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Ask HN: Best business advice for software developers

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Re: Ask HN: Best business advice for software developers

#61

Post by afshinmeh »

jargnar wrote: post #20

It's a skill that can be learned like every other skill. You can take the "in 21 days" route or the MOOC / University course route, or constantly read business articles, Steve Jobs videos, etc. But some top tips stand out for me over time: * Talking to people, networking > Not talking to people * Bug free > Elegant code * UX > UI * Simple products that do one thing well > Complex products * Understanding entire marke…

Nice, but I'm not entirely sure about this one:

> * Sleep, exercise & healthy food > late night coding

Looks like it's against other points. I have a full-time job and I'd like to create a brand, too. Thus. I have to do late night coding.

Re: Ask HN: Best business advice for software developers

#63

Post by throwaway2016a »

jargnar wrote: post #20

It's a skill that can be learned like every other skill. You can take the "in 21 days" route or the MOOC / University course route, or constantly read business articles, Steve Jobs videos, etc. But some top tips stand out for me over time: * Talking to people, networking > Not talking to people * Bug free > Elegant code * UX > UI * Simple products that do one thing well > Complex products * Understanding entire marke…

Good advice. Some of these (most?) apply to the business-side founder types as well:

> Simple products that do one thing well > Complex products

It has been my experience that business people constantly make this mistake. They feel a product has to satisfy all needs. The engineers I have met have consistently argued to remove features that are expensive to develop and add little value.

Both of those are anecdotes. Your milage may vary.

Re: Ask HN: Best business advice for software developers

#64

Post by throwaway2016a »

accountyaccount wrote: post #50
jargnar wrote: post #20

It's a skill that can be learned like every other skill. You can take the "in 21 days" route or the MOOC / University course route, or constantly read business articles, Steve Jobs videos, etc. But some top tips stand out for me over time: * Talking to people, networking > Not talking to people * Bug free > Elegant code * UX > UI * Simple products that do one thing well > Complex products * Understanding entire marke…

I get some of these, but "don't procrastinate" and "understand the entire market" are kind of ridiculous. You might as well throw "know everything" and "work hard" in there.

Also, make sure not to confuse understanding your customers with understanding how the industry works.

Some of the craziest and successful startup ideas come from people who don't understand the industry at all and if they had they probably would have never tried to do what they did.

Re: Ask HN: Best business advice for software developers

#65

Post by 8draco8 »

afshinmeh wrote: post #61
jargnar wrote: post #20

It's a skill that can be learned like every other skill. You can take the "in 21 days" route or the MOOC / University course route, or constantly read business articles, Steve Jobs videos, etc. But some top tips stand out for me over time: * Talking to people, networking > Not talking to people * Bug free > Elegant code * UX > UI * Simple products that do one thing well > Complex products * Understanding entire marke…

Nice, but I'm not entirely sure about this one: > * Sleep, exercise & healthy food > late night coding Looks like it's against other points. I have a full-time job and I'd like to create a brand, too. Thus. I have to do late night coding.

No you are wrong. In order to get there (build successful brand) you have to take care of your self. With coding marathons, buckets of coffee and fast food (because "I don't have time to cook") you will end up with heart attack before you achieve what you planned.

Re: Ask HN: Best business advice for software developers

#66

Post by codebeaker »

1ba9115454 wrote: post #8

Marketing. A developer with marketing skills can build products and achieve revenues far in excess of their skill set.

I can't speak highly enough about http://tractionbook.com/ which I recently came into - it has pragmatic advice on marketing approaches and systems justifying with real data how and why to do what.

It's co-written by the DuckDuckGo founder, and as an engineer who is thoroughly tired of marketing "hackers" who justify expensive campaigns with hand-wavy nonsense, this book changed the way I view marketing in general.

Re: Ask HN: Best business advice for software developers

#68

Post by sealthedeal »

afshinmeh wrote: post #61
jargnar wrote: post #20

It's a skill that can be learned like every other skill. You can take the "in 21 days" route or the MOOC / University course route, or constantly read business articles, Steve Jobs videos, etc. But some top tips stand out for me over time: * Talking to people, networking > Not talking to people * Bug free > Elegant code * UX > UI * Simple products that do one thing well > Complex products * Understanding entire marke…

Nice, but I'm not entirely sure about this one: > * Sleep, exercise & healthy food > late night coding Looks like it's against other points. I have a full-time job and I'd like to create a brand, too. Thus. I have to do late night coding.

getting 3 solid hours of working on your brand a day is much better than 7 bad ones late at night. Wake up earlier, work at lunch, work immediately when you get home. Late nights are not always necessary.

Re: Ask HN: Best business advice for software developers

#69

Post by chrisco255 »

pavlov wrote: post #14

The best advice I've had (and seen applied in practice) is this: You need to get your company to 10k USD monthly product revenue within three months. If you can't, either the product, target market or team needs to be revised drastically. It's hard advice to follow, but it will save you a lot of time because you can't wait months and years doing unessential tweaks to the product and marketing, hoping that sales mirac…

I think this is a rough rule of thumb, obviously there's nothing magical about the $10K figure, but it does get you thinking in the right direction.

Re: Ask HN: Best business advice for software developers

#70

Post by taiwan_on »

mmcconnell1618 wrote: post #21

1) Figure out who you are selling to and what problem you're solving for them BEFORE you build something. It's very easy to fall into a routine of building the best software ever while forgetting you need someone to buy it. 2) Banks will loan you money when you don't need it and won't loan money when you do need it. Apply for a loan or line of credit when you're flush with cash in case of a rainy day. 3) Running a bu…

I wholeheartedly agree with 10.
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