Comments on: Friday Q & A: When Should You Start Blogging, How to Hire Your First Programmer, Common Traits of Successful Blog Posts and How to Win $500

By: Miguel Félix

Miguel Félix — Thu, 05 Nov 2020 11:56:44 +0000

Hi Alex, this is a great piece of content with valuable insights. In our experience, hiring developers is challenging – especially when trying to balance a team dynamic (something my co-founder talks about here: https://altar.io/looking-developers-10-developer-archetypes-youre-likely-encounter/).
And yes, you’re right – hiring developers on a project basis gives you the flexibility to build and iterate your product without committing a large portion of your budget.

By: Elisa Grace

Elisa Grace — Fri, 08 Jan 2016 04:57:33 +0000

Great post about blogging and hiring programmer’s. I am planning to develop a new website for my online business. For this, I’m looking to hire a developer and the information, you provide is very helpful for me. Thanks a lot for the post.

By: Nick from SketchTogether

Nick from SketchTogether — Thu, 03 Sep 2015 05:12:40 +0000

Alex, I wanted to say that your posts about blogging are inspiring. We’re taking this approach of sharing our own experiences so that hopefully they could help someone else. Your unusually detailed guides (google doc links and all) and follow up posts like this one are a huge help!

By: Szymon Ozimek

Szymon Ozimek — Thu, 27 Aug 2015 14:39:40 +0000

Is going to trade conferences/summits etc. worth it (exposure, leads) or is it just a waste of time?

By: J.C. Hiatt

J.C. Hiatt — Wed, 26 Aug 2015 16:41:17 +0000

Am I a weak CEO if the idea of firing someone weighs heavy on my conscience?

By: Tiago Buhr

Tiago Buhr — Wed, 26 Aug 2015 16:12:18 +0000

Hello Alex,

If you were to start this company from 0 again, could you share 5-10 steps in which you would move to get going? I think sometimes it’s hard to know what to focus on.

For example:

1. Do customer development first
2. Hire an engineer and start building a prototype
3. Email clients every day to get pre-launch signups

and it goes.

By the way, thanks so much for the blog! You were an inspiration to starting mine and we’ve already gotten very good response from it!

P.S.: A tip. Disqus is not the best comment system. It’s too much of a hassle to sign in as a guest. I think maybe a simple comment system with only Name and Email as required fields would attract many more comments.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Wed, 26 Aug 2015 14:09:52 +0000

Alex, good stuff. I just signed up for your email list and I look forward to following your fault posts. Thanks!

By: mario ferenac

mario ferenac — Wed, 26 Aug 2015 09:35:42 +0000

Inspiring article as always but prepare now as I have few “tough” questions for you.
1.How tough was to start a tech company for a non-tech guy?
2.When you decided to start Groove were you driven by possibility to become rich or you wanted to make our lives easier,honest answer please cause I don’t believe that just everyone start their own businesses just for passion and yet we have been bombarded by these type of articles and stories?
3.Ever thought of making a localized version of Groove so that you could reach even those who don’t speak english very well or who don’t understand it at all?

That’s about it from me,for now :)Thanks!

By: Wasswa Samuel

Wasswa Samuel — Wed, 26 Aug 2015 05:00:32 +0000

Hello Alex, In the cut throat world of Saas startups most of the businesses have several competitors. How do you treat competition? Do you look at the new features they roll out and start thinking that you also need to pump out that feature. How often do you take at look at them? I know they say ignore the competition or don’t play catch up but these guys are always there in your face. Am interested in your thought process and how you compete with someone who is doing the same exact thing and is sometimes better funded or bigger than you.

By: disqus_pw8D1qeiPW

disqus_pw8D1qeiPW — Tue, 25 Aug 2015 18:34:37 +0000

Always a fan of your posts. How do you manage your employees that haven’t come on full-time yet on Slack? Additionally, how do you make them feel part of the team, while not setting an unrealistic expectation that they need to be “always on” even though they are considered part-time or hourly?

By: Sébastien Tromp

Sébastien Tromp — Tue, 25 Aug 2015 06:48:10 +0000

Thanks for the answer Alex!
My question this week is: if you were to start again from scratch, what would be the outline of your plan / strategy?
Cheers 🙂