A Smart Bear
blog.asmartbear.com · Personal blog · on HN since 2008
Jason Cohen writes about startups, bootstrapping and business strategy, and founded WP Engine; the blog also explains color vision.
What HN saysCommenters call it historically very popular with the startup crowd, and link its color wheel article on opponent color processes.
407HN people shared it
118linked it in comments
721stories submitted
13Kstory points
3 months agolast shared
2008people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1Rich vs. King in the Real World: Why I sold my company16 people · 323 points · first shared 2009 · 38 comments on HN
- 2The Elephant in the room: The myth of exponential hypergrowth12 people · 29 points · first shared 2022 · discussion on HN
- 3What Can't be Solved with Money?12 people · 6 points · first shared 2010 · 1 comments on HN
- 4Startup Competitive Advantages that Work9 people · 214 points · first shared 2010 · 39 comments on HN
- 5Your customers hate MVPs. Make a SLC instead (2017)9 people · 67 points · first shared 2023 · 70 comments on HN
- 6Excuse me, is there a problem?9 people · 25 points · first shared 2023 · 1 comments on HN
- 7The "errors" that mean you're doing it right8 people · 15 points · first shared 2024 · discussion on HN
- 8Color wheels are wrong? How color vision actually works7 people · 449 points · first shared 2011 · 54 comments on HN
- 9You’re a little company, now act like one7 people · 155 points · first shared 2010 · 14 comments on HN
- 10Solving the "marketplace" business model7 people · 61 points · first shared 2010 · 6 comments on HN
- 11Extreme brainstorming questions to trigger new, better ideas (2022)7 people · 22 points · first shared 2023 · discussion on HN
- 12Business advice plagued by survivor bias (2009)6 people · 126 points · first shared 2023 · 84 comments on HN
- 13Vetting a startup (or two): The systematic birth of WPEngine6 people · 37 points · first shared 2010 · 12 comments on HN
- 14How startups beat incumbents6 people · 19 points · first shared 2024 · 1 comments on HN
- 15The Startup Drake Equation6 people · 13 points · first shared 2025 · discussion on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
dzonga · 2026-04-17
go to the Harvard MBA for Bootstrappers i.e https://longform.asmartbear.com
one of the recommended posts: https://longform.asmartbear.com/problem/ which goes to the heart of what you're experiencing.
play in large markets, very large in absolute numbers i.e B2B but small enough not to attract major VC companies - again play in large markets - don't listen to indie-hacker influencers that are making stuff for other indie hackers.
luckily everyone is running into A.I now - so there's plenty of things to be solved. not sexy, you've to look hard, screen hard (cz some opportunities look credible till you do the math i.e is there a large number of people, what is the willingness of those people to pay)
most of your work will be in marketing (marketing not selling) i.e researching to find out which problem will people actually pay for - what are the market dynamics - then only will you code a product.
tip: for a solo business - you've to be in an ecosystem kinda place.
Ragnarork · 2025-07-01
I've finally come around to set on a journey to develop my first game. It followed a read on Gamedev in 2025 that actually popped on HN a few months ago[0].
I've mostly scribbled notes on paper for now, trying to be exhaustive about all that before scoping MVP (maybe SLC[1] would be better but I'm first doing that for myself so I'm not really pressuring myself for now).
I'm using modern C++, and will probably start from SDL3, plus a couple other libraries, but nothing too big or framework-y beyond that.
[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44038209 [1] https://longform.asmartbear.com/slc/
iamben · 2025-04-25
Absolutely love this. Love brands taking the SLC (simple, lovable, complete: https://longform.asmartbear.com/slc/) approach - minimalism is an absolute delight in a world where everything is crammed with unnecessary/unused feature bloat.
(That said, I'd love a stereo - even if it was just a built in bluetooth speaker/aux-in, which feels like a perfect compromise!)
sealeck · 2025-02-10
These are all people running AI labs! They want investment, and what better way to get investment than to tell people you're going to create Terminator? The people leaving OpenAI are joining other labs – their livelihoods depend on AI companies receiving investment: "it is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it".
> The models keep getting better at an exponential [sic].
We don't know if this is true. A lot of growth that appears exponential is often quadratic (https://longform.asmartbear.com/exponential-growth/) or follows a logistic function (e.g. Moore's law).
Additionally there's a LOT of benchmark gaming going on, and a lot of the benchmark solving is not down to having a process that actually solves the problems; it just turns out that the problems already kind of lie in the span of text on the internet.
mrngm · 2024-10-19
It usually never is exponential, see e.g. https://longform.asmartbear.com/exponential-growth/ that shows examples from "hypergrowth" companies where it's perceived these companies grew exponentially, but the growth actually followed a more quadratic form. About halfway through the article, the author shows another model that's more likely to fit these growth patterns: logistic growth. After initial rapid growth, followed by a period of linear growth, it eventually flattens out, indicating it's at "carrying capacity", or "market saturation".
jen729w · 2024-04-05
Or…
# Your customers hate MVPs. Make a SLC instead.
> Startups are encouraged by the great Reid Hoffman to “launch early enough that you’re embarrassed by your v1.0 release.” But no customer wants to use an unfinished product that the creators are embarrassed by.
https://longform.asmartbear.com/slc/
ivanr · 2024-03-24
April Dunford has two great books. Positioning comes first, then sales.
As a small outfit, you probably don't want to actually sell. The approach that worked for me was to focus on inbound marketing and let customers self-select and come to you. Have a great pitch, ideally right there on your web site. Then get them onto a trial, treat them as customer from day one and get them into your customer success programme.
In essence: build a great product, talk about it, find the right customers and couple with fanatical customer success.
Also, choose a problem for which there is a good audience: https://longform.asmartbear.com/problem/
rco8786 · 2024-01-24
This is an excellent problem to have.
Falls squarely into what Jason Cohen describes in this article as "the errors that mean you're doing it right": https://longform.asmartbear.com/good-problems-to-have?utm_source=twitt…
pippy · 2022-01-11
It seems the article you're talking about is the opponent color process, which here's some great articles about it: https://www.handprint.com/HP/WCL/color2.html https://blog.asmartbear.com/color-wheels.html
I had some fun modeling the color space in 3d on codepen: https://codepen.io/torleifw/pen/jOwjPxp
(or a more boring slider option here: https://codepen.io/torleifw/pen/OJgdyPJ)
One of latest papers I've read recommended using a matrix to transform color spaces, which i've also done a codepen for.
Interestingly the opponent process mirrors the LAB color space, which is soon going to be available in Safari. This is pretty cool and can enable developers to color coordinate easier.
I'm going to give the webpage you linked a good read, looks very interesting.
rmason · 2017-04-21
Here are my favorites:
Mark Schuster - https://bothsidesofthetable.com/
Jason Cohen - https://blog.asmartbear.com/
Startups for the rest of us (podcast) - http://www.startupsfortherestofus.com/
The Startup Chat (podcast) https://thestartupchat.com/
Unbounce on marketing - https://unbounce.com/blog/
The Macro - http://blog.ycombinator.com/
There are several more technical ones like CSS-Tricks and API Evangelist
Anyone blogging on serverless with node?
tomgp · 2015-07-17
NOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooo....... ;)
This is the exact wrong way round. Continuous colour scales are hugely problematic because of the fact that our colour perception is closely linked to context.
the classic illustration: http://blog.asmartbear.com/wp-content/uploads/Grey_square_optical_illu…
If precise comparisons are required you're better off not using colour at all. Colour e.g. in choropleth maps, is good for showing broad spatial trends or highlighting particular areas for selection. A bar chart is better for precise comparisons because we're much better at comparing lengths than colours.
gk1 · 2014-05-14
As a marketer working with SaaS companies, I would caution you against reading articles like this.
They make big generalizations (free trials are bad!) based on hindsight reasoning and very few data. For every article you find that says you should do X, you can just as easily find one that says you should NOT do X.
With that said, two good sources of information are Jason Cohen[0] and Patrick McKenzie[1].
[0] http://blog.asmartbear.com/
[1] http://www.kalzumeus.com/blog/
And if you're looking to have someone in your corner who has done this, give me a shout!
integraton · 2013-10-05
Jason Cohen's blog (http://blog.asmartbear.com) has historically been very popular among the startup crowd and used to be regularly front-paged on hacker news. Also, WP Engine is popular and many of us use it. Note that they host the blogs of several well-known tech companies.
pkaler · 2013-08-15
> Warning! The entire article is filled with arcane finance newspeak and obscure acronyms!
Boris Wertz is a SaaS/e-commerce investor. LTV, CAC, ARPU, churn, etc are pretty standard metrics for those types of businesses.
Here is a good guide to SaaS Metrics:
http://www.forentrepreneurs.com/saas-metrics/
Here is Bessemer's SaaS Reporting Template:
http://www.bvp.com/system/files/reporting_saas.xls?download=1
The Smart Bear blog has a good series of SaaS metrics articles:
http://blog.asmartbear.com/?s=saas+metrics
mijustin · 2013-01-22
Nathan and Amy: this is awesome. By letting us “listen in” on your dialogue the lessons in here feel genuine. Great work.
To add a little fuel to the fire, I’ll make a few comments:
> Amy: "I’ve never seen anyone do successful presales for a software product, for the record."
I guess it depends on the definition of “successful” – Jason Cohen had 40 pre-sales before he started building WPEngine: http://blog.asmartbear.com/stop-customer-interviews.html
> Amy: "I don’t know ANYONE… ANYONE… who outsourced their product and made a success out of it."
Again, it depends on your definition of “success” but I personally think Rob Walling is pretty successful, and he outsources almost all of his development: http://www.softwarebyrob.com
fidanov · 2012-10-22
http://37signals.com/svn
http://37signals.com/bootstrapped <- not a blog but a lot of useful examples
http://unicornfree.com
http://kalzumeus.com
http://blog.asmartbear.com/
These are the best I've ever read.
padseeker · 2012-10-19
Its called Padseeker, my first startup - http://padseeker.com/
It's a web app that makes building a website for real estate as easy as starting a blog. Plan is to enter beta November 2012. I was featured on Jason Cohen's podcast in a very long interview a couple of months ago - http://blog.asmartbear.com/sb-live-6.html
While not officially in beta if you want to try it out you can create an account. I would love feedback from HN readers. We are going for ease of use, you should have a site built within 10 minutes.
http://padseeker.com/signup
tsewlliw · 2012-09-13
I'm scared to try it, but follow the idea here: http://blog.asmartbear.com/personal-checklist.html
robinwarren · 2012-06-21
You've probably looked already but I think there is a lot of good advice on enterprise sales on the smart bear blog
http://blog.asmartbear.com/
From what I know (mostly reading rather than personal experience) selling the Small business and selling to enterprise are very different and require different approaches. Ie, SEO and a landing page with pricing and sign up vs. a sales team, no pricing anywhere on your site and long sales cycles. You may need to pick whichever one you think you can be most successful with at first and concentrate on that.
lesterbuck · 2012-03-23
Jason Cohen blogged about this effect surrounding Bill Erickson, a Wordpress consultant, who turns down clients when he knows he can't be sure they will have a great experience using his services:
http://blog.asmartbear.com/improving-the-worst.html
andreasklinger · 2012-01-23
Marketplaces are awesome startups and make a lot of sense.
There are patterns to start right.
Here is one of the best posts about it: http://blog.asmartbear.com/marketplace-business-model.html
(thx to @lfittl)
ezl · 2011-12-05
Love.
This isn't a piece about china, or developing countries, or even internet businesses. This is "rich vs king". (1)
There are tons of opportunities out there, but a lot of the good ones are decidedly unsexy. Getting the most press != Making the most money.
(1) http://blog.asmartbear.com/rich-vs-king-sold-company.html
yeahsure · 2011-09-30
I recommend you to read this article: http://blog.asmartbear.com/consulting-company-accounting.html
While I don't agree with everything he says, there's a large amount of truth in that post.
maayank · 2011-08-17
I'm still amazed no one mentioned an amazing post about the same subject by Jason Cohen from Smart Bear:
"Why I feel like a fraud"
http://blog.asmartbear.com/self-doubt-fraud.html
Dylanlacey · 2011-03-09
An interesting twist on Whale Hunting is shown by A Smart Bear (http://blog.asmartbear.com/how-to-get-customers-who-love-you-even-when… where having a passionate manager in that company DID work really well.
I think it's ironic that some people go into startups because the oppressive weight and slow movements of big business, and then go straight back to chasing those customers. Surely it's better to start chasing smaller, more mobile teams who likely have more vocal staff, more buying power and less reliance on bullying.
jasondavies · 2011-03-07
I think it's best to 100% open so that you attract the right people at the stage that you're at. You should read "You’re a little company, now act like one": http://blog.asmartbear.com/youre-a-little-company-now-act-like-one.htm…
Do you really want to attract the kind of people who expect a big support team, when you don't have a big support team? Probably not, unless you want to disappoint them!
mindcrime · 2011-01-26
I don't have a good answer for that myself either (yet.) But for what it's worth, there have been some good articles and discussion around this topic before, that might be of interest to anyone who hasn't already seen them:
http://blog.asmartbear.com/not-competitive-advantage.html / http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1507887
http://blog.asmartbear.com/unfair-advantages.html / http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1528614
imp · 2011-01-26
Make sure you follow everything in this article, and get something signed by them: http://blog.asmartbear.com/working-startup.html
jcr · 2011-01-10
There's a difference between being defensive about where you are not located, and actively promoting your favored location. I was born, raised and still live in the Silicon Valley, but even a remote simpleton like me knows how cool tech can be in Austin TX...
http://geekaustin.org/
http://sdf.lonestar.org/
As for startup stuff going on in Austin, from JUST today's reading I noticed the following being in Austin:
http://blog.asmartbear.com
http://wpengine.com/
http://www.capitalthought.com/
I'll still prefer my home over yours, but your home is also pretty sweet (and worth bragging about).
xiongchiamiov · 2010-11-22
I was reading a post from SmartBear the other day that touches upon this: http://blog.asmartbear.com/how-to-get-customers-who-love-you-even-when…