An argument of why they won't buy webOS from HP -- IMO, Amazon shows its focus on recent launch. They didn't release an Android phone, but just an Android tablet to build their empire of content. Hence they don't need differentiations on hardware/OS level, instead they want a hardware/OS which they can: push their cost way down; cheap enough to get people on board; and sell their content.
One shouldn't spend months in basement coding, instead go and execute something simple, release, get metrics and feedback and learn how to iterate with an aim at product fit. With experience and good examples of launched products, that would get you an amazing team and good track record.
cohort analysis is the best investment for us so far. without cohort, we never know if our iterations are contributing our goals -- usually it means keeping track of retention for identifying product/market fit.
It's a neat design. timeline with horizontal scroll (lifepath) is more natural than vertical scroll (fb). Of course FB designs this way because of its layout limitation.
If you can't monetize it, you can at least sell the source code as an enterprise solution -- i think there are many SMB would like to get this simple system in house.
Your product needs two sides of customers: merchants want to reach more consumers and consumers want to get good deals. Breaking this chicken and egg issue creatively is probably the single most important thing you needed to do.