This is a personal e-mail newsletter from Andrew Montalenti, co-founder & CTO of Parse.ly
About three years ago, I had just returned to NYC from Philadelphia, where I had participated in the Dreamit Ventures accelerator program. We had just built the Parse.ly Reader, promising a better news consumption experience: "fresh content with minimal garnish".
In 2010-2011, Parse.ly evolved into a platform for online publishers. Earlier this year, we launched Dash, our flagship editorial analytics product. And Dash is now trusted by editors and writers at top media organizations such as The Atlantic, Mashable, ArsTechnica, and USNews.
Along the way, I've met many people who have provided advice, feedback, wisdom, and criticism of the products I helped build. But to date, I hadn't come up with a unified way of addressing you all with thoughtful updates. That changes today, with Fire and Motion I -- my first e-mail update to everyone I've come across in my startup travels.
As for the name of this newsletter, it comes from Joel Spolsky. In 2002 (when I was a freshman at NYU), he wrote a post called Fire and Motion. In it, he wrote "Fire and Motion, for small companies like mine, means two things. You have to have time on your side, and you have to move forward every day. Sooner or later you will win."
Six years out of college and three years into Parse.ly, I know exactly what he means.
Joel also wrote an excellent follow-up piece in 2008 for Inc Magazine. In it, he focused on the notion of making forward motion while forcing your competition to run for cover. Sachin (my co-founder) and I regularly re-read this piece as a reminder of how to break into markets held by stagnant incumbents.
Fire and Motion. I hope you'll find this email's contents thought-provoking, informative, and worthy of your time. And, of course, if it isn't, feel free to unsubscribe.