San on Startups |
Founder/CEO of ShowMe. Help organizeColumbia Venture Community and NYC Lean Startup Meetup. |
I got an email today from a CU student named Jan, and I thought it would be helpful to post my answer since I get this question a lot. Below is my reply, below that is the original email.
If anyone has additional suggestions for Jan, please leave comments and I’ll edit.
Update: I forgot to mention Hacker Hours, “Office hours for programming help,” which was started by the awesome @aidanfeldman. Check it out: http://www.jux.com/surround/global/users/~aidan/quarks/~www45
Hey Jan,
Great to hear you’re proactive with learning this stuff; it is invaluable for sure, and college is the perfect time to develop these skills.
Coding is broken up into to general areas: 1) front-end and 2) back-end.
- Front-end code is what you see when you visit a website - how the page is laid out, the font sizes, colors, backgrounds, signup forms, etc. Front-end code is done with HTML and CSS.
- Back-end code is the stuff behind the scenes - taking the login information you enter and put it into the database, displaying dynamic content like personalized recommendations, local content, etc. There are many web programming languages/frameworks that address this, but Ruby and Rails and PHP seem to be the most popular these days.
If you want to be self-contained as a programmer, you should try to do both. Only knowing front-end means you’ll have to work with an actual programmer to make the site work. Knowing both means you can take your idea and develop a proof-of-concept that works, and can put in front of actual users to validate your idea. This is especially powerful, because the faster you can test your ideas, the better your chances you’ll find one that works.
Front-end coding is much easier to learn though, and if you do know other programmers you can split the work for a project cleanly. Incidentally this is what I do at ShowMe; my partner does back-end and I do front-end.
For resources, I’d highly recommend Lynda.com videos (kind of expensive but you can pirate them pretty easily :)) For HTML and CSS, w3schools.com is a handy resource. Also I’m sure you’ve heard of codecademy - it’s a super fun/easy way to get your feet wet.
Hope this helps!
San
On <date>, <email> wrote:
Hey San,
I’m a freshmen at Columbia who attended the panel last Tuesday and I’m very interested in the start-up scene. It was pretty clear though that coding is an essential skill, and I have zero previous experience (I’m an intended statistics major). After some research I found that opinions vary quite a lot and I was just wondering if you had some advice on what language(s) would be good to know/start with and if you happen to know any resources.
Thanks!
Jan Leibbrandt
I was working at a real estate company in 2007, after having bounced around as a musician, part-time teacher, and general underachiever.
When I saw Steve’s keynote presentation for the original iPhone, I was transfixed. Apple had brought to life something that no one had imagined, something that would have been thought impossible a day before.
I started following Apple religiously after that, dogged by the thought that there was something in the trajectory of this visionary company that might serve as a clue to my own purpose and vocation - despite my not having any technology, business, or design training.
I didn’t pursue my venture right away; it took a year or so for me to prepare myself for the entrepreneurial leap. But when I did, I did it all-out. I quit my job with no safety net and no prior progress, driven solely by the notion that I too could bring something meaningful into this world – very hungry, very foolish.
Steve Jobs showed me that what might at first seem out of reach could be realized with enough conviction and persistence. That it was precisely these kinds of impossible dreams that end up changing the world.
Reading the first ever writeup about Facebook on 2/9/2004, just days after its launch. Overall it’s a fascinating time capsule with tons of gems (the subtitle is “Facemash creator seeks new reputation with latest online project”).
On Harvard’s own efforts to create an online facebook (what would the world be like if Harvard had been quicker on the ball?):
“There is a project internally with computer services to create a facebook,” [Director of Residential Computing Kevin S. Davis] said. “We’ve been in touch with the Undergraduate Council, and this is a very high priority for the College. We have every intention of completing the facebook by the end of the spring semester.”
On the connection to Friendster, then the dominant (only?) social network:
“Just as with the popular website Friendster, which Zuckerberg said was a model for his new website, members can search for people according to their interests and can create an online network of friends.”
On the course feature, which is I believe the most significant feature cut from the original site:
“Zuckerberg said that the most innovative feature of the site is that people can search for other students in their classes so that they can branch out to form friendships and study groups.”
On privacy:
Zuckerberg said that the extensive search capabilities are restricted by a myriad of privacy options for members who do not want everyone to be able to look up their information.
“There are pretty intensive privacy options,” he said. “You can limit who can see your information, if you only want current students to see your information, or people in your year, in your house, in your classes. You can limit a search so that only a friend or a friend of a friend can look you up. People have very good control over who can see their information.”
On revenue model and other features:
While Zuckerberg promised that thefacebook.com would boast new features by the end of the week, he said that he did not create the website with the intention of generating revenue.
“I’m not going to sell anybody’s e-mail address,” he said. “At one point I thought about making the website so that you could upload a resume too, and for a fee companies could search for Harvard job applicants. But I don’t want to touch that. It would make everything more serious and less fun.”
Original article: http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2004/2/9/hundreds-register-for-new-facebook-website/
Full details on the Designer, Front-End Dev positions: http://www.showme.com/careers/
ShowMe is designing the future of learning, one that is open and social instead of stardardized and static, and we are doing it through innovative and thoughtful design.
We are not just designing a product; we are designing a community. We need someone who can conceive both.
We’re looking for //
An interaction designer with 3 years’ experience building awesome products. You must be a student of human-centered design, familiar with web/mobile standards & best practices, and comfortable using data to aid/test product decisions. Above all you must be smart, curious, and constantly learning.
As the company grows you will be responsible for recruiting and managing the design team.
About us //
ShowMe was started two years ago by a couple guys who wanted to change the way people learn. Today we have over 150,000 users, and have gotten funding from an amazing group of investors including Lerer Ventures, SV Angel, betaworks, Learn Capital, Naval Ravikant, and BOLDstart.
We work at General Assembly, the heart of the NYC startup scene, where we interact with entrepreneurs, investors, creatives, and other awesome people on a daily basis.
Summary //
This is a unique opportunity to drive the vision for something truly innovative, one that will have a profound impact on the way we learn. If you’re up for the challenge, send us the following:
Compensation is extremely competitive, and includes weekly happy hour drinks and the occasional free lunch. If you’re not in NYC, we’re willing to help you out to get here.
When we started ShowMe, we targeted a very specific audience, and built features that addressed their needs. As we expand to more user types, we work to “generalize” the product, and often this means removing features.
The less structure you put around your product, the more people who will find your product useful (Twitter is the ultimate example).
Do more by doing less.
After you launch, you’re asking: how are you using X app?
Before you launch, you’re asking: how do you imagine using X app?
In the last few days I’ve learned an incredible amount via the latter question. They say early adopters have a better vision for your product than you do, and my vision has dramatically improved as a result of talking to them.
Entrepreneurs are in the Vision business.
They stake out a company based on their vision, they build products that embody the vision, and the inspire others to join them in pursuing their vision.
Of course, sometimes the vision is a bit off. It may not fit the market, it may not produce enough value or revenue - many times it’s just flat out wrong.
But what’s great about being an entrepreneur is that your “eyesight” improves over time. As you grow and inevitably fail, your experience helps you see much clearer: helping you picking out the right vision from the bunch, and even when you’re wrong, allowing you to refocus your vision quickly.
It’s a wonderful paradox: our eyesight gets better with time.
This is why I love being an entrepreneur.
After trying out a bunch of sketching and mockup apps, I was tired of all the clutter they put on the screen, like toolbars, buttons, or other elements. In my mind, these just took up valuable screen real estate and made it cumbersome to just draw.
I didn’t need fancy pen colors, line thicknesses, shape tools, etc - just a whiteboard I can fire up instantly and start jotting down my ideas (time is of the essence when inspiration strikes).
So I created Zen Sketchpad, an ultra-minimalist app with absolutely ZERO UI; literally a blank slate. Just shake to clear the screen, and Home+Lock to save to Photos.
In startup world, “eating your own dogfood” is popular product development methodology. The theory is that if the product works for you, it will work for others.
Of course, this makes sense when you’re building a product that solves your own problems. But what if you’re building, say, a social network for the elderly? Or a learning app for toddlers?
It’s much harder to solve someone else’s problem than your own, but sometimes the hard job needs to be done.
But how?
Gather qualitative feedback
If you can’t be your own guinea pig, get lots of other guinea pigs. And don’t just collect quantitative data; gather qualitative feedback as well. This means talking to them on the phone, even meeting them in person. Only then can you hope to understand your users’ emotional and psychological motivations, whose importance we often vastly underestimate.
Design with empathy
We often forget how much personal baggage we bring to product design. There are tons of subtle biases that dictate whether a certain color scheme looks good, or a certain copywriting style seems persuasive. Once you let go of your ego, you’ll realize:
Combined with actual user feedback, empathy will be your greatest product development tool. Learn to develop it early, or hire someone who demonstrates it.
