New File Apartment launched

Since 2008, File Apartment has been a leader in file sharing services. Due to the increasing demand for security, rich features and functionality, seamless mobile/web transition, and simplicity, File Apartment has been redesigned from the bottom up, with brand new servers, software and systems.

We are proud to announce that the new File Apartment is now live and ready to be used.

The site is feature rich with collaboration, versioning, permissions, speed and premium customer support. Best of all, File Apartment provides unlimited storage starting at the low price of $3.99/mo. All new users get a 30-day free trial without obligation.

2015 Internship openings

AcceleWeb, Inc. has openings for our highly coveted web (Ruby on Rails, Javascript, HTML/CSS, database), developer (iOS and Android), and QA internships for 2015.

Given we are a start-up, we cannot compensate, but you will work on interesting, real-world problems and gain tremendous experience about technology and product development. Positions are limited and demand is high, so apply as soon as you can.

Furthermore, if you in a university program that supports it, the positions qualify for credit.

The company is based in New York, but the position is remote and can be worked from anywhere.

If interested, please send resumes to resume@acceleweb.com

AcceleWeb growing up

After 9 years of running AcceleWeb, Inc from the couch, laying on the bed, sitting at my little desk at home, and coffee shops on a part-time basis, I'm happy to announce that we have acquired a space in Manhattan, near West Village.

The space is in a beautiful office owned by a realtor ( thank you, Urban Dwellers NYC) with plenty of natural light and a comfortable setting. This will allow us to work on our initiatives on a full-time basis and accelerate delivery of amazing new web and mobile products.

Pictures are attached to this post.

Disrupt, pivot, stealth - What?!

In my career, I have heard many terms used to basically define the same thing over and over. The terms do not really line up with what it is, and there is usually a more exact, simpler way of saying it. Unfortunately, verbiage is caught on and spreads life wildfire, and the core meaning of what that term is, is lost.

These days, the terms that are predominant are - disrupt, pivot, stealth. In a given week, I encounter these terms at least 6-12 times, and that is if I am lucky. To be clear, these terms are relevant in the right context, unfortunately, they are not stated as such.

So, what does one mean when they say "We are a disruptive organization that is pivoting in stealth mode?" To me, it sounds like a business with no focus or direction, somewhat like a car lost in a desert with no GPS.

Now, if I were to redefine that statement into more simpler terms, I would say "We are trying a new business model." This makes more sense to me. Everything else is just fluff.

Here's how I came to that conclusion:

1) Disruptive - Any organization that "claims" to be disruptive is not. Disruption happens, it is not stated that it will happen. Some examples of these organizations today are Tesla Motors, Amazon, Apple, and Google. None of these organizations began with a bold statement saying "We will be disruptive." Instead, they built fantastic products and services that the market caught on to, and then claim what is disruptive about it. In my opinion, building products or services that are differentiated in certain ways to gain market share is a core tenement of business. I do not see how it is "disruptive" to do what you are supposed to do.

2) Pivot - Pivot is nothing more then trying new things. Any organization should always try and experiment with different ideas to see what works and what does not. If a certain path is not working, try a new one, even if means doing a 180. Trying new things is nothing new and has been done for centuries.

3) Stealth - This is generally looked at as fast as you can go to market. Firstly, all organizations, especially when starting up, should try to get to market as fast as possible.  Secondly, this is somewhat of a dangerous term gives a certain visual of speed that is not accurate. An example, stealth does not mean killing your staff to get something out by having them work unbalanced hours. This is actually contradictory to stealth since the organization will still have longer-term issues trying to fix quality issues from speed of the current efforts and employee morale.

I would be weary of any company that uses these terms. To me, that signals a yellow flag of a company that is all sizzle and no steak.

Finally, these terms are used very cavalierly in general conversation. They do have truer meanings then their usage today, and should not be used so lightly.

Unprofessionalism in a professional world

In the course of a professional career, there are a certain set of expectations from individuals or parties that you interact with. Whether at the office, with customers, or meeting vendors, we expect they work with you in a way you would want to work with them.

However ideal this is, it is not reality. The reality is there are situations with individuals or parties that are unprofessional. They tend to be poor in following up, not clear in communications, or, in some cases, just screaming like a child. Whatever the core motivation around this behavior, fear, lack of ability to understand, or poor attention to details, it is a behavior that was learned and, probably engrained, since childhood to “get their way”. The ethical dilemma is how do you deal with those who do not speak the same professional language that you do, but instead are bullies?

When having to deal with these situations, it’s good to step back, evaluate and determine if you want to be a part of it or not. There are certain situations that you do not have this option and there are certain situations that you do.

The times you do not have to deal with are situations are if you are dependent on an employee, customer/vendor for your business or require some level of funding to continue. If this is the case, it’s a risk assessment to continue or not until the status quo has changed. For the status quo to change, that change has to come from you – switch vendors, change customer or customer’s agent, or find alternative forms of funding, replace employees. However, it has to be in a way that risk is managed.

In other situations, you do not have to deal with this. You can try to fix it or work with the party, but if it is not getting better, you have a few options:

• Ignore the person. No contact is sometimes the best way to get them to stop communicating.

•  Continue to calmly and clearly set your boundaries. It is not unfair to say statements such as “Your email is unprofessional and unless it becomes more professional, I have a right to not respond.” Or “Your communications is unprofessional and not acceptable.”

• Quit/walk away/remove yourself. Although there may be a tendency to feel a certain sense of failure if you quit, there may be situations where this is the only option you have to get away from certain negative behaviors or time-wasting situations. Walking away should not be considered a sign of failure on yourself, but the party you are dealing with. Finally, it sends an unsaid signal of  strength to others.

The world of business is not just marketing, finance, tech, product, or sales. These are categories created by humans, but business existed before these categories existed. The world of business is dealing with different types of people that have different priorities, values, approaches, and options. Your best option is to use your knowledge and instinct to act upon those you interact with. Finally, learn as much as you can about the situations you are dealing with. Knowledge is power.

Since April, we have been polishing off the buildout of the new File Apartment.

The new File Apartment will have more functionality, but with the same great ease-of-use you are used to.

For a sneak peak, here are some screenshots:


    Your apartment:

   










Invite others to collaborate:

 
   











File details window:

 











 Create a new room:
   

As you can see, it's a clean, but easy to use intuitive interface. With File Apartment, you can now create multiple rooms and invite multiple users to the rooms you create where your files are stored. 

Big minds talk about ideas, average minds talk about events, small minds talk about people

One of my favorite sayings of late is:

"Big minds talk about ideas, average minds talk about events, small minds talk about people"
- Eleanor Roosevelt

This one line statement can be interpreted many ways, from the loosest to the strictest sense.

The way I look at it is not each of the three pieces are exclusive, but generally, people lean towards one of the three pieces. You cannot exclusively talk about one without the other two in most cases.

There's also a bit of your background on where you fall into these categories, i.e. your upbringing and environment that you were brought up in.

But ultimately, human society runs on ideas and the execution of ideas. Talking about ideas fosters more ideas and more creativity that can be executed on. It also helps the mind feel alive and interested.

Discussing events, and more so, people, are a result of talking about happenings around us vs ideas to make the happenings around us better.

Only with ideas, can the world improve and move forward.

So, as you go to school, work, hang with friends, or relatives, keep in mind that the guiding the discussions towards ideas is more enjoyable then what's happening when or who's doing what, and do not expect anything less.

What do you think about this saying?

Runway needed for new products to come to fruition in the marketplace

These days, there are more software start-ups being funded faster then ever before.

From incubators such as YCombinator to full-service firms such as Kleiner Perkins providing funding. Also, the tools to get products out quick through cloud computing, such as AWS and Rackspace, and programming languages, such as PHP, Python, and Ruby on Rails, we are seeing a factory of minimal viable products come to market at an accelerated pace.

However, once a minimal viable product is released, there is an injection of marketing, quick iterations through customer feedback and adding new features, potential legal complexities, and selling to the marketplace to gain marketshare and customers as quickly as possible. This is where the company truly needs to prove itself.

The challenge is not getting version 1 out, the challenge is getting to version 2 - where there's a need for a hockey stick growth of customers and proving the viability of the company and the idea.

The sad truth is 99% of the companies do not make it to version 2, which is where series A funding generally kicks in.

So, if you are going to do a start-up, from my experiences, it is important to consider the ratio of product development to marketplace acceptance is about 3-1. What does this mean?

Simply, if a product takes 3 months to make, expect an additional 9 months to determine market viability and maturity, or 1 year in total. If it takes 1 year to make a product, expect an additional 3 years, or 4 years in total.

The reason this calculation works is a direct correlation of the features, complexity, and competitiveness of the product itself against how much time will be needed to allow the product to infiltrate in the marketplace.

As a result, it is my recommendation, if you are going to do a start-up and want to succeed with subsequent fundings, growth, it's important to calculate the 3-1 ratio before embarking on a boiler room adventure.

Finally, it is hard to predict if the product will take off in the marketplace, before getting it out. However, it's good to think through the different permutations of the product early, so that there are potential areas to quickly pivot if needed based on the marketplace responsiveness.

That said, go forward and have fun.

Happy 2014-updates and goals

Happy New Year 2014!

Every year, I put updates on goals for the year.

Our last year was fantastic in terms of marketing, traffic traction, and updating our back-end systems.

We also picked up a few partners along the way for licensing some of our back-end systems that drive our own web sites.

Also, for the first time since we started the company, we are profitable. Not immensely, but enough for to get a 1 TB SSD Macbook Pro 15" retina and cover our administration costs.

As we roll into 2014, we have a renewed focus on moving forward on our products. Some things to look forward to:

- Redesign of File Apartment (http://www.fileapartment.com) that will encompass a stronger foothold in the filesharing space providing features and functionality that will increase the tracking, storage, and sharing of files with accounts and plans. (Don't worry, we will still provide our a-la-carte option for those who want to just simply upload and share.)

- Feature enhancements for GetMeThe.com to support attributes and sub categories.

- A new classifieds site based on the GetMeThe.com classifieds engine/system.

- Refresh of the All Vineyards app.

- A potential new utility app for Android.

- More exciting/interesting stuff.