Josh Russell

And I completely agree.

When I was a chef several years ago, I learned so much (ask me next time we bump into each other). How to cook was only part of it. Long story short, I eventually realised that I’d stopped caring about the food, and that it had become just a job. As soon as you realise that, you can no-longer do the job the same way. You need to give a shit. You need to be part of what you’re doing, and it will be part of you too. So I gave it up. Luckily I soon started to work at Comic Relief.. and during my time in the kitchen I started Loose Connection too.

The reason I started working in the kitchen in the first place was because I wasn’t enjoying the web any more, and I got out of that for the same reason!

Needless to say, I’ve learned a lot from the experiences of all those paths, and am happy to be back in the web/digital industry. I have focus, purpose, experience and (almost most importantly) community.

Now watch this, he says it better than me.

So, the points to remember: (and this is not exclusive to building things online)

• love it, or stop
• live it, you’ll be working *all the time*
• don’t just listen, take part
• be prepared to fail for your love, don’t compromise your ideals (that’s the hippy bit apparently)
• do something you’re actually into, it’ll show if you’re not, and you’ll lose interest
• and more… you can work it out

And go find him on Twitter, he’s worth listening in on.

For some more technical stuff about building things online, here’s my list of what it takes to build the perfect webapp.

Update: Oh I forgot, remember to be happy. That’s the foundation for being successful. In both life and business.

UPDATE: I’ve recently started offering my time consulting on this subject, get in touch if you want to have a chat about your project!

This is just a list of the things I reckon make the right web-app to build as a startup.

Techie Stuff
1. only needs a small team. 1-3 people
2. can go from concept to live in under 3 months
3. can be bootstrapped, built in spare time
4. provides a comprehensive and flexible API
5. doesn’t need to create new technologies

External Interests

6. doesn’t rely on partners or third parties to work (or is flexible enough to switch easily)
7. is all about collecting, arranging and presenting data
8. true viral characteristics

Ideal Business Stuff

9. fills a user need
10. can be plugged into existing sites/communities
11. allows others to monetise or add value to their sites or businesses
12. (11a). bridges sites or businesses together to create new models and/or revenue streams

..And on a personal note

13. holds your interest for long enough to see it through
14. has emotional attachment for the team, you’ve got to love what you’re doing!

In the past I’ve chosen the wrong projects to follow, and more recently I’m presented with a very long list of potential ideas to make a go of. I hope the above list will help in the very early “where do I start?” stages of a startup web-app.

Comment with your additions or things you think aren’t that important, this must be something many of us have to deal with, how do we make the right choice? And conversely sometimes we can have the best idea in the world and just start blindly building without taking some important aspects into consideration, pause for a second and evaluate before getting caught up in the excitement.