Comments for Climbing Mount Improbable

Comment on 2 things every good startup needs by Prashant Singh

Prashant Singh — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 12:19:29 +0000

Nice article . One problem/ side effect of saying No to good ideas is that it sometime put a question mark on the sense of employ ownership which founders oversell at the time of hiring . As someone who has worked in 4 startups i can say that Very few founders can relent the control when it comes to critical ,strategic decision . which is understandable as often time for founders , part motivation of starting up is to have freedom to do things *their* way .commit their own mistakes . No black and white solution to this problem i guess .

Comment on In search of a decent Jira app on iPhone by Ali Ozgur

Ali Ozgur — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 10:55:25 +0000

Please check out the fresh JiraTouch IPhone application. JiraTouhc provides full set of Jira functionality on Iphone.

Comment on 30 days challenge by Vikas Malhotra

Vikas Malhotra — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 21:36:47 +0000

I would align the 30 days challenge with what i really want to do… I personally liked the “1 picture a day” challenge — can surely bring out the creative side

Comment on add delegated tasks from entourage to "Waiting" context in OmniFocus by Adam Cohen

Adam Cohen — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 20:08:44 +0000

I have another “send to Omnifocus” script that both copies the text of the original message (as your script does) and also embeds a link in the Omnifocus item notes to the original message in Entourage, which makes followup extremely easy. Do you know how to add the linkback to your script as well?

Thanks,

Adam

Comment on this weekend’s reading: google search engine optimization starter guide by SEO

SEO — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 15:36:04 +0000

It looks you believe that you have found the recipe of SEO success formula pretty fast.

Don’t you think Google giving SEO starter guide is like a mouse teaching a cat on how to catch him?

My sincere advice : Go into the history, read more Tarun. Look at the time when Google was saying “There is no need of SEO” few years back. Sometime later they had to accept the reality and came up with Guidelines on how to choose Good SEO agency or consultants. and finally this guide. Hence know that SEO is harder for even Google to break, so follow the Gurus – Never question their knowledge or think you got or know everything within few weeks…

Deep thinking needed Tarun, wakeup!

Comment on weekend “reading”: amazon design philosophy by Jared M. Spool

Jared M. Spool — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 14:04:02 +0000

Hi Tarun,

I’m glad you liked the presentation. I think you’ve got the right definition of design there.

Thanks for encouraging my behavior.

Jared

Comment on Business plan template for your Series A presentation by Manoj Agarwala

Manoj Agarwala — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 01:19:15 +0000

I agree with Tarun for the most part. I would like to add the following:
- Don’t invent the business model. There are plenty of successful business models out there, just copy the business model from a successful business
- Make sure your assumptions are defensible and reasonable. Offer examples (make sure these examples are not ones in lifetime successes like Google) of other companies that have achieved your assumed numbers.

If you are planning to raise venture capital, the book “The Art of the Start” is quite helpful.

Comment on In search of a decent Jira app on iPhone by 5 iphone apps you need to run a startup | Climbing Mount Improbable

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 04:13:47 +0000

[...] JiraMate – I need an app for my Jira. Unfortuately, this is not a good choice today. I have blogged about lack of a good Jira app on iPhone. [...]

Comment on 2 things every good startup needs by tarun

tarun — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:53:05 +0000

Anne,

On your USP, I would suggest some changes. If I can be honest with you, I think “completely effortless” is untrue. No activity in this universe is “completely effortless”.

I would change it to something like: “Easiest way to track time on windows”. Of course, assuming it is THE easiest way to track time for everyone on windows. If its not the easiest way for everyone, then figure out the market segment (or activity) for which it is the easiest and add that to your USP.

The point is: USP is not for others, its for us – the product managers. USP reminds us what features we DONT have to implement !!

Comment on 2 things every good startup needs by tarun

tarun — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:45:21 +0000

Anne,

You said it very succinctly. Keeping the team productive while you say no to their well-intentioned ideas is one of the hardest part of the job.

Thanks for pitching in.

Tarun

Comment on 2 things every good startup needs by Anne

Anne — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:08:11 +0000

As a startup founder myself, I tend to agree with you. The hard thing is to reward your team’s creativity and keep them motivated, whilst at the same time keeping them focused on revenue generating features.

It’s even harder in the early days when you are involved in the technical development too (my current stage). Then you have to say “no” to yourself, which is, unfortunately, a lot harder than saying no to other people

Anne Currie
http://www.workingprogram.com
“Completely effortless time tracking for Windows” (is that a good enough USP??)

Comment on Why web designers are over-rated by Avinash

Avinash — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 01:51:24 +0000

There is a great deal of focus on Usability practices b4 actually getting to UXD these days. It is always when users give live feedback more iterations happen which is natural as no survey from the every start can predict everything although it does minimize the damage. Most of the web 2.0 start ups are low on funds to apply Usability and UXD from the very start and thus have to fall back later to re-design things although ROI is known to these blokes if usabiity is done from the very start but I guess most of these small ideas die under the pressure of getting some revenue or to attract some funding with a decent user base with the help of a cool shick designer and the functional flows are overlooked there.

Comment on Building better health insurance plans by socialmaker

socialmaker — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 20:00:32 +0000

I think people need a more personal approach when it comes to doctors. I know i have a doctor which takes care of my problems and he is so nice. He always knows me by name, he's friendly and i gladly attent every meeting.

Comment on The 1 book you should read about money by Tarun Upa

Tarun Upa — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 19:36:33 +0000

Thanks man, let me know how you like it.

Comment on Best cashback credit cards in US by Tarun Upa

Tarun Upa — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 19:32:50 +0000

Tyrone,

I do not know how you reached that conclusion.

Facts to consider:

# The Pentagon Federal Credit Union Card is not available to most people
#The website (https://www.penfed.org/productsAndRates/creditC...) shows that the card offers only 1.25% cashback on most transactions.
#They deploy the popular gimmick of offering higher cashback on gas and grocery but one must carefully consider what percentage of your monthly expense are those transactions.

Comment on The 1 book you should read about money by Rajeev Singh

Rajeev Singh — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 00:22:50 +0000

Thanks Tarun, I just picked up “The Total Money Makeover”.

Comment on Best cashback credit cards in US by tyrone

tyrone — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 02:02:08 +0000

The best cash back Credit card currently offered is through Pentagon Federal Credit Union.

Comment on add delegated tasks from entourage to "Waiting" context in OmniFocus by gabriel

gabriel — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 12:50:48 +0000

Hi, the entourage rule link image is not working, and links update either.

Regards,

Comment on add delegated tasks from entourage to "Waiting" context in OmniFocus by tarun101

tarun101 — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 05:13:32 +0000

Dean, Thanks for pointing out the error. I have updated the URL for the image and it is now available at:

http://bit.ly/164bu7.

I have also updated the post above.

Comment on add delegated tasks from entourage to "Waiting" context in OmniFocus by Dean McGrath

Dean McGrath — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 14:30:12 +0000

This link no longer works:
http://bp2.blogger.com/_2S7lk_3j72E/SJNodcbsOpI/AAAAAAAAAaE/uBrHnTz4GMQ/s1600-h/GTD.png
Can you point me to the right link as I would love to get this working in Entourage.

Thanks very much

Comment on A purchase list for a corporate executive / manager to move from Windows to Mac by 10 iPhone apps for business users « Climbing Mount Improbable - Tarun Upadhyay’s Home on Web

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 16:50:31 +0000

[...] Posted in Uncategorized by tarun101 on March 27th, 2009 If you liked my article on the purchase list for moving from windows to mac – you might want to follow it up with a list of business apps that you can use on your iphone to [...]

Comment on Transferring iTunes libarary from PC to Mac by Getting office work done on Mac « Climbing Mount Improbable - Tarun Upadhyay’s Home on Web

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 20:34:11 +0000

[...] Moving iTunes libarary from PC to Mac Tagged with: mac, omnifocus, entourage, gtd, evernote, iphone, entourae, office, parallels « Lyrics and Translation of Jai Ho !! [...]