Once again we bring you one of our monthly interviews with design and web professionals, the goal is to provide some educational and informative insight into how people work, what inspires them and how they got where they are. This month we have Danny & Shawn of Iridesco makers of fine web apps like Harvest.

What is your company called and what do you do?
Hello, we’re Iridesco. We think of interesting and useful ideas, and if we have the time and means to do something about the ideas, we make them realities. The company is founded by Shawn Liu and Danny Wen in 2003 in a Hoboken (New Jersey) brownstone living room. Today, we’re based in downtown New York City.

The three things that we’ve done that your readers might know about: Harvest (a simple online time tracking application for small business), Hear, Hear (an online magazine for small business owners), and SuprGlu (an online service that glues together your personal content blogs, flickr, del.icio.us, and various other social websites).

http://www.getharvest.com
http://hearhear.us
http://www.suprglu.com

What was the “big bang” that lead you to start your company?
“Big bang” isn’t a great way to describe how things came to be as our company actually started very slowly. We had met as students in college and thought it’d be a good idea to start a company together down the road. After working for larger corporations during our first post-college years, we founded Iridesco to do things the way we wanted to: to do business with integrity and fun.

What makes your product or service stand out in the crowd?
Harvest stands out because of its beautiful and intuitive interface. We really focused on the user experience. Time tracking isn’t something people want to do, it’s something they have to do. Our job is to make time entry as seamless and easy as possible so it’s not a dreadful task.

What did you do before this came along?
Before shifting to our product-based business, Iridesco consulted on web projects for a variety of clients. Running the consulting business prompted us to create something like Harvest so we can better track and manage our time.

What was the single biggest hurdle to getting your company launched?
I think we were the biggest hurdle. Even though we think Harvest is very good, there are still thousands of places where we can improve it – especially at the beginning, before we launched Harvest, we had to really tell ourselves to stop improving every little thing and just let it go.

What has been the best method or tactic for advertising your company?
Word of mouth. Cliche but true. If you have a product that people truly enjoy using, your users will be your best salespeople.

What’s your prediction for the “future of the web”, what’s the next big thing?
Shawn: I’m not good with predictions. But I think the big thing will have something to do with media – such as the distribution of TV shows and movies. Many other things will happen, but I think the media thing will affect more people.

What are the long-term effects of all the “social networking” products going to be?
A thriving physical therapy industry for ailing people who spend too much time hunching over a computer.

What advice can you give for new entrepreneurs who are gearing up to produce their big idea?
Have patience, listen to your customers, trust your instincts, and be happy.

What should they watch out for?
There are a lot of external things that you cannot control – the way some people react to the product, or some problems you didn’t anticipate. I think the important thing is to keep your goals in mind, and not get sidetracked and become reactionary.

What should they embrace?
Whatever they believe in. And their loved ones.

What is your favorite book?
Shawn: mmm, maybe Invisible Man (Ellison, not the one by Wells, though that’s a good book too).
Danny: I can only speak of my favorite at the moment; Einstein’s Dreams by Allan Lightman. The book takes a whimsical look at the possible alternatives to the space time continium that we understand… a fun read which re-emphasizes that there are many perspectives to one event.

What is your favorite movie?
Shawn: that’s a hard one. Easier one: my favorite movie this year is Rocket Science.
Danny: I recently re-watched the Before Sunrise/Before Sunset series and I’m not afraid to say I enjoyed them.

Who is your favorite musical artist (or What musical artist are you listening to the most right now?)
Shawn: favorite – Wilco. Listening to most right now – mum, I think.
Danny: Listening to The Album Leaf a lot this week. Next week, who knows…