What is a "startup project"?

March 16, 2011

What is a "startup project"?

Pablo Fernandez

Business, entrepreneurship, project, startup, startups

I’m (hopefully) creating a term: “startup project”. A startup project is a project done on the side, not setting up a company, with or without partners, with the intention of one day becoming a startup.

I don’t have a startup, but I have many startup projects. Many silly little ideas with great aspirations. I need a term to separate that from non-startup project (like writing free software or build a house for the dog).

My startup projects are:

Keep on Posting: sends you a reminder when you haven’t posted in your blog or twitter account as often as you used to. Ideal for people that forget about their blogs (like me) or are running blogs for several products, departments, etc.
DNSk9: constantly checks your DNS and sends you reports when something goes wrong.
.gitignore and .hgignore: database of information for .gitignore and .hgignore files; currently gathering data and it will become an application if there’s enough of it (I doubt it).
Restraq: track your hosting, domain registrations and other bills by just forwarding them to track@restraq.com
RadioControlPedia: gather and publish all the information related to radio control; maybe some day becoming the gdgt of radio control.
Hear a Blog: convert blog posts to audio with an actual person’s voice, so you can hear your favorite blogs while you are commuting, jogging, or on the go.

Many of them are dead or inactive. With .gitignore and .hgignore I believe I’m already getting as many visits as I possible can and it’s not that many (understandably, it’s extremely nichy).

RadioControlPedia is there, providing the information it has and open to anyone to contribute. I have some plans for it in the future but for now, I’m putting my time in other ideas. I really want to stay away from content for now.

Restraq and Hear a Blog deserve posts of their own, so wait for it.

Meanwhile, what do you think about the term “startup project”?

4 responses to “What is a "startup project"?”

Ana Paula Schaepers

2011-03-21

Hi

It is great that you wrote this post. It was my first time at an event like this and personally I learned a lot. I wanted, of course, to build a team and work on my idea, but on the other hand I am glad to have worked on someone else’s project, because I got a glimpse on what mistakes do not make and on which kind of presentation go for when showing off your project.

I really like your blog. I do not know anything about coding, developing etc. but I am very interested in learning. I more for the creating and developing concepts, ideas and products, but this is definitely something I want to understand more.

Best,
Ana Paula Schaepers

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1. J. Pablo Fernández
  
  2011-03-21
  
  I also learned a lot. If you want to get only the non-technical posts you can go to http://pupeno.com/category/non-technical/ or subscribe to http://pupeno.com/category/non-technical/feed. Alternative, if you subscribe by mail by the recently added form (top right) you’ll get them on your inbox.
  
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Urda (@Urda)

2011-09-06

I take it you took down hgignore? I remember stumbling on the site a while back, but now it redirects to your DNS project. Just wondering if that was the case.

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1. Pablo
  
  2011-09-07
  
  Yes, that is correct. I turned hgignore and many other projects off; they were consuming time and resources without going anywhere.
  
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I wrote a book:

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Pablo Fernandez