SteveDerico.com

iPhone Developer

"There are a bunch of companies that try to make every release perfect, and Apple is the best at that. That’s wonderful, but there’s another way of doing things that’s potentially even better over the long term—allow yourself room to experiment and don’t try to make each individual release as polished as possible. - Mark Zuckerberg"
– I couldn’t agree more. Don’t be scared to fail. Take risks and fail fast.

Gary Vaynerchuk - “Effort is My Religion”

Gary Vaynerchuk is one of my all-time favorite entrepreneurs. His passion and drive inspires me to work harder everyday. You can find him on my list of heroes on Pinterest.

Gary’s newest interview series with Inc’s Founders Forum includes some of his best content. I encourage everyone to check out the 30-40 minutes worth of footage. You can watch the video here. 

  • “Start at the finish line and work backwards”
  • “Don’t be religious about how you make your money”
  • “Tell a story”
  • Look for weak and stale markets. 
  • Think long-term, remember others will be reading what you wrote in the future.
  • “Systems are commodities”
  • The little things mater, they are what sets you apart
  • “Effort is underrated”
  • “Don’t think like a CFO”
  • “Effort is my religion”

What do you think of Gary’s insight? What markets do you think are ripe to be disrupted? @stevederico me on twitter to continue the conversation.

New Year’s Resolutions 2013

2012 was a wonderful year and a lot of great things have happened. That being said, here are my goals for 2013.

I encourage everyone to set goals and make them public. This way you can be held accountable for your actions. You can find my goals from last year here.

2012 New Years Resolutions Review

Happy New Year! 2012 is over complete, so I thought I would do a quick review of my 2012 New Years Resolutions. You can find the original post here:

http://blog.stevederico.com/post/18886584900/2012.

  • Ship One New App per Month - NO - Focusing on strictly client work now.
  • Speak at Least Once per Month - NO, but I did recently speak at the App Empire Conference in San Diego. You can find all my talks at http://blog.stevederico.com/talks. 
  • Start Beginning iOS Video Series and Release at least once per month - YES, I started teaching iOS in-person classes on the weekends. Sign up at http://www.bixbyapps.com/workshops.
  • Read One Book per month - NO, I didn’t come close on this one. I need to do a better job scheduling my time for this. 
  • Meet with at least 2 of My Heroes Directly - NO. However, I did meet one of my heroes - Tom Preston Warner at the recent github meet-up.
  • Reach Top 25 in an App Category - NO. Made it as high as 26th, so close.
  • Run a Marathon - NO. I may re-consider this, but I am still a bit burnt out on running after running track and cross country all through college.
  • Workout Twice a Week - NO. Not a good job on this, because I didn’t set a schedule and keep a log.
  • Wake up before 9 AM on Weekdays - YES. 
  • Work on 3 or more Open Source Projects - YES. SDKit, SDStockKit, SDScaffoldKit.
  • Start a Podcast - YES. Started http://www.refactor.tv with @soffes.
  • Keep Doing What I Love - YES. http://www.bixbyapps.com

Overall, I’m pretty happy with what I got done. I need to do a better job of setting deadlines, this always helps with my productivity. How did you do on your New Years Resolutions?  @stevederico me on twitter. 

Gary Vaynerchuk at Social Mix 2012

I am a huge fan of Gary Vaynerchuk and have seen nearly all his talks. This has to be my favorite of all time. Gary makes it very clear he is a not a technology enthusiast, he is a business man that uses technology as a tool. Here are a few of my notes from watching the talk.

Facebook Login for everything in 1 year - Gary asks the crowd, how many people only download apps with Facebook Connect. About 15% stand, Gary goes on to talk more about how people don’t have time to watch a 30 second clip, let alone 13 seconds to sign up. 

“Marketers Ruin Everything” - Gary uses this statement over and over to show how when something works, marketers find out and overuse it until it loses value. i.e. Groupon.

Open/Click rates on Email - GV talks about open rates at over 40% and banner ads CTR at over 80% in late 90s. Today a great email open rate is 15% and CTRs are in the 1%.

Search is dead - GV reminds us of the days when Google really returned the best result, everyone knows the results can be gamed. It doesn’t matter what google says, it matter what your network says. Search is dead.

Word of Mouth is King - This is a “stone-age” or “dinosaur-times” phrase, but it has been around since then because it works. Treating people the way they deserve to be treated and creating a relationship is what it is all about. Scale the Unscalable.

Texting While Driving - If you still believe traditional media has a chance, take a look at the roads. People can’t even put their phone down to look the road, let alone a billboard ad. 

Acquisition is a Commodity, Retention is the Game - Anyone can get the customers to come in, that portion has become a commodity. The new game is retention, how do you keep your customers coming back to you? What gives you the advantage over your competitors?

If you haven’t checked out Gary’s most recent book, The Thank You Economy, you should. If you are already a member Vaynernation, what is your favorite GV video? @stevederico me with your comments.