I often see teams that maniacally focus on their metrics around customer acquisition and retention. This usually works well for customer acquisition, but not so well for retention. Why? For many products, metrics often describe the customer acquisition goal in enough detail to provide sufficient management guidance. In contrast, the metrics for customer retention do not provide enough color to be a complete management tool. As a result, many young companies overemphasize retention metrics and do not spend enough time going deep enough on the actual user experience.

Adama gets it right Source: pheadhones

In some recent client work, an emerging theme is that consumer tech. / media start-ups no longer control the most important bits of their UI. Today, if you’re a consumer technology or digital media company, nearly all of your customers will first encounter you through a channel like Facebook, Instagram, twitter, an app store or an email application. In each case: You, as the app developer or content owner have minimal control over how your application or content looks and works in these platforms.

As you read the breathless reviews of Facebook’s Q2 2014 results, remember that the entire App economy depends on a tiny group of whales who spend hundreds of dollars a month on in-App purchases. This is terrifying. Facebook’s stock price is the second derivative of in-app purchase revenue. Things are highly geared, and incredibly risky. Which isn’t to say that you can’t keep making money on $FB; just know the risks you’re running.

The New York Times Magazine ran a breathless story on the “rebirth” of Detroit. In part, the story was told through the eyes of Dan Gilbert, the CEO of mortgage machine Quicken Loans. Memorable quote: One of Gilbert’s new downtown properties is an iconic Kahn creation from 1959 called Chase Tower, previously the National Bank of Detroit Building, which spans a full city block. Now nicknamed the Qube, the building houses hundreds of Quicken loan officers who sit or stand at small desks, working their phones.

fuckyeahtoronto: Queen Street Viaduct The bridge is at least the third bridge over the Don River at this location, the first operated by the Scadding family in the early 1800s (One of the early bridges was a wooden bridge built in 1803.) The previous bridges were closer to the level of the river bank below. The current steel Truss bridge was built in 1911. It was higher in elevation than previous bridges at the location and streets on each side of the river were graded higher to meet the level of the bridge.

That’s the way with any new idea. Takes the hoople-heads time to adjust. Sometimes I wish we could just hit ’em over the head, rob ’em and throw their bodies in the creek. (via swearengen) I’m really enjoying Deadwood; Ian McShane and Timothy Olyphant are brilliant. Plus, Olyphant’s character proudly hails from my hometown of Etobicoke, which has to be a first for any TV show.

fuckyeahtoronto: “There’s a subway car poking through the ground on Yonge Street, but don’t worry, this isn’t a nightmare at the corner of Elm Street — it’s Godzilla. The apocalyptic scene, which includes a crashed plane and wrecked New York City cab, is part of an elaborate promotional backdrop for the upcoming Canadian release of the science fiction monster film. And yes, the train car is (or was) real.” — BlogTO

Back in October I noticed that, with the release of Mavericks, Apple removed the ability to sync your Contacts and Calendar directly between your Mac and iPhone or iPad. Instead, they forced you to use iCloud, and upload and store your information in iCloud. I was a bit peeved at this; so were other people. I didn’t think that I should have to share my Contacts with Apple just to move them between two pieces of hardware that I own.

startupljackson: There’s a raging debate on the twitters about whether it makes sense to build for Android vs iOS first. The real answer is that it depends on the problem you’re solving and the user’s context. But most of the time, neither is correct. Most startups should be be building for the web. - HTML-first for your Startup