I still like http://throwww.com better. I'm only saying that cause I built Throwww, though.

I had almost this exact same idea last year (a one-off blogging platform). It wouldn't have looked anywhere near this nice though, good work :)

I reallyyy like what you've done. Similar to http://pen.io

Unless you're talking about a million concurrent users or something, Django actually scales pretty well for medium concurrency.

Here's some basic advice though (1) Cache stuff. Django has a built-in cache framework, but sometimes I even cache stuff in the process (It's not best practice at all, mind you, and every pro will tell you to stay away from that)

(2) Use the ORM properly! For example, never do something like len(MyModel.objects.filter(arg='blah')) to do things like count entries or see if entries exist. Instead use .count() or .exists()

(3) Unless it's something complicated, I would just use something like Heroku. Easy to scale resources up and down as well as deploy. I typically use AWS S3 as my static host and Heroku as my Django host.

As a counter point - Try to avoid caching until all other options are exhausted. They tend to complicate matters and pave over the real problems, when they could some times have been solved more elegantly.

Thanks. Can you please explain 3rd point. How is EC2 complicated than Heroku?

Deployment with Heroku: Write app. 'git push heroku master'. Scaling with Heroku: Drag the scroll bar in the admin panel.

Deployment on EC2: Write app. Provision EC2 instance. Ensure instance has all the software you need (Framework, nginx, etc), and install it if needed. Pull code from repository. Start all necessary processes. Scaling with EC2: Repeat deployment steps (but this should be easier because you know what needs to be done with the image you've selected).

Heroku is easier and removes the headaches of running your own server. If you like running your own server - and know how to secure and optimize it - then EC2 (or linode, rackspace, etc) is a good option.

The problem extends beyond financing. As even the article says, successful companies like Shopify are able to raise $$$ from the US. It's also a scale problem. Canada has has, by my count, four micro tech scenes (Waterloo, Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa). In a Country with such a small population, there really still isn't a "hub" for tech. With talent so dispersed (and much of it moving to the US as it is), it's hard to get talent for good ideas in one place.

Indeed. Big companies like Microsoft and Google tend to snatch a good portion of highly skilled engineers, while most designers (product and visual) tend to head towards New York City or San Francisco for better growth and money.

IME the remaining skilled engineers want to work remotely.

The last 8 years I've worked almost exclusively for US based businesses as a remote contractor. It's the best of both worlds, I can charge competitive rates but have a relatively overall lower cost of living and access to free healthcare. Taxes are higher in Canada, but it works out that I'm way ahead than if I lived in SF or NY.

The downside is that I occasionally do miss the one-on-one interaction I get with team. It helps that I've begin working for a co-op, and I'm often working as a team with the same devs on new client projects. I also do lots of oss work, which helps me keep my skills up by working on challenging projects as part of a community.

That's interesting, I've always wanted to do something like that and never really figured out how. Mind giving details? Or if you'd rather not do it here, just send me an email, it's my username at gmail.

I don't mind talking about it here. I've worked solo for a number of years after leaving a stable full time job. I did a lot of open source work and through the community I've come in contact with a group of devs who work together on client projects.

The people running the coop are responsible for finding us the new contracts, and they add something on top while I get to charge decent rates. I know I could probably market myself and earn the same thing without the middleman, but I don't have to worry about keeping the pipeline full, billing, negotiations, etc.. having someone else handle that frees me up to focus on development.

The nice thing about this arrangement is that since we're a team we can work on larger projects than I would otherwise be able to bid on myself. Instead of having to juggle 5 or 10 projects to fill all my billable hours in a month, I can easily do it with just a couple. I'm also able to go much deeper and work on 6-12 month contracts, rather than doing short, trivial projects.

Very interesting.. I've often though about doing this from South Africa. How did you get into doing work remotely?

True, when I graduated Waterloo CS in 2007, I remember a sizable portion of the coop board postings were from Google, MS, and RIM, about 20-40 postings each most terms. The pay in Silicon Valley was maybe 25-50% higher than Toronto/Montreal/Waterloo and the weather didn't suck.

It would be interesting to see a breakdown from Waterloo of how many postings are in the US vs Canada and how large the companies are. Sort of like a litmus test for the tech scene there.

I'm also surprised at the lack of news from the Waterloo incubator, especially on this site.

> "The pay in Silicon Valley was maybe 25-50% higher than Toronto/Montreal/Waterloo and the weather didn't suck."

I live in SF currently, and recently accepted another job in NYC. Apples to apples, the pay in SF/SV is easily 100% higher than Toronto right now.

The gap is even higher in NYC (150%+), though of course, cost of living is going to eat up most of that. With the bubble heating up even more right now, I know people who are picking up comp packages 200%+ higher than the going rate in Canada.

There is simply no reason to go back - critical mass of talented, dedicated people. Interesting work. Ludicrous sums of money.

"There is simply no reason to go back - critical mass of talented, dedicated people. Interesting work. Ludicrous sums of money."

For a while, I had trouble working because of health issues so I decided to work part-time while getting medicated and going through physio.

Much harder to do that in the U.S. without a sort of group insurance. The cost of subscribing to an individual plan with my condition would probably be through the roof.

However, because of socialized medicine in Canada, I had far less financial pressure on myself as my medicine and visits were obviously covered.

Once 2014 comes around, that won't be an issue in the U.S. anymore.

the NAFTA really does a number on us (Canada) here in making it so easy to work in the States on TN status. I went to university a few years ago with a small group of 3 other pretty bright programmer friends.

It turns out it's hard to find an excellent job in Canada. Though I'm now working for Shopify, which appears to be the only really great option for me here, the other three of them have recently moved to New York, the Valley, and North Carolina.

The problem with the tech scene in Canada is a chicken and egg one. We need good companies to prevent skilled tech workers from moving to the States, but we need skilled workers to build good companies. Moving to a Canadian startup hub, if one is ever designated, is not significantly easier for most people than moving to the Valley.

For me, it's the other way 'round. I'm an American (barely; I'm from Maine and talk like a Canadian) who'd love to move to Ottawa or Toronto, but there's not a hell of a lot up there.

Out west in the Vancouver area, I hear talk of many companies trying to band together to promote the tech sector, in an effort to turn things around. But as for right now, I agree that it's pretty bleak. I do see quite a number of nice job postings for Toronto, but not much elsewhere. (I'm an American who has managed to land a software dev job not even in Vancouver but in Victoria, which has a very limited scene outside of AbeBooks.)

The incentive to go public is for companies who could use additional funding to grow. VC isn't short cash.

>> There will always be room for businesses that make money, bubble or not

Absolutely. Cycles happen, and for now those of raising money can enjoy the peak. The problem is that with all the fanfare, people forget that companies need to make money.

Lobbying is perfectly legal. The argument is not pro-corporation. It's that restructuring the system (like eliminating lobbyists) is the way to do it.

Makes you wonder why he didn't exit when he had a chance at $6 billion. I doubt groupon will ever see that type of valuation again considering how terrible their coupons have become and how natural competitors in the space like local papers and yelp are beginning to gain traction.

nh posted a video below which states that based on a $25B valuation, Lefkofsky will grab $5.3B, as he owns 22 percent of Groupon. That's a hell of a lot more than he'd have made in the Google deal.

Courtesy of nh: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_UYtYAChi8

Isn't it only potentially a hell of a lot more, if Groupon stock holds its value, as opposed to cash/GOOG?

Groupon stock only has to hold its value long enough for his lockout (usually 6 months) to end. It's usually not hard to do that - when things come crashing down, it's usually a few years in the future, not months.

Not really. Unloading 20% of a company without telling anyone is both hard and, I think, illegal (as an exec). This is one of the reasons Bill Gates' stock sales are so consistent is to keep the market from freaking out when he sells stock. (Ohmigod, Bill sold stock! Oh wait, he's done that every month for 10 years... nevermind.)

Lefkofsky might be able to hedge against the decline of the stock, but hedging 20% of a big company (especially because it'd be difficult to build a portfolio which replicated Groupon's situation and risks) is a pretty tall order.

All that said, I tend to agree with your sentiment...

Facebook is already in this business with Deals: http://www.facebook.com/blog.php?post=446183422130