We're all on macs. Except Alex. He's on an ubuntu machine. So his bluetooth does not work.

Done. 💰

Find people you want to work with. If the thing is successful, you're in it for the long-haul. Better enjoy their company, otherwise it will be a long series of awkward silences.

Alex (cofounder) had a super cool idea to create a sync tool that could watch directories and update pens/projects on a schedule. We've also thought about making a binary that'd submit changes as a build step for editors like Sublime that allow after-save actions. We'd also like to create an API one day. We're open to ideas/suggestions. Everything's on the table.

I can't speak for the other founders, but here are mine, in alphabetical order: https://codepen.io/chriscoyier/ https://codepen.io/deegill/ https://codepen.io/jakealbaugh/ https://codepen.io/mariemosley/ https://codepen.io/quezo/ https://codepen.io/rachsmith/ http://codepen.io/tholman/ These may or may not be employees of CodePen.

Haha, I remember sitting in a meeting with the CEO of SurveyMonkey, where we worked while starting CodePen. He's showing us graphs of SurveyMonkey making millions and I'm sharing a graph of TWO PRO SIGNUPS in a single day with Alex.

Geez betty, this our first date. I think we should get to know one another first... :) How about new user counts? You can't sell all your drama in your first book. You have to leave something for the second.

I'd guess I'm semi-qualified to answer this. I've done back-end development almost exclusively throughout my career. I can change the background of your web page via css, which sums up my front-end experience. :) I think this skill is just like any other: through constant practice you can become proficient. I'd say that if you were able to navigate the rigours of front-end-dev, you'll be fine working on back-end projects. Pick a language, read a fundamental book, then start working on a real-world problem. Don't just do the Hello World examples. Create a back-end API for your todo front-end. Create a blogging platform from scratch. Then move on from there. What you'll find is that if you're solving a business problem you care about, you'll be better at solving it. Find a person you can work with who'll push you. Do a little project together. Also, don't get too hung up on deployment or anything deeper than the web app itself. Use Heroku or Elastic Beanstalk to get your code running. I have friends who run very successful businesses with very little knowledge of how their stuff is deployed. Just keep practicing.

Although we take it seriously, there's no secret sauce here. We pick pens/projects/posts/collections as they come in, based on what's looking good that day. Sometimes we'll go with a theme (like on international panda day - thanks Marie! ) like so: We have a few trusted non-employees who have picking capabilities turned on. Picks are added to a queue and are rolled out every 20 minutes. I can be bribed to pick you pen with thai food gift certificates.

We're going steady. Sometimes we hold hands.