent mobile devices, it will become essential for small business to participate. Thirdly, but not least, community is important. Within your local community is where you can have the greatest impact. Because we’re located in Seattle, we’ll serve the needs of small businesses in the Pacific Northwest, but we’re open to helping everyone. This will be a great adventure. The opportunities and challenges that lie ahead will make the journey fantastic, and I can’t wait for it to unfold. I look forward to working with you.

Seattle Startup Weekend 2 Wrapup

Andrew Woods — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 18:09:44 +0000

This was the best startup weekend I’ve ever been to. Ok, so this was my first one, but it was still awesome. On friday night, about 150 people were there. As you know from previous posts, I had 2 ideas. I picked one, then pitched it to the group. I’m not well versed in public speaking so I was pretty nervous about giving the presentation. Sure, it’s only a few minutes, but I had never in my life spoken to 150 people. That’s kinda of a big deal for me. I actually handled it better than I had anticipated. Result: pleasantly surprised. It’s a great opportunity to be able to interact, converse, and share ideas with so many smart, creative people. There were 48 project ideas pitched, of which 16 were built. Here’s a list of all the projects that were created.

Tweet Reporters – http://tweetreporters.com
Obey The Decider – http://obeythedecider.com
Tweetsum – http://tweetsum.com
Fresh Local – http://FreshLocal.org
Favorwish – http://favorwish.com
Tripzilla – http://apps.facebook.com/tripzilla
How to ESPN 360 – http://howtogetESPN360.com
1nvite – http://www.1nvite.com
Knarly Vote – http://knarlyvote.com
Infinite Mosaic – http://infinitemosaic.com
Trip Champ – http://trip-champ.com
Scrampede – http://www.scrampede.com

During the event, Q13 News from Seattle came by . Here’s is video It’s clear from this video, and the twitter messages after the event, that Tom Music’s project Obey The Decider is the favorite project. Cassie Wallender’s project Tweetsum is close second, with it’s talented development team and outstanding UI design. Their upcoming public beta release should arrive soon! I look forward to seeing what happens with all of these projects.

Seattle Startup Weekend Idea 02

Andrew Woods — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 01:29:01 +0000

This is the second of two ideas I’m contributing for Seattle Startup Weekend. Nomidate This is a social network designed to augment your dating life. You create a profile to specify the qualities and attributes you’re looking for in someone that you would like to date. The feature that separates this site from others, is that your friends are making the initial connections to your potential mates, on your behalf. The beauty of this is that it’s acceptable for married people to be on the site. In fact, I expect that married women will be one of the core user groups. It’s just like your buddy’s wife, who enjoys playing matchmaker for her single friends. Here’s another scenario that I imagine would be quite common. Lets say there’s a guy, we’ll call him Clark. Clark has a neighbor and has a crush on her. We’ll call her Lana. Clark asks out Lana and they begin dating for a while. It’s comes to an end, but on good terms. Clark and Lana are both on Nomidate and connected. Lana’s profile mentions that she dated Clark, and thinks hes a good guy. Lana sends Chloe a message recommending that she date Clark. Chloe looks Lana’s profile, and sees that she’s rated as a good person for making matches. Chloe sends Clark a message saying Lana recommended him. Now Clark and Chloe can date.

Revenue model: Low signup fees + Vendor subsidies. Our partners post their articles in the advice section of the site. They pay us for that priviledge.
Partnership opportunities: Magazines like Cosmo, Men’s Health
UI: XHTML/CSS, PHP, MySQL

Seattle Startup Weekend Idea 01

Andrew Woods — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 00:42:20 +0000

UPDATE 2009-feb-11: I’m still interested in doing this project. however, it’ll be more challenging as I’ll need to do it in my spare time. UPDATE 2009-feb-07: I was unable to get enough team members together, so I swtiched to the tweet reporter team. UPDATE 2009-feb-06 : I selected this project, and pitched to the group. There were 48 projects submitted. This project made it into the Top 16. Were moving forward tomorrow morning. I’ll be at Peet’s Coffee in Fremont tomorrow at 8:15am for anyone that would like to discuss the project. Original Content I, like 150 others, am very much looking forward to the beginning of Seattle Startup Weekend this evening. This is the first idea of two. Borrow Local Stuff. This is a social network, but very different than most, as it emphasizes those who are closest to you geographically. Also trust is a key component. The way this works is you create a profile, which contains a catalogue. Then you add items to your catalogue that you’re willing to share with your friends. You might start small, with things like: books you’ve already read, CDs that you have, or maybe some tools you don’t use often. Now that you’re set up, look for things that you want to borrow. Doing a search will look through the assets that your friends have, and return any potential matches. When you find something you like, you send a request for that asset. The owner will then accept/deny. If they accept your request, you meet them in some public place and make the exchange. They’ll update their record they delivered the item to you, and will enter a due date of when it should be returned. If you have not returned the item by the due date, you’ll receive an reminder email everyday until you have. How can you ship things, you wonder? You cant. Items are delivered via the Sneakernet.

Revenue model: Free/Premium. Premium accounts will allow you get insurance on items of particular types. In order to borrow a premium item , you pay a rental fee.
Partnership: Delicious-Monster.com – They have cool software that makes adding things to your catalogue easy.
UI: xhtml/css, and add some AJAX-y features for good measure. Future versions will include mobile apps.

App Idea: Startup Deadpool

Andrew Woods — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 06:50:41 +0000

The startup community is interested in how their fellow entrepreneurs are doing. I’m sure there are others but two sites that come to mind that discuss the health of start up companies – killerstartups.com and fuckedstartups.com. KillerStartups.com discusses the companies that are doing well, succeeding even, with their business. FuckedStartups.com discusses those that are in turmoil, slashing large parts of their employees, or closing their doors. While reading through my RSS feeds, I saw the headline “Jumpcut.com is heading to Deadpool”. OK, so they’re closing their doors for business. I wonder how many people knew it was gonna happen? So I’m thinking, what if people could bet which companies were gonna go under and when? wouldnt that be cool?! I’d have to say yes, that would be cool. But I’m biased, since it’s my idea after all. Now I’m not a lawyer, but I’m pretty certain online gambling is illegal in the United States. So no money would change hands. Instead it’s done by points. It would use a weighted point system, to be precise. It’s related to when you cast your vote for a company and when they actally close their doors. the greater the value between the two dates, the more points you get. Basically, it would justify your trash talking to your friends. The other restriction is that you only get a limited number of companies to select. Lets say you had 5 slots. You could remove one of your existing companies to replace it with a different one, or when a company actually does go out of business, a slot becomes available for you. Now, here the question. How many of you would be intersted in this application? The initial application would be pretty simple. As time goes on, i could add more features. If you would like to help out, let me know.

Help Me Name My Company

admin — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 13:57:56 +0000

I’m going to create a company to represent myself as a web developer in the next week or so. In the future, its likely I will have some employees. Because of that, I don’t want the company to be named after me. Besides I’m just not that vain. So I’ve been brainstorming, and I’ve come up with a few names that I like. I’m asking for your help, dear reader, to assist me in creating the best name. In addition if you any suggestions – please tell me. Express what you like or dislike in the comments below.

Biourban (pronounced Bee-YOUR-buhn)
Strummer Studios
Lime Blue Studios
Shank Piston
Mastodon Labs
Amber Chrome

Ok, so here’s my thoughts. I’m thinking the name doesn’t have to be descriptive of my business. A perfect example is Red Hat. The name Red Hat doesn’t infer that they are a Linux Distro. That association has been created by their marketing department. So this naming style opens up possibilities. I basically, am just thinking up words or phrases that sound cool together. I heard from a friend about an idea to name the company what you might name your kid. Full Disclosure: the name “Shank Piston” came from putting my first and last name into the Sarah Palin Baby Name Generator. It’s a silly tool that my twitter friends sent me, but i happen to like the output. Any name that sounds feminine doesn’t fit me. Androgynous names like Terry, Pat, and Jaime have the most flexibility. With that said, this feels like the wrong path One thing I’ve done intentionally is to avoid words that imply technology – systems, design, development, tech, web, net, and synergy. Those aren’t the only words, but they’re the most overused. Another thing I want to avoid is cheap sounding phrases/LOL speak like “websites 4 U”, “U Can Haz Website”, and “The Web R Us” . The message I’m trying to communicate is I want the name to stand out. Thanks in advance. I look forward to hearing your feedback.