March 20, 2016:
A guy I talked to a bit ago read about the issues we had with our first website developer. Instead of giving him an update, I thought I’d share it with posterity and send him the link.

We have a new developer! I think they’re working out. They’re not quite as aggressive as I was hoping for, and I’d like more project management out of them, but I think they’re working out. My fingers are crossed.

A woman was going to be my CTO and manage them. But she had a few things that were occupying her and she didn’t jump in and take over, as I wanted her to. Then something else happened and she hasn’t been in communication for 8 days. So it’s not working out. I spent at least 40 hours last week reviewing things, designing the product and the schema and working on a software tool. I got almost nothing else done.

So far, the developers and I spent a week going over the functionality and fleshing out a spec. Then they redid most of the mockups (the previous developer gave me jpg’s, but no photoshop files, plus they needed lots of editing.) And they have some sample HTML of a few of the pages. Next week begins setting up the site and the code, plus finishing more of the sample HTML pages (before they create the software that will then generate the HTML.)

So I’ve been managing the developers near full-time, reviewing the mockups, designing the product and the database. The product has to be absolutely minimal, yet still deliver a good experience for the user and do everything we need it to. Plus I’ve been working on some software for a tool.

Last week I reviewed one of the books being written for me. I didn’t get to the other one this weekend. I also put together some lists of about 1400 politicians and am working on getting their contact info, with some help from people on Fiverr.com.

I start working from the moment I wake till late at night. I take a lot of deep breaths to let go of the stress. The stress is from needing another 20 or so hours each day.

I wish I had someone beside me. It’s don’t understand why that didn’t work out. But that’s okay. I don’t have to understand everything…

I do have a marketing VP so there’s another 40 hours of work a week I’m NOT doing. Yay!  It’ll probably be like this for the next few months, till we launch.

And then a whole new drama will begin. It’s just what there is to do.

That’s the update. If you haven’t, please add yourself to our announcement list.