Looking Back on Selling Gravatar to Automattic
tom.preston-werner.com
Looking Back on Selling Gravatar to Automattic
1–10 of 27 posts
Re: Looking Back on Selling Gravatar to Automattic
#2I'm so glad Tom shared this. I've always wondered how Gravatar got started, grew, and ended up being bought by Automattic.
N.B. As many people here know, Tom is one of the GitHub founders. And yes, GitHub uses Gravatars.
Re: Looking Back on Selling Gravatar to Automattic
#3The next time someone bitches to me about scaling, I'm going to point them to this article. It's a perfect example of why designing to scale from the beginning is usually bullshit.
It's only worth scaling once you know you have something worth it. Why design all sorts of crazy cache schemes, redundant load balancers, and master-slave databases when your actual product is crap? All you end up doing is slowing yourself down. Get some validation first that anyone is going to swallow your idea.
Sure, he had some late nights and some angry emails, but that's because he was dealing with the growing pains of being a success. Better that than the loneliness and depression of working endlessly and never getting anything out the door.
Re: Looking Back on Selling Gravatar to Automattic
#4Excellent post. Thanks for sharing.
Re: Looking Back on Selling Gravatar to Automattic
#5Tom,
I hope you continue writing posts like this. For an aspiring entrepreneur, it's inspiring to hear the stories from people who have taken the risks.
By the way, we worked in the same company before in San Diego. I was miserable so I just quit and moved to the Bay area.
Re: Looking Back on Selling Gravatar to Automattic
#6Tom, I hope you continue writing posts like this. For an aspiring entrepreneur, it's inspiring to hear the stories from people who have taken the risks. By the way, we worked in the same company before in San Diego. I was miserable so I just quit and moved to the Bay area.
I'm really glad you enjoyed it! Were you at Active? I'll write a post later on about how I ended up moving to SF. Good call on the move, this area is amazing.
Re: Looking Back on Selling Gravatar to Automattic
#7I would imagine this success made walking away from that other success (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=338286) easier. And, of course, GitHub is proving an even greater success.
Your story, once written, will be one of a man fighting tooth and nail with success coming from all directions.
Re: Looking Back on Selling Gravatar to Automattic
#8The next time someone bitches to me about scaling, I'm going to point them to this article. It's a perfect example of why designing to scale from the beginning is usually bullshit. It's only worth scaling once you know you have something worth it. Why design all sorts of crazy cache schemes, redundant load balancers, and master-slave databases when your actual product is crap? All you end up doing is slowing yourself…
I've found that it's best to find some sort of sweet spot. Not so simple that later scaling requires a huge rewrite, but not so complex that you're spending valuable time up front to scale something that may never need it. I now try to code the first version as a simple version of the later version. Think ahead, but build for the present.
Re: Looking Back on Selling Gravatar to Automattic
#9Cool. I guess it's a 'make something people want' story: it's one of those things that I look at and say "boring", but people wanted it, so it was successful.
Re: Looking Back on Selling Gravatar to Automattic
#10The next time someone bitches to me about scaling, I'm going to point them to this article. It's a perfect example of why designing to scale from the beginning is usually bullshit. It's only worth scaling once you know you have something worth it. Why design all sorts of crazy cache schemes, redundant load balancers, and master-slave databases when your actual product is crap? All you end up doing is slowing yourself…
They aren't mutually exclusive. A good, simple design will allow you to move faster and scale better.