Andrew Draper

…flow is what we do with that time, how we live through it. The beat is everywhere, but every life has to find its own flow. – Jay-z

After reading a number of articles talking about the benefits of stand-up desks and seeing a few people I know use one I decided it was time to take action. Doing some quick research (e.g. Googling) I quickly discovered that it wasn’t going to be easy to acquire a desk, plus I already had a [...]

Given the cost of a pint of beer, $5-9, if an app and/or service is priced in that range the test for whether it’s worth buying it or not: “At the price of a pint of beer, would I get more value from this app/service or from having a pint of beer?” And from a [...]

I’ve been reading A LOT and consulting with immigration lawyers about US immigration and visas available to Canadians to work legally in the United States over the last few months. I’ve had a TN in the past but have been looking for a way for both my wife and I to work in the US. [...]

In music you can be just a singer, you can be an instrumentalist, or you can be a combination of both, usually referred to as the singer/songwriter. Often times the singer/songwriter is neither an amazing singer nor a particularly virtuosic instrumentalist but when it comes to writing a catchy song no one does it better [...]

The short version? Awesome. The longer version… I’ve been a part of creating many things online over the last 12-15 years-brochureware sites, social-based sites, web-based applications, banner ads, email marketing, flash-based sites, even an internet hoax years ago that claimed the National Capital Commission here in Ottawa was going to turn the Rideau Canal (the [...]

We went out for Sushi last night (Ken, my wife Cheryl and I) and had a very interesting conversation. Conversation between us tends to veer towards problems and solutions (at their essence potential business ideas), this one was about creating a town based on current web-based app/small business thinking, in the process revitalizing the concept [...]

To the 3 people that regularly read this…sorry, but it’s another post about my experiences launching and learning with Manpacks! It’s been a whirlwind 2-3 weeks since launching manpacks.com, it managed to exceed my expections for a ‘launch’ and it’s also managed to reinforce a number of things that I’ve always believed and have long [...]

One of the most common “comments” about manpacks I’ve seen is that it seems like it’s awfully lazy. Which makes me wonder about these people as they clearly haven’t thought this statement through. What about that remote control in your hands while you’re watching tv? You can’t walk 5ft to the tv to switch channels? [...]

After an incredibly exciting weekend of watching manpacks.com go viral to a degree I thought I’d outline how we got to this point, and talk about our experience with one service in particular – chargify.com. First, a bit of back story… Manpacks started out as a casual conversation via  IM, talking over some problems/solutions that [...]