Coding
The primary focus during May has been focusing on the code. We clamped down on the features to focus on writing tests, refactoring, and generally making things run smoothly. There’s still a bit more to work on, but most everything is in place and working. So from here on in things will be more about polish than functionality.
Logistics
It’s easy to overlook how time-consuming the logistics can be. From reviewing and editing the the privacy policy and terms of service to setting up the production environment, SSL, and bank account, time seems to disappear quickly. Next on the list is getting our merchant account setup, and then most of the logistics should be behind us for the time being.
RailsConf
Of course, it was great to get out to Portland for RailsConf. I got to meet a plethora of great people and I can say that it really feels good to be making a living working with Rails. I got to give a handful of demos, and talking to everyone definitely has me excited to get it in everyone’s hands as soon as possible.
The Public Site
Spending all of my time focusing on the application makes it easy to overlook the fact that Sifter needs a public facing site to show how it works and handle registrations. We were able to get the public site to around 85% finished in May and should be wrapping it up completely here in the next week or so.
Upcoming
With the production environment fully setup, we’ll be eating our own dogfood within the next couple of weeks. Then, with the majority of logistics behind us, June is going to be about making a big push towards the private beta. It’s tough to say exactly when that will happen, but at this point, it’s the next major milestone.