Jon Fox

A big day here at Intense Debate. Today is the day we first put our comment system on someone else’s blog. Overall it’s gone relatively smoothly. There are certainly bugs we’re working out, but I’m still pleased overall. Check out the new comment system on David Cohen’s blog at http://www.davidgcohen.com/blog. Please feel free to give us feedback in our forums at http://www.intensedebate.com/forum or by emailing us at feedback@intensedebate.com.

This is an important step for us and hopefully we’ll be on a few more blogs in the coming days.

While working on the product for Intense Debate I recently ran into a little snafu. For those of you that don’t know this (which I didn’t until just recently), Ajax does not work across domains. In other words, a page on example.com can not send Ajax requests to another page at anothersite.com. Apparently this was done as a security precaution…which I don’t really understand since just about every other method of communication on the web works fine from one domain to another. It was definitely a set back for our project though….we rely quite heavily on Ajax (between domains) for our product to work.

Turns out there is a relatively simple (though not quite as nice) work around with a creative use of the script tag. Essentially, you use a newly created script tag that passes values inline in the url back to the remote server. The server then returns a script that calls whatever function would normally be called on a successful post of the traditional Ajax methods. It’s not quite as clean, and some browsers will virtually hang during the communication stage, but it allows dynamic background communication. In other words, it works.

This was definitely a potentially large setback. It would’ve all but meant the death of our product had we not found a functional workaround. And thus I wanted to write this post as a resource for those who might not already know this. Ajax does not work across domains. And the work around is a creative use of the script tag. Feel free to email me if you happen to need a little more in depth explanation of this technique. It really is rather simple though. Just wish someone would’ve told me…could’ve saved me a couple of hours of confusion and research as to why my application didn’t work.

This week has been by far the busiest week of TechStars yet. We had meetings and/or sessions everyday, several times a day. It’s been great getting so much information from so many great people. A couple of the highlights include Noah Kagan, the MyBlogLog guys, and a session on funding your startup. The resources this program continues to provide still amaze me.

The only down side to all of these great sessions and meetings we’ve been having is that it makes it that much harder to find time to focus on the product. There is so much great feedback on what we’ve already done that it is at times almost overwhelming. The trick I’m starting to learn is how to prioritize the tasks and aggregate the feedback into a few select fixes that really improve the overall product and/or user experience. I still have much to learn though, but I can’t imagine a better place to be learning it.

This past weekend I finally got to meet our third partner, Josh, in person. It was kind of nice to finally have the entire group in one location.

We had several meetings with different mentors while he was here and it has definitely given us a lot to think about. The wealth of knowledge that is at our finger tips as a result of this program still amazes me. These mentors are a priceless resource to have available to us, especially at the early stages that many of the TechStars companies are currently in (ourselves included).

Perhaps the most exciting part of the weekend, however, was finally being able to meet in person instead of over the internet via Skype or IM. It was amazing how much we got done with a white board and a few hours in the same room together. It was probably more than we would’ve gotten done in weeks meeting digitally. I’m really looking forward to the new levels of productivity we’ll be able to achieve while we’re working together this summer. It certainly will make life much easier as we try to get everything we want to accomplished while we’re here.

I’ve gotten my first real taste of TechStars over the last couple days and I have to say I am very excited. The first night consisted of a Kickoff session. No big surprises here; the night consisted of introductions of each of the teams and their members as well as a brief orientation to the TechStars program itself. We got a run down of many of the mentors and their impressive bios as well as some more detailed information on what to expect from the program and what they’re expecting from us. The teams are all very friendly and have a wide range of previous experience. I think the teams themselves will also be an asset to us as we all have a variety of different skill sets.

The first night was also interesting because I finally got to meet one of my teammates in person. Isaac flew in from Sweden during the meeting and was able to make it to the last hour or so of the Kickoff session. After a little bit of confusion in finding him and his car service when they arrived at the office, we finally had the chance to shake hands for the first time. I think it will be a much simpler experience working with someone in the same room instead of over Skype or IM and I am definitely looking forward to it. So far we seem to be getting along pretty well. It’s been interesting hearing how things are different here compared to what he is used to in Sweden. He’s also tried to teach me a bit of Swedish here and there but usually just ends up laughing at me as I butcher the pronunciations.

The following night we had a meet up with many of the mentors. It was nothing too formal, just drinks and light appetizers during a basic meet and greet opportunity. I must say it was a great experience for me though. The room was filled with highly successful, talented entrepreneurs that were genuinely interested in me and my company. They were all very responsive and several provided some good feedback to the basic concept. Perhaps even more important to me, several commented that they would be very interested in providing early feedback to the site whenever we’re ready. I can’t tell you how exciting it is to have so many experienced entrepreneurs more than willing to take the time to give us individual feedback on our product. What a great opportunity for us!

There wasn’t a TechStars session scheduled for today, but one of the interns, Ginnie, was kind enough to take me, my partner, and my girlfriend around on a quick tour of Boulder. I had already thought Boulder was beautiful, but this brought a whole new perspective on the city. Some of the highlights included the Mork & Mindy house as well as the Jean Benet Ramsey house. I’d have to say my favorite part, however, was when she took us out on the scenic roads to give us a beautiful view of the city from above. It is a completely breath taking view. I plan to make several trips back to explore and see as much of the natural beauty of the area as I can.

Tomorrow is another TechStars session in the evening. This one will only involve a few of the mentors and should provide much more individual mentoring and advice. I can’t wait to here what these guys have to say and see how we can apply it to our own problems and opportunities.

Well, I finally packed up all my stuff and made the big move to Boulder. I had to use every inch of available space to fit everything in my car…and I do mean every (including clothes under the seats and a motherboard in the glove box). It was a long, relatively boring drive (the only thing that kept me sane is I somehow sweet talked my girlfriend into coming along to keep me company), but I finally made it and got myself moved in to my apartment.

I have to say, Boulder is definitely a beautiful place. The view of the mountains is breath taking (especially compared to what I’m used to) and the entire city is clean and friendly. I’ve only wondered around a little, but everything is very biking/pedestrian friendly. The city also seems relatively easy to get around, which is good since I’m a bit directionally challenged.

I’ll probably spend a couple days settling in while I wait for the rest of the team to arrive. I should be posting a bit more regularly starting next week when TechStars’ events actually start…I know I personally can’t wait for things to get rolling.

And the summer of TechStars begins…

This is my first real blog post, so bear with me…

I figure a good place to start is explaining what this blog is for. Its purpose is simply to log my experiences and perspectives as I begin the exciting/scary/interesting experience of doing my first web startup. I’m hoping that this will be helpful, or at the very least slightly interesting to someone out there…only time will tell.

So a quick catchup of where I’m at…

Around the end of the summer of ’06 I met Josh Morgan through the website programmermeetdesigner.com. I was mostly just looking for an interesting project to work on in my spare time and I came across his post which seemed promising. Through a couple emails we built up what the idea is and got to know each other a bit. The next step was creating a proof of concept. The dates get a little fuzzy here, but sometime in Sept. or Oct. I completed the first proof of concept (very ugly, and only the bare bones of what we wanted, but it worked…) . This is the point where we decided we needed to bring in someone else to do the design. I knew I wasn’t exactly a capable designer and Josh wasn’t a design pro either. We looked at a couple different people, but we ended up with a 19 year old from Sweden named Isaac. And that’s how our team was formed…

The site we were/are developing is a real time debate site called IntenseDebate.com. The idea is basically to fill the gap between a chat room debate and a comment / forum debate. What it basically boils down to is a real-time, structured, one-on-one debate model. We’ve got some other ideas planned to make this even more interesting, but really we’re all just not satisfied with current methods of having debates/arguments online.

While still relatively early in the development process Josh came across an article for TechStars. If your not familiar with them I suggest you read about them from their site. Essentially, they’re an incubator similar to Y-Combinator. The reason this is relevant is that we submitted an application…we didn’t really expect to win, but we thought something along the lines “wouldn’t it be great if…?”. Well, to our great surprise and excitement we were one of the 10 groups selected (out of 300+ applicants) to participate in the program! Talk about a once in a lifetime opportunity!

And thus this blog is born…the goal being to give a running account of my experiences through this exciting time. One thing is sure though…this is gonna be a summer I will never forget.