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Hi. My name is Adam. I am the co-founder of Pure Adapt, Inc in Albany, NY. We own Detailed Image, LockerPulse, and a bunch of other websites. I write about our company, entrepreneurship in general, work-life balance, and whatever else interests me.
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Category Archives: Entrepreneurship
Learning What to Learn
When I first quit my job and decided to venture out on my own, I was working alone, had almost no resources, had very few connections, and almost no web experience. What I did have was time. And the desire to learn anything and everything that could help me be successful.* So, naturally, if there was something that needed to be done I picked up a book and learned it. This is a great thing. It’s probably a necessary trait to bootstrap your own company, especially if it’s your first company and you’re in a situation like I was. Thankfully … Continue reading
Enjoying the Variety of Running a Business
One of the best aspects of running your own business is that you have the opportunity to wear a lot of different hats. Notice that I said “best” and “opportunity.” I view this as a huge positive. Not everyone feels the same way. For instance, some developers solely want to develop websites all day long without ever worrying about the other facets of running a business. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that – there are plenty of jobs where you can thrive doing just that. However, I know that I would personally get bored out of my mind if … Continue reading
Overcoming Adversity
What a year 2011 was. It started off with a partner abruptly leaving the company. Throughout the year it felt like a week didn’t go by where there wasn’t some major business or personal catastrophe for Mike, Greg, or I. The phone would ring and someone would be in the emergency room, or in a car wreck, or come home to find their house robbed (all of which happened). Or we’d get audited. Or a once-in-a-lifetime hurricane would displace me from my home. It literally felt like 10 years worth of bad luck happening all at once. I learned a … Continue reading
X != Y
From the time we start learning we’re taught that if we put in X (time) that we’ll get Y (what we want). In school, if you study and do your homework, you’ll get good grades and be able to get in to a good college. At most jobs, if you work long and hard and are a team player, you’ll get raises and promotions (regardless of whether or not the work you did positively effects the bottom line). These statements are correct in most situations for most people. So when those same people read about a business that took 3 … Continue reading
Embrace Those Constraints
Today I deployed a small feature on LockerPulse: keyboard shortcuts. This is one of those power user features that we’ve had a few customers contact us about. Most people won’t use it, but the people who are used to using keyboard shortcuts on Gmail and Google Reader will find it extremely valuable. I had a pocket of time before the chaos of the holiday shopping season ensues next week. Rather than digging in to a large project that I’d have to put on hold for a few weeks, I decided to make the most of my time and just release … Continue reading
What About Competitors?
Whenever I give a talk to college students, I always get asked about our competitors. How do we follow what they do? How do we react to what they do? What do we do to protect ourselves from them? The answer is pretty simple: we don’t. I’m of the opinion that business do not fail because of anything that their competition does or doesn’t do. They fail because of what they do or don’t do. The second you start focusing on your competition is the second that you stop focusing on your customers. You also become a defensive company. You’re … Continue reading
How We Make Business Decisions – The CAG Model
I’ve noticed over the years that we’ve become very balanced in our decision making. I think that comes from having a very diverse set of partners. Almost every major decision involves a group discussion in which we discuss the pros and cons of the decision, as well as the priorities of making a decision (sometimes the best business decision is to just leave something alone). And, for the most part, we’ve been successful with this approach. Not like billion dollar successful, but continuous, steady, profitable growth in a down economy. I was thinking a lot about this the other day. … Continue reading
Do I Ever Get Bored Running Our Business?
Last week one of the students asked me whether or not I get bored running our company, being that we’ve been in business since 2006 and that entrepreneurs tend to have a lot of ideas. I thought this was a really good question. I answered that yes, I have gotten bored, but no I am not bored right now. To elaborate: Yes, in the past I have gotten bored. It’s usually when I’m in between projects, or when I’m working on a project that is long and tedious (and well, boring). Sometimes projects that are necessary to scale a business … Continue reading
What a Spring!
Traditionally, the busiest months of the year for Detailed Image have been March and November because 1) those are the months that demand is highest (in March because of Spring time, November because of the holidays), and 2) that’s when we run our craziest sales. Ever since I can remember, March has always leapfrogged the previous November as our highest grossing month in company history, and then when November comes along it beats March, and the pattern continues on the next year. What’s made 2011 so special is that after a record-breaking March, April was essentially even (slightly less revenue, … Continue reading
A Great Memorial Day Video
Earlier today I finished up listening to the podcast of Innovate for America, a Stanford Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders talk by America’s first Chief Technology Officer, Aneesh Chopra. This was the first I had heard Aneesh speak. It’s a very passionate and motivating talk about how his team is trying to shape the future of healthcare, education, and energy in our country with technology and entrepreneurship. Enjoy!