Founder (or co-founder) of iceboxed companies Paperlex, Minimum Viable Fitness, and New York Burger Appreciation Society. Currently on-staff at Work Market and Greyworks.
Failed Misanthrope.
Hodor. Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor. Hodor Hodor.
Hodor.
MVP: Minimum Viable Product. Oftentimes, your product is not a pile of code but an inexpensive process that's cheaper and faster than building software.
Don't get sucked into the idea that you need an engineer to prove the concept and start making money. Sometimes, all you need is a few well-thought out spreadsheets, a splash page, and a cellphone.
Sadly, these sorts of things are proprietary (it is "hacking" after all) and until a company isn't reliant on OPNs for growth, no one is really incentivized to talk about it. Even after they've made it, it probably still works for them.
I can say that OPNs are increasingly vigilant about protecting their main asset: their network. Networks purport to be open, but will immediately silo each other when they feel like others are encroaching on their turf—there's a reason Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn don't let you OAuth into their websites to sign up, but will happily authenticate you to others.
Further, many things that companies do might be considered plain good marketing and advertising, not "hacks". Playing by the rules isn't newsworthy.
Schedule a call if you want help thinking through your challenges.
