Hey, Back Button — Watcha thinking about?
After having built a bunch of small but important go-nowhere projects, I got the itch to build something that fixes a bigger problem.
About a month ago, Kelly and I teamed up to fix an issue designers have with version control. Developers already fixed this problem for themselves — they’ve got git, svn, whatever. Designers have bupkis in the way of version control.
Today we’re privately launching LayerVault, a version control system made for designers. No command lines, no uploading, and the best part — no change in your process. LayerVault keeps every copy of everything you’re working on without you doing anything extra. How does this magic work?
The LayerVault application runs in your toolbar and takes care of everything. Each time you create or modify a file you’re working on, LayerVault saves a copy.
If you’re working on a Photoshop file, every single version of you PSD is available for download. Log in to LayerVault.com, flip through the versions of your PSD, and download a version from a few weeks ago. Pretty neat — and we’ve built some stuff that makes impact to bandwidth pretty much negligible.
A handful of beta invites are floating around but if you can’t find one, give us your email address and we’ll send you one when a fresh batch are ready. Also, reblogging this post will obviously guarantee yourself a spot at the front of the line :)
I’ve built more things for the web than I can remember (luckily, no one else can either). If your goal is to one day launch something of your own, small go-nowhere projects are the best way to cut your teeth. A few notes on the lessons you’ll learn.
1. Learning to launch/quit/fire
Especially if you’re working with others, you’ll quickly learn that weeks or months without launch is a huge red flag. You’re supposed to be building something small. The first time a deadline’s missed, time to make changes. If you’re still not able to launch, stop fooling yourself — get rid of people, or pull the plug.
2. Customer Acquisition
Building something that people will pay for is pretty tough. Small projects are a wonderful way to test whether you’re actually as good at making money as you think you are. That particular muscle gets stronger with each consecutive project, but I know of no other way to develop a sense for how to do this.
I’ve launched projects with exactly zero customers and others with nearly zero customers. Pingwire and Factotum eventually had customers in the thousands. Each time, it gets easier to build something that might leapfrog the last.
3. You’ve launched. Now what?
Post-launch is really damn tough and you should be putting yourself in the post-launch position as much as possible. Sometimes having no gameplan works, most times it doesn’t. All the blog posts or mixergy interviews in the world aren’t going to help you when you’re caught in the headlights and the clock is ticking.
Courseboss was a dud with no gameplan and no traffic. We bent over backwards to drive traffic to Zontik Games. Pingwire was built in the middle of the night and its traffic took down twitpic the next morning (and several times after that).
Given today’s headlines about the beginning of the end of Facebook, I thought I’d do a quick Google search. Presented without comment:
Jun 14, 2011 - Has Facebook Peaked?
Jan 7, 2011 - Facebook hype will fade
Aug 17th, 2010 - Facebook May or May Not Be Growing As Quickly This Summer, Third Party Measurements Show
Aug 17, 2010 - The End of Facebook?
May 21, 2010 - End of Facebook Near? 60% Ready to Dump Site
May 12, 2010 - The Beginning of the end of Facebook
May 12, 2010 - The Big Game, Zuckerberg and Overplaying your Hand
Apr 1, 2009 - It’s the Beginning of the End of Facebook
Aug 10, 2009 - Has Social Networking Peaked?
Posting this ASCII nyancat I made so that I don’t lose it.
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