The Thrill of All Over Again: The Coming of BBX

Something interesting is going on at BricaBox, LLC, the company I founded nearly 10 months ago: we're throwing out every line of code written to power VentBox.com, and new lines have begun filling their place; the app we're making is growing out of the ashes of the one we already made.

At the May NY New Tech Meetup, I announced that VentBox had done its job as a prototype for something "bigger." That something bigger, called the BricaBox Platform, I told a crowd of 500, would be like a Swiss Army Knife for the web: It would do a lot of jobs pretty damn well, and you won't want to leave home without it.

Well, I am proud to say that the planning has led, finally, to lines of code. Launched somewhere on a secret test server in the interweb, coding guru Kyle B. has cooked up the underpinnings of a web app which is worth getting excited about. Indeed, the thrill of developing is something I hadn't really felt for a few months, as I had turned my attention to design and scalability after VentBox's soft-launch back in early February. This, I'm excited about.

So now we're back in it, and I love it. Everyday we think of new features and functionality to make this app better than we imagined it the last time around. It's applications are endless.

And this time there's no holding back. When we were developing VentBox as a prototype for "something bigger" that I wanted to do, I was convinced by many people that starting with a small, simple project would be better. I was just getting into this space and took Getting Real's mantra of doing one thing super well too literally, and restricted my app to just the function it served on the surface. This was a bad idea, and went to show that not all mantras are to be taken as gospel.

If you're building something, be it an application or a Company, the most important thing is to build for growth. You can build the awesomest tool ever, but if you can't easily add on that next functionality or integration, then you're screwed. All you're left with is a tool that will lose relevance over time.

The real key to building something and being able to remain excited about it is building in flexibility and extensibility. You want what you're building today to be a jumping off point for the future, not a screen-shot of one way of thinking at one point in time. In this fast paced world driven by innovation, being able to act and build quickly is not an option, it's a necessity.

So, I'm more than happy to report the earliest stages of the new Platform. Going forward, we'll open the doors for a few people in the community to check out the new digs, and perhaps do some guest development, and we're certain that this will excite a good number of people who have a need for what we're building. Whatever the reception, I'm glad to have something to be excited about again, because as we build the Platform more connected and flexible, I know that Kyle and I can take this baby anywhere, without being held back by a closed platform.

BBX is coming. I can't wait.

(PS: If you want alpha access, leave a comment below or email me.)