Technology

Elastic Beanstalk - Ebextension Reverse Proxy Server Configuration

Amazon Web Services (AWS) Elastic Beanstalk software is a massive help for developers looking to launch and scale servers without having to touch the server infrastructure. This benefit has been the reason why I have used it for multiple projects, but whenever I have needed to re-configure the server for certain use cases, I have found the product and its YAML based configuration files, ebextensions, to be difficult to use with limited documentation available. This was certainly the case when I ...
Founder Story

Early Stage Perception vs Reality

Before I launched Synotate I dreamt that it would be a home run right out of the gate. I blindly led myself to believe that the problems faced by myself and other marketers would be solved by the product I worked on for two years, but I was wrong. “Reality hit me fast” is the best way to summarize the four months since releasing the product to the public. The product has not been an immediate success, but I’m not by any means disappointed by the progress I have made and I want to share the impor...
Technology

Automatically Deleting Old Emails in Gmail

Our life runs on email and depending on the state of our inbox, life can be good or bad. If you achieve inbox zero with ease, then congrats, you are in the 1% of people who can sleep well at night knowing they are on top of their tasks and communication. For the rest of us, it is common to stay afloat with cluttered inboxes blending important emails and newsletters to websites we didn’t realize we opted into. I, like many, fall into this category with some of my email accounts, so a few days ago...
Founder Story

Development Cost Expectations for Launching a Technology Startup

Starting a technology business is more capital intensive than most might be led to believe. While it is true that a business can be started with as little as a free Wordpress website, most business ideas have a unique product ideas that go beyond the functionality that a basic content management system (CMS) like Wordpress can provide. Due to these functionality requirements, free or low-cost app/website building options are not feasible to succeed and the only option entrepreneurs have is to bu...
Founder Story

Not Having Customers Sucks, But Feedback is Key

I am coming up on a month since launching Synotate [https://www.synotate.com/?utm_source=connorphillips.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=not-having-customer-sucks-but-feedback-is-key&utm_term=synotate&utm_content=article] and while I have my first non-paying customer, whom I work for, and one sign up that was from a forum feedback post, I do not have a single paying customer. It is definitely disheartening to be in this situation...no, actually, it sucks, but my feelings are the result of g...
Founder Story

Just Launch It

Anyone who has been obsessed with launching a startup has come across content that emphasizes the importance of shipping a product as soon as you can. It is the product of the popular Lean Startup movement called minimal viable product (MVP) and makes complete sense because if the concept doesn’t sell to customers with a bare bones solution, then how will a well developed product fair better? I believe in this concept, but as an entrepreneur, how do you know when your product meets the minimal v...
Founder Story

What I Have Been Working On - Synotate

Two years ago an idea popped into my mind to solve a daily data analysis problem that I faced. It seemed like in every meeting I attended, a question was asked about historical data trends that no one could answer on the spot and attendees would end with an action item to answer the questions mentioned. This action item required individual team members to pull the historical data points, re-analyze the trend and hopefully have notes on what changes were made during that time to be able to come t...
Business

Common Misrepresentations of Percentages

The basic concept of percentages is taught and typically mastered at a young age, but from time to time I find percentages being misused and misinterpreted within the business environment. I will be the first to admit that I am guilty of doing such a thing in the past (nothing to be ashamed of!), but because I don’t have the luxury to incorrectly use percentages in my line of work, the precision I have developed over time has led me to become more aware of common percentage mistakes in articles ...

Named Range: The Spreadsheet Timesaver

The Named range feature found in both Excel and Google Sheet gives the user the ability to name a range of cells with a label that is more memorable than the built in spreadsheet range format of “Sheet!ColumnRow:ColumnRow” (e.g. ‘Excel - Test - One’!A15:AF255’). While there are a few Excel wizards out there that have the ability to interpret the built in reporting format without switching sheets or scanning cells, the majority of users will most likely find this memorization difficult and there ...

Start Storing your Google Webmasters Search Traffic Data!

Google Webmasters [https://www.google.com/webmasters/] (formerly Webmaster Tools) is the only one tool available that can provide you with detailed information about your organic Google search query traffic. It is often overlooked by many due to its small brand presence and limited reporting functionality, but what many are missing out on by not using the platform are its actionable insights that can help develop stronger organic strategies and better understand consumer search trends. In an are...