Delegation isn't something that comes easy for me. But as such things go, running a team of 23 talented individuals means that you either sink or delegate (swim). So delegation has been an evolving skill for me in recent years; one that I believe I've gotten considerably better at through all the practice.

Today I'd like so celebrate a major, personal victory as the result of excellent work by a team. Woo's release of WooDojo represents one of our finest hours; not because our V1 release is the best in history (probably not even ours), but because this was a team - and not a management - effort.

As a management team, we gave the team only two things: 1) the roadmap & direction of our strategic journey; and 2) a very raw concept that barely resembles WooDojo in its V1 state today. The brilliant execution of these these two elements is testament do the fantastic work of the team to distill our concepts & strategic notions into digestible, action items.

For me - as co-founder - this is reward of the faith & trust we've put into our team to take us to greater heights. We have given them the platform & safety net; all they need to do is shine. And how they have just done that.

I'm learning to code. Again.

I used to love programming in high school and it was that love that lead me to get involved online, teach myself web designing & some intermediate PHP and eventually develop the product that became WooThemes.

And then I stopped coding to focus on running a business. Which made loads of sense at the time of course. Heck, the business started to grow at an alarming rate, there were new challenges everywhere and the team we were hiring had more time to refine their coding skills. So mine became obsolete and I justified not coding by saying / believing that my time was more profitable spent elsewhere. Big mistake.

The Future

I haven't quite bought into the "coding is the new writing" mantra with some enthusiasts even suggesting that everyone should learn to code at school. But there is merit in that argument.

The Internet is at an all-time high at the moment. More people worldwide have access to it and are spending more time, doing various different things, on the internet every day. This won't slow down in the next couple of years.

But the internet isn't the be-all & end-all either… At the moment, every one and their mother is looking for a reputable web developer of a technical cofounder and the supply is short. So it's a good thing that people are learning to code, because we need those skills in the short-term. In the long-term, we'll eventually have an over-supply of web developers.

This should however not deter you from learning to code today.

Everything will have an user interface

We've already seen the way in which user interfaces are penetrating our daily lives. Smartphones & tablets are the best example of this at present. In the future, I can totally see my (supposedly) simple toaster having an interface of sorts. Everything will eventually have some kind of user interface.

And user interfaces need to be programmed.

Beyond writing (a blog post for another day), the skill to code is probably one of the most relevant & sustainable skills that you can teach yourself. You don't need to be the best coder either; you just need to hold your own with some code.

There are multiple, easy ways to learn code in your spare time, at your own pace & convenience. Choose a language, choose a learning vehicle and get coding.

"eCommerce" is one of those pre-2000 Dot Com bubble-related words, that lost most people a lot of money. And whilst the concept of buying things online have continued to grow + evolve in recent years, it seems that eCommerce itself has never been able to shake that pre-2000 bad vibes & stigma.

In the last 8 years, search traffic is down drastically and doesn't look like it has quite recovered. News mentions are however steadily on the rise, which seems to mirror the success that eCommerce platforms have been experiencing of late:

Square is revolutionizing the way retailers accepts payments and have managed to obliterate the gap between online & off. Shopify continues to lead the way with some impressive stats from 2011. In the last couple of months we've seen some even simpler platforms launch (Gumroad, InspirePay, Goodsie) - some of pockets full of VC backing - to make the process & experience of selling stuff online even easier. Going into the WordPress vertical, I can also say that within only 6 months, WooCommerce have become a significant part of our business & overall revenue.

If I had a few eggs left, I'd put it in this basket.

Not much apparently.

Consider some of these trends:

• We're generally in agreement that the value of an idea resides in the execution of the idea.
• Pivoting within startups is so in-vogue at the moment. How many startups are still working on the same (original) idea 6 / 12 / 24 months down the line?
• Y Combinator is considering taking on founders / founding teams regardless of whether they have an idea or not. Sure they say it's an experiment, but how much truth lies in their notion?

In principle I agree that execution is ultimately keen for any idea. A shitty idea with brilliant execution > a brilliant idea with shitty execution. Always. But that perception does devalue a good idea and ultimately the effort & brilliance required to make a shitty idea work, makes for a much riskier journey.

Given how easy it is to "have an idea" and get funding for that idea these days, I fear that too little emphasis is being placed on the value of the foresight that a true visionary offers when they have a really great idea.

Good ideas will also be a viable business. If you can generate good ideas, you'll always find yourself there or thereabouts.

I read Paul Graham's latest essay - "Frighteningly Ambitious Startup Ideas" - over the weekend and found myself wondering how many prospective startup founders were lapping up his every word. Heck, I found myself thinking nostalgically about solving some of the world's biggest problems and making billions from it.

But when the initial excitement waned a little, I realized that a case needs to be made for the "not-so-ambitious" startup ideas. Founding a billion dollar company sure is an exciting prospect for any entrepreneur worth the title, but the law of averages dictate that only a handful of us will be able to do that in every generation. That however doesn't rule out that you can build a company that is worth a million dollars.

I can tell you that WooThemes is neither an overly ambitious startup, didn't possess the sexiest startup idea when we started and we'll in all likelihood never get remotely close to a billion dollar valuation. As far as things go, we're a pretty run-of-the-mill type startup.

That has however not deterred us from building a great business that has paid our salaries (and then some) for more than 4 years now and we're still going from strength to strength. On top of that, our success has spawned a whole bunch of other opportunities across the board.

My advice: Don't be blinded by chasing the frighteningly ambitious startup ideas. It's definitely not a bad idea to pursue a lesser idea, smaller opportunity and less profitable / significant market.