Illustration of Derek Powazek by Adam Ellis

Posts about Business

Elsewhere: My Review of the New Flickr at TechHive

The new Flickr: Goodbye customers, hello ads Flickr didn’t actually explain itself. It took away a core part of its…

If You Don’t Know How A Startup Will Make Money, Neither Do They

This, I hope, will remind people that the business plans of the startups they use are, indeed, their business. They should find out how the company is making money now and what their plans are in the future. They can then make an educated decision whether to participate or not. They can also judge the company by how well they keep their word.

I’m Not The Product, But I Play One On The Internet

“If you’re not paying for the product, you are the product.” I don’t know who said it first, but the line has achieved a kind of supernatural resonance online. And for good reason – it describes a kind of modern internet company that provides a free service. These businesses are designed to aggregate a large number of users in order to sell that audience’s aggregate attention, usually in the form of advertising. But the more the line is repeated, the more it gets on my nerves.

Fertile Medium

Heather and I have been avid Flickr members since the very beginning. So when Yahoo bought them and they started…

Save the Touchy-Feely for the Redwoods

I was the new guy at the company, I’d just met Allison, and here I was laying my feelings out for her. She probably thought I was nuts. And for good reason. I hadn’t earned the right to ask her to care how I felt.


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Hi, I’m Derek. I make awesome community-centric web stuff. I sometimes post things to Instagram. I’m mostly harmless. More.





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