Kyle Bragger

fameandfrippery: A little sunflower and celosia bouquet i made...

Sat, 04 Sep 2010 19:51:40 -0400

A little sunflower and celosia bouquet i made today. Sold 20+ of these babies at the farmer’s market today too…that was after all my favorite filler flower salvia was sold out. Possible career switch into floral design? I wish.

…Having dirt under your nails feels oddly satisfying.

Brooke’s great :)

A few random thoughts on building communities

Sat, 04 Sep 2010 16:13:00 -0400

Some learnings I’ve acquired over the past nine months building Forrst, bullet-point style and in no particular order:

Your earliest users are vital to the success of the community. They should be people you absolutely trust and/or know IRL (the first 100 or so users of Forrst were all either friends, current/former co-workers, or close friends of theirs)
Your web app itself is only a means to an end; it helps the community form but it doesn’t define it (Forrst is a pretty simple piece of technology in and of itself)
Be ready to follow the community; that is, the community might end up in a slightly/vastly different place than you intended. That’s okay; embrace it. (Forrst became a place where anyone, no matter what their skill level, can come to get great feedback and get better at what they do. My original goal for Forrst was merely to build something to replace the way I (didn’t) use Twitter and Tumblr to post development-related stuff)
Be active as hell and be human. The community needs to know there’s someone just like them on the other end of the line (I use Forrst every single day and interact as much as I can. I also read and respond to every email I get [though it might take me some time :)]. Forrst never would have grown the way it has if I had just stayed out of sight)
Don’t take things so personally; you’ll inevitably have problematic users from time to time. Be adult and human about it. It’s not your fault. It happens.
Have rules and enforce them. Don’t be afraid of not being a one-size fits all place where anything goes (one of the reasons I personally feel Forrst has been successful thus far is that there are rules about what fits and what doesn’t. It’s helped keep content highly focused and relevant)
Reward users for being awesome (Forrst users get more invites for their friends the more active and engaged they are)
It’s okay to be exclusive (Forrst’s invite-only model definitely has gotten its share of flak for being “elitist” [even though we’re far from it], but it’s also helped keep the number of new users per day down to a very manageable number [updated] This is good because it doesn’t overwhelm the existing community with 100s or 1000s of new users in a short amount of time)
Don’t be afraid to say “no” to features (everyone’s going to want feature X or thing Y in the community, but it’s important to maintain a razor-sharp focus. If it doesn’t make sense to in the big picture, don’t do it).

So there you have it. I’ll try to update this post as I think of more things. Discussion on Hacker News. Feedback is welcome: kyle@[my first and last name].com

heykurt: haddonventures: Here goes nothing! So maybe I...

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 10:57:09 -0400

heykurt:

haddonventures:

Here goes nothing!

So maybe I should explain what I’m doing…

I’ve been working on a little side project lately called...

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 21:38:49 -0400

I’ve been working on a little side project lately called Streak.ly. It’s intended to help you stay on top of things you’d like to do daily. If that sounds interesting to you, why not head on over and snag a spot on the beta list? It’s right this way.

AngelList Scouts - Venture Hacks

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 18:06:03 -0400

AngelList Scouts - Venture Hacks:

caterpillarcowboy:

Posting to let you all know that I am now officially the NY area Scout for AngelList. If you have a startup that you think is ready to be pitched to angel investors, let me know and I’ll do what I can to help.

Welcoming Mike.

Mon, 02 Aug 2010 13:33:19 -0400

forrst:

Forrst has been growing by leaps and bounds since its relaunch at the beginning of May. We recently crossed the 10,000 user mark, more than doubled traffic in July, and the site is bustling with activity — users are more engaged than ever. I’m ecstatic to see developers and designers diving in and helping each other improve their craft. It’s a humbling feeling.

Now that the site is substantially more active than it was a few months ago, it’s getting a bit harder to keep up with support requests, moderation, community questions, and the like; I still try to answer everything, but it’s at the point where I can’t get to things nearly as quickly as I’d like (I’m not ignoring you, I promise!)

To that end, I’m very happy to welcome Mike Evans as the first official Forrst moderator. Anyone who spends more than a few minutes on the site will probably come across Mike. He’s been a big supporter of Forrst since the early days of the site, and I’m excited to be working with him; he’ll be helping me handle moderation of posts and comments, as well as pointing members in the right direction if they’ve got questions about the community.

So, welcome Mike!

startupquote: If a user is having a problem, it’s our...

Sun, 18 Jul 2010 19:28:05 -0400

startupquote:

If a user is having a problem, it’s our problem.

- Steve Jobs

Except when it’s not!

ksheurs: Looking forward to reading this. Me too. Congrats...

Sat, 17 Jul 2010 13:25:06 -0400

ksheurs:

Looking forward to reading this.

Me too. Congrats again, Ted!

staff: Developers: OAuth support For increased security and...

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 10:29:58 -0400

staff:

Developers: OAuth support

For increased security and more resilient third-party apps, we’ve started early testing of OAuth support in the Tumblr API.

We’ve modeled our implementation after Twitter’s in many ways, supporting OAuth 1.0a with optional xAuth, upon request, where it makes sense such as mobile and native applications.

The existing authentication methods in the API are still supported for now, but we encourage developers to migrate to OAuth when possible.

To get started with Tumblr’s OAuth, integrate an OAuth consumer library into your project and get a consumer key by registering your app.

This is still in its early testing stages, so please report any issues. Thanks.

Finally!

Pasquale D'Silva - Animation & Illustration: Designing the Face of Forrst

Sun, 04 Jul 2010 11:21:49 -0400

Pasquale D'Silva - Animation & Illustration: Designing the Face of Forrst:

Before the jabber, a little history:

Long before the opening leg of my tour, my good pal Chris Kalani introduced me to a little project named Forrst. While it was a quickly slapped together prototype, Kyle Bragger was definitely onto something, as people started to chatter about his…

Pasquale D'Silva - Animation & Illustration: The Great Travel Adventure: The Explanation

Thu, 01 Jul 2010 15:41:49 -0400

Pasquale D'Silva - Animation & Illustration: The Great Travel Adventure: The Explanation :

I’m a 21 year old kid who makes art & hang outs with my best friends. I had moved from Australia to Canada in pursuit of a fresh career, (at the time) a specacular lady, and a brand new lifestyle.

All was tremendous in the tucked away land of Canada when I was suddenly hit with some unfortunate…

Pixelvetica - The musings of Carson Kahn: An interview with developer and designer Kyle Bragger

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 10:04:39 -0400

Pixelvetica - The musings of Carson Kahn: An interview with developer and designer Kyle Bragger:

Most recently, developer and designer Kyle Bragger, the genius behind Forrst.com, was kind enough to grant me an interview. As the homepage pronounces, Forrst is a “place for designers and developers to share inspiring code, screenshots, links, and other work with their peers.” What…

I enjoyed doing this interview with one of Forrst’s earlier users.

I have a hard time believing this.

Sun, 20 Jun 2010 12:12:00 -0400

I came across this Techcrunch article last night when a good friend mentioned it on Twitter.

I have a really hard time absorbing this at face value. Here’s the relevant quote from the article: (emphasis mine)

The lower the CEO salary, the more likely it is to succeed. The CEO’s salary sets a cap for everyone else. If it is set at a high level, you end up burning a whole lot more money. It aligns his interest with the equity holders. But [beyond that], it goes to whether the mission of the company is to build something new or just collect paychecks. In practice we have found that if you only ask one question, ask that.

Alright, so if you’re looking to evaluate a startup’s chances of success, just ask them how much the CEO makes. Right.

I respect Peter Thiel, but I just can’t seem to digest this one. Granted, he does also say “…it goes to whether the mission of the company is to build something new or just collect paychecks.”, but it seems like that is, in his mind, secondary to the CEO’s pay rate.

What ever happened to looking at the team, their vision, their track record, how well they’re executing, is the product solid, etc. Do those things matter when trying to predict the success (or not) of a young company? I guess not. I do believe that CEOs of early stage companies should not be taking gargantuan salaries, but to say that that should be the only factor when evaluating a startup’s chances of success, well, I just can’t stomach that one.

Amusing, too, that Techcrunch goes on to say:

In Startupland, everybody should be working towards the same goal: that big juicy exit.

This could easily become another post unto itself, but what kind of mentality is that? What about building something that positively impacts people’s lives? Building something game-changing? Building a thriving business that generates — gasp — actual profit? Nah, just keep pushing for that exit, because that’s all that really matters.

Come on.

ReadWriteWeb: Forrst: Stack Overflow Meets Tumblr

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 08:29:29 -0400

ReadWriteWeb: Forrst: Stack Overflow Meets Tumblr:

forrst:

We’re honored!

Into The Forrst: Announcing a new feature on Forrst: Public Posts

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 14:52:05 -0400

Into The Forrst: Announcing a new feature on Forrst: Public Posts:

I’m excited to announce a new Forrst feature rolling out today: Public Posts. In the past, all posts on Forrst were visible only to existing, logged-in members. Starting today, you’ll be able to selectively make your posts public with a new option on the new and edit post screens.

Public…

I’m really excited about this.

Awesome.

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 15:21:51 -0400

Awesome.

Course Catalog: Masters Degree in Internet Entrepreneurship

Wed, 09 Jun 2010 16:53:17 -0400

innonate:

So epic. Godspeed.

jschwa:

Every year I set out searching for a graduate degree suited to my career in the Internet industry. I am looking for a combination of computer science classes in web development, design courses that focus on UI, and business courses that teach Internet entrepreneurship.

Disappointed by what universities are offering, I created my own course catalog. It is aimed at entrepreneurial, non-developer, technology professionals that work in the Internet field. There is a strong core of development courses, but they are designed for someone to understand web development as opposed to training students to be developers. I hope to see something like this offered soon.

Please comment if you think a course is missing or disagree with my choices.

Semester 1

Introduction to Programming
An overview of programming that touches on PHP, Python, Ruby, Java, and Objective-C.

Internet Activity Theory and Psychology
What causes users to do the things they do? This will be an in depth look at the psychology of an Internet user.

Ideation for Web Startups
Students will learn the process of brainstorming and picking apart business ideas. They will learn to spot indicators that an idea will work or not, and how to go about testing a thesis before heavy development begins.

Equity Financing
An in-depth course on equity financing where students and will learn about step of the fund raising process with mock simulations at each stage.

Semester 2

Pick 1

   Development in PHP
   Learn the CakePHP framework and in depth development in PHP.

   Development in Python
   Learn the Django framework and in depth development in Python.

   Development in Ruby
   Learn the Rails framework and in depth development in Ruby.

   Development in Objective-C
   Learn the iPhone SDK and in depth development in Objective-C.

   Development in Java
   Learn the Android SDK and in depth development in Java.

Frontend Development in Html5/CSS/Javascript
Students will learn to create frontend interfaces and clickable prototypes.

User Experience and User Interface Design
Students will learn the fundamentals of usability, and how to design interaction and user interfaces.

Business Modeling and Current Events
A case-study driven course will break down successful web companies and their business models. Emerging models will be discussed and students will brainstorm their own. Current events in the tech world will be closely monitored and discussed. STUDENTS WILL NOT BE ASKED TO WRITE A TRADITONAL BUSINESS PLAN.

Semester 3

Launch an App Part 1
Students will work with pairs to develop their own app. In Part 1 users will finish the semester with high-fidelity wireframes, a clickable prototype, and detailed tasks broken down for development. In Part 2 students will begin heavy development.

Scalability
This course will focus on choosing the right set of tools. It will cover languages, hosting environments (Cloud vs Dedicated Hosting), and databases (SQL vs NoSql)

Product Management
In this course students will learn to create a product roadmap. They will learn skills to conduct thorough requirements gathering and user testing. Finally they will learn to break down features into tasks for developers.

Agile Project Management
Students will learn the agile project management methodology and will take part in multiple simulations.

Semester 4

Launch an App Part II
Students will continue their work from Part I and begin development of their application.   Professors will be available throughout the process for programming help. Students will end the semester with the launch of their application.

Analytics and Performance Tracking
Students will become experts at setting up, managing, and gaining insight into analytics.

Startup Operations
Co-founders, hiring, compensation plans, benefits, management skills, company culture, and office space are all issues that entrepreneurs need to deal with. While these are common to most businesses, startup operations requires a unique touch to create fast moving and innovative environments for your employees.

Internet Marketing and PR
Students will learn to conduct marketing and PR for their startup. SEO, SEM, ad-buys, blog PR, and traditional media PR will be covered. Marketing through your website, building a brand, community management and customer service will also be part of this course.

Also, sorry for the double reblog, but I think there needs to be a strong emphasis on always making shit. Always back up what is taught and learned with hands-on, tangible stuff. Always. Let’s breed a generation of doers vs. talking-about-doing-stuff’ers.

Course Catalog: Masters Degree in Internet Entrepreneurship

Wed, 09 Jun 2010 16:46:29 -0400

innonate:

So epic. Godspeed.

jschwa:

Every year I set out searching for a graduate degree suited to my career in the Internet industry. I am looking for a combination of computer science classes in web development, design courses that focus on UI, and business courses that teach Internet entrepreneurship.

Disappointed by what universities are offering, I created my own course catalog. It is aimed at entrepreneurial, non-developer, technology professionals that work in the Internet field. There is a strong core of development courses, but they are designed for someone to understand web development as opposed to training students to be developers. I hope to see something like this offered soon.

Please comment if you think a course is missing or disagree with my choices.

Semester 1

Introduction to Programming
An overview of programming that touches on PHP, Python, Ruby, Java, and Objective-C.

Internet Activity Theory and Psychology
What causes users to do the things they do? This will be an in depth look at the psychology of an Internet user.

Ideation for Web Startups
Students will learn the process of brainstorming and picking apart business ideas. They will learn to spot indicators that an idea will work or not, and how to go about testing a thesis before heavy development begins.

Equity Financing
An in-depth course on equity financing where students and will learn about step of the fund raising process with mock simulations at each stage.

Semester 2

Pick 1

   Development in PHP
   Learn the CakePHP framework and in depth development in PHP.

   Development in Python
   Learn the Django framework and in depth development in Python.

   Development in Ruby
   Learn the Rails framework and in depth development in Ruby.

   Development in Objective-C
   Learn the iPhone SDK and in depth development in Objective-C.

   Development in Java
   Learn the Android SDK and in depth development in Java.

Frontend Development in Html5/CSS/Javascript
Students will learn to create frontend interfaces and clickable prototypes.

User Experience and User Interface Design
Students will learn the fundamentals of usability, and how to design interaction and user interfaces.

Business Modeling and Current Events
A case-study driven course will break down successful web companies and their business models. Emerging models will be discussed and students will brainstorm their own. Current events in the tech world will be closely monitored and discussed. STUDENTS WILL NOT BE ASKED TO WRITE A TRADITONAL BUSINESS PLAN.

Semester 3

Launch an App Part 1
Students will work with pairs to develop their own app. In Part 1 users will finish the semester with high-fidelity wireframes, a clickable prototype, and detailed tasks broken down for development. In Part 2 students will begin heavy development.

Scalability
This course will focus on choosing the right set of tools. It will cover languages, hosting environments (Cloud vs Dedicated Hosting), and databases (SQL vs NoSql)

Product Management
In this course students will learn to create a product roadmap. They will learn skills to conduct thorough requirements gathering and user testing. Finally they will learn to break down features into tasks for developers.

Agile Project Management
Students will learn the agile project management methodology and will take part in multiple simulations.

Semester 4

Launch an App Part II
Students will continue their work from Part I and begin development of their application.   Professors will be available throughout the process for programming help. Students will end the semester with the launch of their application.

Analytics and Performance Tracking
Students will become experts at setting up, managing, and gaining insight into analytics.

Startup Operations
Co-founders, hiring, compensation plans, benefits, management skills, company culture, and office space are all issues that entrepreneurs need to deal with. While these are common to most businesses, startup operations requires a unique touch to create fast moving and innovative environments for your employees.

Internet Marketing and PR
Students will learn to conduct marketing and PR for their startup. SEO, SEM, ad-buys, blog PR, and traditional media PR will be covered. Marketing through your website, building a brand, community management and customer service will also be part of this course.

It should also require each class to be taught by someone with extensive, hands-on experience and a proven track record in that field.

I just published my second email newsletter - the "Starving" startup

Sat, 29 May 2010 19:20:45 -0400

I just published my second email newsletter - the "Starving" startup:

caterpillarcowboy:

This one is about the “Starving Startup” and how, with all the talk of “Lean” vs. “Fat” startups, too many entrepreneurs are taking too little money. Click the link above to sign up for future posts.

brndnblog: I Code in Tables chrisbowler: Christian Ross has a confession: he codes in...

Sat, 29 May 2010 17:11:07 -0400

brndnblog:

I Code in Tables

chrisbowler:

Christian Ross has a confession: he codes in tables.

First off, let’s get this out of the way, clients don’t care. If it shows up well on their screen and is close in all of the major browsers, they’re happy. It doesn’t matter to them if their site can pass the W3C Validator.

Of course, not always. Only if the circumstances dictate that this is the best approach for his clients.

And yet, he’s worried that including this work in his portfolio has potentially lost him some work. One only has to look at the excellent design of his personal site to know that he has talent. If that is the case, I’d say he’s better off not having got the jobs — an employer that is not willing to dig a little probably would not be all that enjoyable to work for.

Reblogged, because it is quite an interesting and well-written article. I don’t know that I can bring myself to fully agree, but bills have to be paid. If clients approve and the site looks okay in most or all browsers, maybe there’s a particular subset of clients for which you can develop table-based websites.

Very interesting. While I tend to stay away from tables unless I’m dealing in tabular data, it was funny that more than a few people took issue with Forrst’s homepage using a table for the application form. It’s okay to not stick to the rules 100% of the time. I promise.