Startups - Simplifying Complex Problems...Like Weddings

Weddings are among life's most potentially joyful and stressful event, all at the same time.

Lover.ly is a startup that is trying to simplify the complex process of planning and sorting through ideas, inspired by Kellee Khalil after planning her own sister's wedding.

Creating a one-stop shop for anything is not easy on the internet, but in the video above, you see a great example of why sometimes you need to just jump full speed ahead into your future.

How to Scale a Billion Dollar Startup Like Instagram

Instagram, the photo-sharing startup co-founded by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger that was acquired by Facebook for a billion dollars, is an amazing story for many reasons.

However, despite the recent outage of Amazon Web Services (AWS), one of the reasons it was able to scale so fast was by using keeping things simple in-house and taking advantage of connecting to resources outside.

In April (2012) after the Facebook acquisition, Mike Krieger gave a talk on "Scaling Instagram" to give some perspective on the back-end and engineering while growing so fast and having to make adjustments while going at full-speed.

Perhaps this sums it up best:

"The cleanest solution with the fewest moving parts as possible."

Note: if you are on Instagram, connect with me @akifmalik or see some of my photos here

The Startup Owner's Manual and Customer Development Manifesto By Steve Blank

Ever wish there was an owner's manual for how to build a startup and a great company?  Well, now there is..thanks to a new book by Steve Blank and Bob Dorf called "The Starup Owner's Manual."

In the book, the principles of customer development are summarized by the poster below (buy a large print).

Steve also helps explain what a "startup" actually is...see the definition or watch him explain it in the video below.

A startup is a temporary organization designed to search for scalable and repeatable business model.

Hyperlocal Apps | Blockboard

Blockboard is a mobile app that connects you with your neighbors, initially being tested in San Francisco.