Category Business

Entries 12 Total

For 2012

Dec 31, ’11 3:14 PM

Although I find it hypocrite, meaning that the other 364 days in a year are just as important as 31 december, here are my goals for 2012.

Please, keep me to it.

  • Worrying less about worrying. It’ll be fine, even if I don’t worry. If things won’t be fine, it probably isn’t that bad and if it is, I’ll manage. Things will be great and I’ll get my chances.
  • Grow further, develop myself further.
  • Expand my venture, Sporous, to an annual volume of 50 grand.
  • Visit New York (again) and Tokio.
  • Stay happy.

All the best for 2012. It’ll be great.

(I forgot: graduate!)

Sporous features layered ideation

Dec 4, ’11 6:28 PM

What use is there to an app for ideation, if it doesn’t allow filtering?

Sporous app icon

Nov 22, ’11 5:48 PM

What do you think of the new Sporous app icon?

Bacon

Oct 19, ’11 6:18 PM

Sporous.com

Sep 30, ’11 8:43 AM

I just bought sporous.com via Stylate! Stylate is a branded domain name service, which sells domains with a branded logo for just $ 250. Terrific service! And now I have a non-word single-word double-syllable domain name, which relates to “spores” and “routes of thinking”, for my graduation startup app.

I can highly recommend Stylate. They have a varied number of cool domain names, perfectly suitable for any startup or project. Just for $ 250 – a good domain name somewhere else can cost you thousands of dollars. The process is very easy: buy the domain, wait a few hours, transfer it through GoDaddy and receive the logo (vector) via e-mail.

There’s one tiny catch though. Stylate insists on tranferring via GoDaddy, which means GoDaddy freezes the domain for 60 days upon accepting the transfer from Stylates account to yours. Clever GoDaddy, because they get to bill for parking or forwarding – but you can always change the nameservers into something more of your liking.

Brilliant idea

Sep 26, ’11 9:26 PM

Concept: how to keep ideas alive

Sep 13, ’11 10:57 AM

Are you a creative professional?

Sep 12, ’11 1:40 PM

At this very moment I’m trying to take over the world with yet another app. It’s not going very well, so I need your help.

Are you in the possession of a creative attitude, sunny disposition* and is your mind always crowded with new out-of-the-box ideas? In that case, you’ll most likely are a “creative professional” (or should be). I need your help!

I’m developing an application for the iPhone, which will enable its users to store and retrieve ideas. In order to make it as good as possible, I need insights in its going-to-be userbase and market. Could you help me with that by filling out the survey? There’s a Dutch and an English version. Thanks a bunch!


I’ve tried and it’s possible to fill out all fields in 23 seconds. So it shouldn’t take too long to complete the survey ;-) .

*) All creative people I know are either funny, kind, or both.

More books

Sep 7, ’11 2:11 PM

I learn a lot from reading books. Whether it is skill, insight or actual knowledge – books are solid. Perhaps this is a new series: more books! Please read which books I bought (and why), read and how I feel about them.

Don’t waste your time reading snack-like short “informational” stories on the interwebs; read a good book.

Don’t Make Me Think, Steve Krug
I read a certain chapter of this book a few years ago, about usability testing. A very hands-on approach, which basically led me through the steps of testing a website with real persons. A must-have for any interaction designer. Don’t ask why I bought this just now – I know I had to buy it rightaway.

The Investor’s Manifesto, William J. Bernstein
Got this from Derek Siver’s list of favourite books. I asked him on Twitter which one I should buy, he responded: “Pick the one that resonates.” Quite cryptic answer, but I figured to buy the one that was still in my mind after I closed the page. I’m not into investing or stock trading yet, but I will be.  I perceived the book (the image of the front) as being authoritative, also coming from Sivers, and therefore decided to buy it with the expectation of a solid insight in modern investing.

Long Tail, Chris Anderson
I made numerous “Load more tweets” request on Twitter until I found the reply of a friend, who recommended this book. This is a real random thing, I have no idea what to expect. Sometimes, it’s cool to put a random prime number in a learning algorithm – also for humans.

The Personal MBA, Josh Kaufman
Also recommended by Sivers (scored 10/10). I’ve been looking for a good book on business education and development, and I thought this might be it. Very curious for this one in particular.

Anything You Want, Derek Sivers
I’m mentioned in this book, for proofreading it. Already read it twice and gave Derek Sivers feedback on a few issues. But hey, gotta have it.

Business Model Generation, Alexander Ostenwalder
Recommended by my graduation project business coach. It’s how he works and he expects me to make a business model canvas. Borrowing it from the library sucks, so I bought it rightaway. Curious for this one too, the canvas thing looks promising.

If it’s worth my while, reviews are coming up when I’ve finished reading.

I seriously love affiliate programs, but not on my personal site. Therefore, not even links to the books. You’re not stupid, just Google the titles and authors.

“Hello World”, Interactionauts is graduating

Sep 5, ’11 12:35 PM

A few months ago the director of UtrechtInc, who was reviewing my graduation proposal, asked me: “Why do you want to do this? It’s a good thing to write down your motivation.”

I’ve never been more motivated to do something. In the past four years I’ve studied Mediatechnology, studying and experiencing new media engineering and design. Before the summer break I’ve been busy with improving my interface design skills, by building the NOOT GUI. As explained during my talk for Design By Fire Café, during the process of designing the interface I realized it would be a nice business venture to expand my prototype into a product. Since the next phase of my professional education will be graduating, I wrote a proposal to graduate self-employed building a new application for mobile phones.

The app I’ll be building will be able to store ideas. Think of photo’s, tags, soundbites etc. combined into a little package. The focus of the app is to keep those ideas alive, by letting them return in your mind. Say bye-bye to the endless stream of bookmarks you don’t read.

That’s not it. Because that’s content, still no motivation. Then I realized, considering what I like most, that “this is it.” It’s the final project to show the world what I’m capable of. My own personal launch pad. If this is what I want to do the rest of my life, it better be a terrific start.

Therefore, “Hello World.” Not only because it’s a first, perhaps even more because it’s a hello – hello world, this is who I am and this is what I do.