Brenden Mulligan

Darya Pino Rose is one of the most thoughtful people I know when it comes to nutrition. She doesn’t just reiterate common theories around dieting and being healthy. She looks at food in an entirely different way.

I haven’t read the book yet, but can’t wait to. Her blog has been a invaluable resource for years, and I’m so unbelievably happy for her that she took the spirit of her posts and created a product that will improve millions of peoples lives.

I’d highly recommend Darya’s writing to anyone who’s interested in living healthier and feeling better.

Foodist: Using Real Food and Real Science to Lose Weight Without Dieting [Darya Pino Rose] on Amazon.com. *FREE* super saver shipping on qualifying offers. In Foodist, Darya Pino Rose, a neuroscientist, food writer, and the creator of SummerTomato.com

I spent the first part of this week in Chicago, prepping my condo for sale. I bought the property in September 2007 when I moved back to Chicago from San Diego. In 2010, I moved to San Francisco and have been renting it out since.

Wandering the streets around my old neighborhood these past few days brought back an overwhelming number of memories. And has made me realize how much I’ll miss this city.

Even though I haven’t lived in Chicago for years, owning real estate in this neighborhood made it still feel like I had right to call it home. As I prepare to put it on the market, I realize I’m not just selling real estate. I’m bringing finality to a significant chapter of my life.

Full Post on Medium

I think there are ways to do a launch correctly, but overall I agree that organic growth is far far far better than a buzzy launch.

Having been through multiple launches, seen companies launch at big conferences, and talked with many startups that have experienced the same effect, what I recommend – and what we’re doing at Origami - is not launching at all. Take the word launch out of your vocabulary – it’s a sign that you are gambling on your app and not building a long-term, sustainable company. Instead, put your sign-up page up or your app out because you need more feedback on your idea. Find an audience of passionate users, even if small, and reach out to their community through appropriate means. Try SEM and Facebook ads to find a target market. Experiment with business models and onboarding flows. Let the press come to you because they love what you’ve made.

Excited to finally make a little noise about the updates we’ve been doing.

Okay. Now back to work.

The company has been busy figuring out several little details like this over the course of eight updates it has released since the debut of its first product this February. Based on user feedback, Cluster has streamlined the design, now emphasizing the cover photo more and showing profile photos (in the now trendy Chat Head-style round icons, natch) of all those contributing to an album.

It has also added favoriting and commenting options, and has introduced a way for people to create more public albums for sharing to Facebook and Twitter.

getcluster:

Today we’re releasing Cluster 0.11.0 into the app store! (We’re still chugging away in public beta, but we will have the full 1.0 launch soon. Still more to do!)

The release today has four major parts:

Comments on Photos!

People have been asking for comments since the first time we started…

Really excited about this one.

Greg Bensinger and Jessica E. Lessin wrote a great piece for the Wall Street Journal on how apps are creating a whole new way for people to approach employment.

Indeed, smartphones and tablets—which typically have built-in cameras, Internet connections and global-positioning systems—enable just about anyone to be a roving merchant or courier. The proliferation of jobs tied to mobile apps recalls the early days of the Internet in the 1990s, when Americans realized they could sell goods to customers from their desktop computers via sites like eBay Inc. and Yahoo! Auctions.

I gave them a quote for the Yardsale section, but the article is worth a read overall, as it paints a really good picture about how these apps are creating a new type of workforce.

I wrote this for the Wall Street Journal last week. Just the basics, but hopefully useful to some.

There’s no one answer to the question of what pricing model works best for digital products because it depends on the app that the revenue model is being designed for. Overall, I’d begin by identifying what value the app creates. Does it save the user time?

Does it help them work more efficiently? Does it entertain them? Does it help them earn more? Once you understand the value your user gets from the app, you can start modeling the best way to generate revenue from it.

For apps that entertain, it’s usually best to just charge the user for using them. This is how many games are monetized. The user pays to download the app, or downloads it for free but pays for features or items in the game that make it more fun to play.

Both of these methods work, although I prefer not charging the user until they’ve gotten to play some of the game. I prefer this approach because it lets the user try out the game, and it also allows for continual revenue as the user plays more of the game, instead of just having them pay once.

For apps that help someone get their work done more efficiently, charging a subscription fee or a per-use fee is usually effective. Ideally, you would let the user download the app for free to test it out, and then ask them to pay to continue using it. This way, the user has a chance to try the app risk-free, and if it truly adds value they should be happy to pay for it.

Another method would be to design several tiers of features, allowing users to use an app for free forever, unless they need additional features or storage space.

This method is known as freemium and has worked well for some companies, but most services end up giving away too much and have a hard time getting users to upgrade.

Another common, but challenging, monetization technique is attracting users to interact with the app many times a day and then displaying ads. In these cases, consumers get to use the app for free, and the advertisers pay the company. This is best used for social media or content apps (news, videos, etc..). This has been effective for years, but growing advertising revenue requires an enormous amount of usage. It’s even more challenging on mobile, where the screen real-estate doesn’t leave a lot of room for advertisements.

When designing an app, there is no one silver bullet when it comes to monetization. The creators of the app should spend time understanding what the user values and then find a way to monetize based on that value.