Update: We're now open for business, and the Chronulator is now available.

I've spent a lot of time over the last few months working on the business that will be ShareBrained Technology. I have wasted countless hours attempting to achieve perfection when it's not really necessary.

  • Do I really need to have my Web site ready for a full-on SlashDotting?
  • Do I need to optimize my Web site's download speed or make it look nice on the iPhone?
  • Do I need real-time inventory tracking that takes into account that different kits can share the same inventory parts?
  • Do I need to offer myriad shipping options and charge shipping that's accurate to the cent?
  • Do I need to write my own custom blog software to do exactly what I want it to do?
  • Do I need a seamless shopping cart that will make buying 693 Chronulator kits easy as pie?

The answer to all of these questions is, "not really." What I need to do is launch this company. I recently discussed my some friends and my wife and came to the following conclusions:

  • Perfection can't be achieved, because by the time you achieve it, your market has moved on. (Or in exceptional cases, you get old and die…)
  • Business is messy. No matter what you do, it'll be too much for some and not enough for others. And you can't read your customer's minds. So just put something decent out and improve from there, based on feedback from real people, not your own educated guesses.
  • There's a certain amount of fear involved in launching a product. I've done all this work and bought all this inventory. Will people really want my product? Will they hate it? Will anybody buy it? There's an easy way to postpone those potentially painful answers – don't ever release the product. Of course, by doing that, you deny yourself the greatest payoff of all – success.

So come hell or high water, ShareBrained Technology will launch next week. And if we're not completely ready, our customers will drive us to polish those last remaining blemishes quickly.

Here we go!