Wednesday, March 10, 2010

ReadWriteWeb article about Lottay's work environments


Lottay and yours truly are spouting off giving advice to startup entrepreneurs in this article posted on ReadWriteWeb: An Entrepreneur's View on the Benefits of Coworking

Everything we said in the article - we believe!

Founder + Founder = Dynamic Duo!



As we've noted in an earlier blog post, we practice pair programming here at Lottay. This method of code development is part and parcel of Extreme Programming, which is a flavor of Agile Development, a common process for software development at startups.

In the pics above, we see Co-founder Andy Elliott and Co-founder Ross Hale pretending to do pair programming. I say "pretending" because, well, they're not really coding - they're filling out an online form for something business-related.

But, hey, look at the concentration, the joy, the sheer dynamism of this power duo.

Awesome, yes?

Yes.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Ventura County Reporter: Hatching an idea


Lottay recently received some nice press in one of the local newspapers in town: "Hatching an Idea" in the Ventura County Reporter. (Yeah, that's me in the color photo there :-)

The article is about the high-tech incubator in which Lottay is housed. We're in a building behind Ventura's City Hall. There are about a dozen other startups and small technology companies in here with us [including a guy who is building something physical - his workspace has drillpresses and lathes and batteries and circuit boards all over the place - fun!].

Part of being a startup is trying to make something out of nothing, having to make more with less. That's the startup life! Being in the incubator, as the article states, helps us do that.

Wired: The Future of Money


The February 2010 issue of Wired magazine has a fascinating article about electronic money. Read the article here.

Much of the article is about the granddaddy of electronic payments, PayPal. Lottay is a partner of PayPal, of course, taking advantage of PayPal's developer platform. Lottay.com enables you to send money to someone as a gift and make it actually feel gift-like!

Our big vision for Lottay is to help take PayPal into the realm of "social payments": online gifting, paying each other back for dinner, personal loans, sending money home (or to your kids in college), the office pool around the Oscars, that sort activity.

It's the future of money!

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Wall Street Journal: Get married in flip-flops. It's cheaper.


The Wall Street Journal has a great piece about the "true cost" of a wedding these days. Read "What a wedding really costs" here.

$110,00?! Really? *ack*

I'm sure this is why many savvy newlyweds-to-be are telling their wedding guests not to buy them stuff - but to give them cash. Cash, after all, can go toward a down payment on a house or a car or into a retirement fund.

Or to pay off the bills from the wedding!

Try using Lottay to create a wedding registry to collect cash.


Monday, February 22, 2010

They WILL eat you out of house and home


Confirming what all parents already know, WhatToExpect.com says that raising a child from infancy to the age of 18 will cost about a quarter of a million bucks. That's before college, mind you.

Parents and parents-to-be have been using Lottay.com to create and share baby registries. Because our wish lists are free-form, you can jot down anything you need or want ... from "Money toward college" to "This specific car seat". Share your wish list with family and friends and they can contribute toward your wishes via PayPal.


Using Lottay for your wedding registry


Nice pick up about Lottay in Arizona Bride magazine: "Show Them the Money!"

I'm really writing this blog post as an excuse to link to this!