Joshua Loewenstein is a psychologist who's created a web app (StudyRails.com). He says, "Getting Real provided considerable intelligence and inspiration, and helped me decide to give it a go."
What business does a psychologist have founding a web startup? Doesn't that take lots of money, a big team, and years and years of experience? I used to think that way. Then I did some research and read Getting Real.I conceived of StudyRails.com to help with problems I frequently hear about in my clinical work work with students. Even bright and accomplished students often have less than optimal study habits—most struggle to one degree or another with procrastination and online distractions. StudyRails helps students do better by creating study schedules, sending reminders when it's time to study, and blocking online distractions during study time.
I thought for a while about whether to found StudyRails or not. I love clinical work, and was daunted by all I imagined would be involved in creating a web startup. Getting Real provided considerable intelligence and inspiration, and helped me decide to give it a go. I particularly liked the emphasis on solving your own problem — or, in my case, solving the problems of students with whom I work closely. I was confident I brought that to the venture — knowledge and passion about helping students succeed.
Getting Real provided a guide for translating my ideas, and my passion, into a successful web application. Without knowing it could be done by a small team with few resources and little web experience on my part—my Ruby on Rails developer and designer are experienced (and brilliant) at what they do—I'm not sure I would've started out at all.
The Getting Real ethos of keeping things simple and uncluttered has been invaluable. We've also been inspired by other 37 signals products in that regard. We have a small team, few meetings, and relatively few features. Our limited resources force us to be creative — yet we are starting to garner positive reviews on some of the most popular blogs on the web. I'm also enjoying myself immensely, and am happy to have found another avenue for helping students succeed.
Thanks for Getting Real, and for your products as well.
