Launch

So exciting to have launched this publicly!

A little history:

• October 2011:Concept – named and business sketched in first iteration with Pritha RaySircar.
• November-December: Iterations – chewed on what form would work, how it fit existing efforts, and how much to prioritize it, started hacking on website and stalled on “buddypress” compatibility issues.
• January 2012: Architectural Design – with Todd Hoskins, completed the detailed business design based on sketches with Pritha. Built site architecture using wishlist, paypal, and mailchimp. Kathryn Bottrell jumps on to improve design after seeing test version.
• February: Final Iterations and Launch – Soft launch February 10 in San Francisco. Language refinement and increased focus. Debugging. Public launch February 24.

Two days before public launch, I went to fix the slider. And without thinking it through, I upgraded the theme. I lost most of the beautification that Kathryn had contributed and created several new problems. Kathryn gracefully helped repair the damage, and the site it stronger for it. However, I was pulling my hair out at how my rush to fix a small thing cascaded into a day and a half of repairs. Deep breath. And so it goes: moving slowly and carefully in these final moments is very, very important.

The day before launch, Pritha suggested “pay what you are worth” pricing. I think it is a much better way to establish value and trigger agency, so I quickly put it into place. However, that change involved: making new purchase buttons, redoing the paypal forms, changing text on several pages, changing language in the mailing, modifying images on home page, and making the income projections more uncertain. I think it was worth it, but we will see if our experiment works.

Today, in response to inquires and questions, I added the FAQ page. Let me know what else you want to see there!