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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: Innovation
The Art of the Launch
I’m going to take a step back from our pre-launch marketing for Tastefully Driven to go over our overall launch plan – from conception to where we are now to what we have left to do. I’m not saying that there aren’t different or even better ways to deploy a site, just that this process is how we do things, in large part based upon prior failures, successes, and other professional experiences (I’d be lying if I said my engineering background didn’t play a large role in the way I structure a project). None the less, I’ve never in my … Continue reading
Micro-Innovating Every Day
This months issue of Fast Company Magazine profiled The World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies. As I flipped through the pages soaking up hundreds of brilliant innovations, I thought about what innovation means to me now compared to what it meant to me back when I began my entrepreneurial adventure. Had I read this issue back in 2003, I would have sat around for hours trying to brainstorm my “big idea”. After all, if I was ever going to innovate I would need to have an idea as great as the ones that Google or Nike had. Now, in 2008, I’m … Continue reading
It’s a Barrier to Entry Thing
I recently went back and visited with one of my old engineering professors. He seemed happy that I had started my own business, but the whole time we were talking I could sense a bit of skepticism. Then I said “I went into industry for a while after college but didn’t like it”. He looked at me with sort of a puzzled look and bluntly said “why?” Here’s the thing – product development and web development are very similar. At their core, each is just a challenge in problem solving and that’s why I love both. Hell, gun to my … Continue reading
Dominating With Our Shopping Cart
In my post earlier this morning I mentioned that this was probably the most productive week of my life. It’s partly because I’ve become an early riser, but mostly because we’ve had such success with the Detailed Image shopping cart that it’s eliminated a lot of the questions we had about our company direction. The back-end automation, SEO friendliness, and built-in upsell system have more than doubled sales and we’ve recognized that continued efforts in e-commerce are probably our best chance at using our skills to thrive as a company. Before doing much with the cart though, we needed to … Continue reading
Over 1,800 Free MIT Classes Available Online!
My college bill came to well over $120k for my four years of education. I personally think it was well worth every penny because: I learned how to work in an environment with a lot of very intelligent individuals from across the world. I was able to work with cutting edge technology. I got a degree from a top 50 school in the US that was top 20 for my major. I made invaluable personal and business connections that will last forever. I was challenged above and beyond what I ever was prior to that, and it forced me to … Continue reading
Figuring Out How To Be Great
It’s been eight days since I last posted. Normally I try to post every few days, but the combination of Thanksgiving and being busier than normal has led me to procrastinate on this post for a while. Anyway, I’ve found myself thinking a lot lately on how to make Pure Adapt a great company, primarily for two reasons: I’m in the middle of reading Good to Great, and it’s one of the few business books I’ve ever read that actually makes me think (as opposed to saying “duh, that’s so obvious” throughout the entire thing). Our November is going waaaaay … Continue reading
Give One. Get One. Change a Child’s Life
Last night I set the alarm for 5:50 AM and this morning I forced myself out of bed prior to 7 AM for the first time in recent memory. Why? Because today – at 6 AM Eastern Time – OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) started their Give One, Get One program. The mission of One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) is to empower the children of developing countries to learn by providing one connected laptop to every school-age child. In order to accomplish our goal, we need people who believe in what we’re doing and want to help make education for … Continue reading
Can You Be Entreprenurial in the Corporate World?
When people ask this question, I think they are really asking three questions: Can you be happy in a career in the corporate world? Yes. Can you innovate in a career in the corporate world? Yes. Can you be an entrepreneur if you’re working for someone else? No. I’ll explain my answers in a second. This question popped into my head while I was reading a post on Employee Evolution last night. If you don’t follow the blog, the founders (coincidentally both named Ryan) recently decided to leave their jobs and move to Wisconsin to become partners in an angel-backed … Continue reading