I'm Ryan Waggoner. I build things. I blog about how to work harder and smarter to build the life you want. You should subscribe.

How we paid 50 strangers $5 to pick our startup name

03.04.11 Posted in Entrepreneurship, Misc, Posts, Social Media, Technology by

The startup I cofounded with Ben Rasmusen recently underwent a name change from 21times to DailyPath. We had chosen 21times as a placeholder, and weren’t entirely thrilled with it. Then when we couldn’t secure the 21times.com domain name, we started looking at alternatives. We spent some time looking for names that a) we liked and [...]

Feb 2011 Blog Income Report

03.01.11 Posted in Blogging, Entrepreneurship, Finances, Goals, News, Personal, Posts, Social Media by

The bloodbath continues:

Is being connected making it harder to connect?

02.22.11 Posted in Misc, Personal, Posts, Social Media, Technology by

I recently read an article by an author worrying that our smartphones and other gadgets are becoming an extension of our brains, so that when they’re not available, we’re helpless and unable to function properly. It reminded me of an experience I had while stranded on a train for three days in rural China. In [...]

21times is now DailyPath

02.10.11 Posted in Development, Education, Entrepreneurship, News, Personal, Posts, Social Media, Technology by

I wrote a post a couple months back about 21times, a new project I’ve been working on with Ben Rasmusen. We launched as a course for application developers to build and launch an app in 30 days. The response has been overwhelming, and we’re expanding in the near future. If you’re not a developer, don’t [...]

January 2011 Blog Income Report

02.07.11 Posted in Blogging, Entrepreneurship, Finances, News, Personal, Posts, Social Media by

If you’ve been reading my monthly income reports, you’d see that my goal for 2011 was to get my blog to the point where I could live off of the monthly income. In December 2010, I met my goal of 20% growth over November. Just barely, but I met the goal. If I can average [...]

Why I’m bullish on a Facebook I don’t trust

01.21.11 Posted in Future, Misc, Posts, Social Media, Technology by

I wrote a post yesterday about the uncanny valley of advertising, and how we’re currently in this weird area where advertisers know just enough about us to make it creepy, but not enough to make it perfectly relevant. I made the mistake in my post of comparing a hyper-relevant advertising service to a friend, in [...]

We’re in the uncanny valley of advertising

01.20.11 Posted in Misc, Posts, Social Media, Technology by

Image by Aaron Webb I had a good discussion with a friend today about advertising relevancy. It started because we were discussing his concerns about Facebook and how much information they have, like your social graph, taste graph, browsing habits, etc. What I found especially interesting is that his main concern is that Facebook will [...]

Why Groupon could be bigger than Google

01.10.11 Posted in Entrepreneurship, Misc, Posts, Social Media, Technology by

A couple weeks ago I suggested in a comment on Hacker News that Groupon could one day be bigger than Google. This was the response I got: If there was ever a sign of a bubble, it’s this comment. Some local coupon startup thingy bigger than Google? u-huh. ~axod Now, I totally understand this sentiment. [...]

December 2010 Blog Income Report

01.04.11 Posted in Blogging, Entrepreneurship, Finances, Goals, News, Personal, Posts, Social Media by

I’ve been posting monthly income reports for a few months now and I thought I’d combine the December 2010 report with the overall report for 2010. You can read the November 2010 report here. December 2010 Blog Income Report Here’s November and December: The news here is mixed: I hit my goal of 20% growth [...]

7 things I learned about startups from Duke Fightmaster

12.29.10 Posted in Entrepreneurship, Inspiration, Posts, Social Media, Technology by

Odds are, you’ve never heard of Duke Fightmaster. And I know what you’re thinking: “There’s no one named Duke Fightmaster. No one normal anyway.” Well, there is a Duke Fightmaster (his real name), and no, he’s not normal. But his story is fascinating and offers some great lessons on tackling a huge challenge, dealing with [...]

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