PandoraPod to be a reality, what now?
Audio & Video, Web March 15th, 2007
Apparently the biggest hit at South-by-Southwest yesterday is the announcement of a new music service like Pandora and Last.fm called Slacker centered around a device very close to what I described in the PandoraPod post I did about two months earlier.
I still believe the concept will be the next big thing, and a potential iPod killer, and apparently BoingBoing, TechDirt and others are starting to believe in it as well. Too bad I have to have a job, I wish I could work on a ubiquitous internet-connected device like the PandoraPod, but with the ability to connect to any of these services.
This brings up a good point. Ideas are cheap, that’s for sure, but what’s a guy to do when he’s got a dozen ideas but also a load of responsibility to be a provider for his household? It’s not too late for me to be an internet/technology revolutionary (I don’t have kids to take care of yet), so what to do?
I’ve started learning Ruby/Rails with a lot of help from Andrew at Teabass (check him out) and the NW Chicago Ruby Users Group. I’ve even lowered my grad class load this semester to get more time to work on learning how to do Rails development. I think that will cover the web-applications side of things, but I’ve been coming up with more and more hardware. Short of flying to Malaysia and asking people at the airport where to go, how does one get a handheld device prototype / production model created? I’m pretty anxious to work on the next generation of product, such as the PandoraPod or my WiMax/Skype RAZR phone. Any ideas?
Anyway, it really is great to have some validation that yes, maybe I am tuned in properly to the way things are going, but in addition to my side project to try and get hired by Google as a future applications visioneer, where do I go from here? Anyone have some good advice?
Entries
March 17th, 2007 at 7:50 am
“Anyone have some good advice?”
Sure, first get rid of your limiting beliefs.
Lets look at this one.
“Too bad I have to have a job”
shouldn’t this read “too bad I need x amount of cash to cover expenses”?
You don’t need a job, you need a steady stream of cash.
Two entirely different things.
I find it difficult to believe that someone as bright as you are (being tech inept, I don’t understand half of what you’re saying in this post), can’t find a way to spin off enough cash to cover expenses without resorting to a full time job. Heck, push the project on the weekends and after hours (drop a few hours from your sleep slot) and build a prototype that investors can get behind, then use their funds.
And what about getting partners? Ramit at IWillTeachYouToBeRich isn’t building PBWiki by himself. He has quite a few partners (even before the vc money poured in). Many of them are working part-time hours on the project but the thing is there are MANY of them.
If you want it, you’ll find a way. I have confidence in you.
March 19th, 2007 at 2:40 pm
sounds good. Maybe I should have phrased that ‘too bad I currently have bills that require a steady income’. I think I’d be more risky if others didn’t depend on me, but perhaps there is a little more risk I can take without failing my dependents…
One such item came across today, I’ll have to figure out if Canadian venture capitalists are able to help people in the US – or maybe find an event like this in the US…
http://www.seanwise.com/2007/03/speeddating_for.html