Project Idealism

Nate Kontny, the new CEO of Highrise, joins me to talk about the path he's been on that lead to him becoming head of the company recently spun out of Basecamp.

Late last year, I decided I wanted to talk with someone who had gone though what might be the most unique human experience possible, someone who has been into outer space. Fast forward to today where I was able to interview Astronaut Clayton Anderson, thanks to Source Sleuth, a service that finds experts for people telling stories. Clayton and I talked about what it felt like to ride a rocket ship into outer space, the 15 year path he took to get there (including 14 years worth of rejection letters), the 5 months he spent on the international space station, how this perspective shapes ones worldview and what he's doing now as an author and public speaker. I'm very grateful for the time Clayton gave to speak with me, and inspired by hearing his story of determination. You can keep up with Clayton by following him on twitter at @astro_clay, checking out his facebook page at http://facebook.com/astroclay, and visiting his website at http://astroclay.com.

In this episode Kevin and I talk about how they bootstrapped two products to profitability, the decision they made to not pursuing funding, how to compete with larger more well known products and the importance of marketing.

Ryan Evans is the founder of Lift Marketing and Bite Size PR. Both companies help small businesses get marketing and in this episode we talk about building products, marketing them and why so many people put off marketing and sales for so long.

After an extended hiatus we return Interviewing William Carlton, a Seattle based attorney who specializes in startups. William and I discuss a variety of things about the new JOBS act, though much of our focus is on the crowd funding provisions. For an excellent resource on the JOBS act and a variety of other topics, check out Williams home on the internet at http://wac6.com.

In this episode I interview Jonathan Sharp and Mike Hostetler of appendTo, a JQuery development shop that was founded by the two in 2009. They took the time to talk about the growth of their organization, how they go about getting clients, being a small business that works with big clients, and the point at which they turn business down. We also talked quite a bit about pricing, managing teams that are geographically dispersed, and the benefits and challenges that come with working from home or in a small office.

In this episode I'm joined by Ryan Singer, a designer at 37signals who kids that his "cocktail title" would be a product manager. Much of what I know about web design comes from listening to what Ryan has to say on the matter, and I really appreciate the time he spent with me. We talked about how teams work together, design, how work gets prioritized, and the kinds of things that influence their decisions - about both design and the process of getting their work done. The People and links Ryan mentioned: Kent Beck and Test Driven Development Ed Catmull - How to Keep your Crisis Small

In this latest episode I interviewed Lance Walley, who has been building businesses for over 20 years. Most recently Lance co-founded Chargify - a recurring billing system, and before that EngineYard - a Rails application hosting company. Lance spoke candidly with me about launching new ideas, scaling a business, failure, success, investing, and more.

I had the pleasure yesterday of Interviewing Nate Kontny, one of the founders of Inkling Markets, and co-creator of Tgethr and CityPosh, for my latest podcast episode. Nate is one of my favorite bloggers, super intelligent and a really nice guy to boot. I had a blast talking to him about starting projects, running a business, and the creative process that goes into building software and writing great blog posts.

Mari Luangrath of Foiled Cupcakes, a gourmet cupcake delivery company based in Chicago joins us for episode eight. Over the course of about a year, Mari has built a fun, profitable, growing business without a storefront - instead leveraging Twitter and Facebook to get the word out about her company.

In my latest podcast I opted not to interview anyone, but instead talk about what I've learned so far from trying to learn Ruby on Rails. I talk a bit about feeling like I'm learning how to use a computer all over again, feeling somewhat more empowered, and how different people have been willing to help me with the project.

Daniel Rothenberg is the Managing Director of International Projects for the International Human Rights Law Institute at DePaul University's College of Law, and he was kind enough to join me for Project Idealism's second full podcast. Daniel oversees numerous Human Rights projects, and in this episode the primary topic of our discussion is The Iraq History Project. Taking a victim centered approach to documenting various Human Rights violations under Saddam Hussein’s regime, this project is one of the largest independent human rights data collection and analysis projects in the world We discuss how a project of this size got going, how interviewers were recruited and trained, how the stories of victims were shared, and how that information was carried through Iraq - often times without power and always without internet access - to offices in Northern Iraq. Daniel shares some fascinating information about the specifics of their project and provides numerous lessons not only for project managers or those in business, but anyone interested in how amazing people do amazing work. Daniel has been a guest on NPR's Worldview, and is also the author of With These Hands: The Hidden World of Migrant Farmworkers Today. I truly can't thank Daniel enough for his participation with the Project Idealism podcast.

Interview with Chicago Artist Harry Sidebotham