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Are there any YC founders married w/kids? | davidw: pg is married! No kids yet, though, afaik. |
Are there any YC founders married w/kids? | aerohacker: Thanks for posing the question. I'd been wondering the same, Have there been any YC startup people with teenagers??!!!I suppose having teenagers would be a great way to recruit your first coding employees! Except mine aren't techies at all. Yet. |
Are there any YC founders married w/kids? | SwellJoe: My co-founder is married with two kids. We were in winter 2007. Neither of us is young and fresh out of college (I was 32, he was 33, at the time). When we were accepted, I had a house in Austin, a 350Z, a long-time girlfriend, and a dog. The house was sold in record time (to the first person who looked at it, the day before the open house), the Z was sold, the girlfriend got a job at Google, and the dog rode right beside me in the moving truck. My co-founder already lived in Santa Clara, so it wasn't quite as much of an upheaval for him. |
Are there any YC founders married w/kids? | aston: Tipjoy. The founders are married (to each other) and they have a (really cute) kid. |
Are there any YC founders married w/kids? | iamelgringo: TipJoy's founders are married and working together.My wife and I are bootstrapping right now. |
Are there any YC founders married w/kids? | maxklein: Being married and having a child is not a liability. The liability comes if the partner requires a lot of attention, and does not allow you to pursue your dreams. I.e, if you're married to a needy person, then you'll not have the flexibility to push limits.I actually think being married is a good thing, because you are more likely to do things that are safe and that will lead to steady upwards growth, instead of trying to play the lotto and hoping for a blowout. |
Are there any YC founders married w/kids? | sanj: I'm not a YC applicant. Part of this was because Paul Graham made it pretty clear that he believes that having a family is at odds with a startup: http://www.paulgraham.com/notnot.htmlThe charitable part of me wants to believe the "I'm not willing to take responsibility..." angle, but it treads awfully close to discrimination.I assumed that this would work against us to the point where it wasn't worth applying. The same way that single founder teams are canned almost before they are read.Note that it doesn't actually matter if this is the case. My impression based on public information led me to this conclusion and YC lost out on a great team and idea. I'm sure I'm not alone.I'm putting my money where my mouth is: the rest of my cofounders are also all married. Most of us have kids.We're doing just fine, thanks:http://www.prweb.com/releases/2008/07/prweb1139914.htmhttp://blog.luckycal.com/?p=15http://gigaom.com/2008/08/25/mobilize-launchpad-contestants-... |
Ask HN:Where to turn for office designs? | bootload: "... Where do startups find good, cheap Interior Designers that might also work remotely ..."ARCHitect. ARCHitect ... Up there.... Up there.Joel Spolsky has thought extensively on this problem ~ http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/BionicOffice.html Joel lets the Architects design and build offices that are not cheap and for good reason ~ http://www.inc.com/magazine/20080601/how-hard-could-it-be-ad... |
Are there any YC founders married w/kids? | josefresco: I'm a founder who's married with two kids (27 years old). One of the reasons I'm not able to join YC on even the east coast (I live a couple hours from Boston) is my family. I can't move them or myself away from them for a 'boot camp', just not feasible.I think YC is missing out on some great opportunities but that's just my viewpoint. |
Any VCs in Toronto, Canada? | lowkey: Check out JLA Ventures. They are based in Toronto and just recently raised a new $100 million fund. Rick Segal is their most visible partner and he seems to be a very stand-up guy. http://ricksegal.typepad.com/ |
DIY storage or not? | blogimus: We are moving to testing soon and can offer either a hosted version or let customers use their S3 account. Which offering would you advice we focus and why?Is there something that precludes you from offering the option to use either (or even both), like development time? |
Software for diagramming a system? | blogimus: It is OS X only, not open source, and I haven't used it myself, but I've heard a lot of recommendations for OmniGraffle.http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnigraffle/I was in the market for just such a beast a couple of years back: open source, high quality, cross platform. I'm not sure it exists yet. |
List of websites categorized by visitors' gender and age-group? | apollo: Quantcast.com |
DIY storage or not? | groovyone: I'd offer a hosted version. Most people will not want to go about setting up S3, dealing with private keys etc. Where's your market? |
Are there any YC founders married w/kids? | soc: It could be an advantage. It's nice to have one person in the family with a stable income you can fall back on, while trying to get things off the ground. |
DIY storage or not? | perdurabo: Definitely go hosted. S3 is not fun or easy for most people to set up. |
DIY storage or not? | gaius: I trust you've read what Joel has to say on generic syncing apps: http://joelonsoftware.com/items/2008/05/01.htmlSo I would say, 3. |
DIY storage or not? | vaksel: if you can only do one option do the hosted version, you are in an information bubble where most people you know use it, outside the valley most people never heard of it.+ chances are if a person has an S3 account, they most likely have the knowledge to do what you are doing themselves |
Are there any YC founders married w/kids? | electric: Time for a New Venture Animal: Ymwkcombinator |
DIY storage or not? | stcredzero: It is good to be the middleman! |
Are there any YC founders married w/kids? | geebee: I get the feeling that YC is based on a different set of values and insights than your typical VC firm is. Just my impression, of course, but I get the feeling that PG is trying out a social "hack".There's a magical section of life that a lot of people don't take advantage of - the first few years out of college, when your responsibilities and personal needs are very, very low. A lot of people in their early twenties who don't go directly to grad school spend this time as paralegals, programmers for bigCorps, and so forth.In a way, YC is testing out a perfect hack - showing how a remarkably small amount of money, along with just a bit of encouragement, can completely alter the course of a lifetime - and, if it is successful and spreads as a model, ultimately change the nature of careers and work.It's not that married founders with kids and a mortgage can't participate, but if "married with kids" describes you (and it certainly describes me), you probably aren't in that state anymore. But it's up to you to decide - I do know a startup founder who is 40 with a wife and little one (his wife works, though, which helps a lot - though in this case, the few grand YC offers would be irrelevant, and he's funded through a more traditional investment approach). I know lots and lots of married programmers with kids who work as early employees of startups. I could recommend this, because if you're very skilled in Silicon Valley, you can probably get a new job quickly - but it's probably nothing like being in YC.I remember my first few years after college - I lived near the beach in San Diego, my rent was about $325 a month, and I surfed constantly. Then I went to grad school. Wouldn't have been a bad time to try a startup, I suppose. |
ASK HN: what screencast software do you use on a mac? | qhoxie: Snapz Pro does a good job. |
ASK HN: what screencast software do you use on a mac? | bbgm: Look no further than ScreenFlow.http://www.varasoftware.com/For quick and dirty screenfast, the TechSmith folks have the Jing Projecthttp://www.jingproject.com/I have used both and quite happy with them.There is IShowU as well |
Software for diagramming a system? | epe: Another alternative is Dia:
http://live.gnome.org/DiaIt is (or was last I looked) less polished than OmniGraffle, but open source and cross-platform. |
DIY storage or not? | MicahWedemeyer: Definitely go with hosted. Every account you force people to sign up for will drop your user base by a ton. Would you be posting on Hacker News if you also had to sign up for S3 (or give your current S3 account) in order to provide storage for the comments?In addition, storing their S3 credentials has all its own problems. Remember that the AWS credentials are pretty powerful. If your database is compromised, those keys could be used to drain peoples' bank accounts via Flexible Payment System (FPS). Handle AWS credentials as you would a credit card number, which means avoid at all costs! |
DIY storage or not? | anamax: I suspect that folks who have an S3 account today are sophisticated enough that they'll undervalue your value-add. Moreover, folks who don't have an S3 account don't know your storage costs.FWIW, "control my own storage" is overhead for almost everyone; it is overhead that they'll pay to avoid. |
ASK HN: what screencast software do you use on a mac? | hbien: Sequence is super simple: http://macapper.com/2008/07/15/sequence-simplified-screen-re... |
Software for diagramming a system? | johnm: FWIW, OmniGraffle is the commercial solution on the Mac that pretty much everybody uses. If you're going to be doing diagrams more than every great once in awhile, it's worth investing in something good.I've been using it for years and it's what I do all of my hand created diagrams in. |
Best place(s) to find datasets to practice ML and DM? | ryanwaggoner: Would freebase work for what you need? |
Best place(s) to find datasets to practice ML and DM? | kobs: http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/sherstov/pdmc/ |
military reserve for startup owners? | blogimus: The keyword I read through this is that your brass ring is a $150K LOAN. For this loan, you obligate 1 weekend a month and 2 weeks a year, if I recall my reserve obligation right.
If you are doing it just for the money, I'd suggest don't. Find some other path. If you are interested in the reserves because of your patriotism and/or sense of duty, then by all means explore it.I enlisted in the Army for college money. Were I to do it over again, I would have gone through ROTC and made connections as an officer. Connections I would be able to use to help in business once I was done with military service.That's just my 2 cent. |
military reserve for startup owners? | nostrademons: Wait, are you thinking of joining the coast guard reserves and then starting a startup, or joining the reserves while starting a startup?The latter seems very much impractical. Startups are mentally all-consuming, and if I understand the reserves correctly, you still have to report for training regularly. The mental strain of this would probably be too much, and you'd let the startup falter. Plus, what if the startup takes off and then you (heaven forbid) get called up for active duty?The former might work, though it seems unlikely. I have friends & relatives in the military, both on active duty, in the reserves, and formerly in the reserves, and they generally have been positive about the experience. But they have personality types that are very much at odds with the typical startup founder: they like (or believe they need) structure & discipline, while successful founders usually thrive on ambiguity and change and can make decisions with very little information. Seems unlikely that the same person would have the personality traits to do well in both the military and in a tech startup.Also, never ever join up for any branch of the armed services on the assumption that "Well, I'm not going to get sent to a war zone anyway." Geopolitics can change very quickly, and in a war, coast guard ships get deployed right alongside the navy. |
military reserve for startup owners? | rms: Did you go to college? Why not be an officer?I have a friend who went to the Coast Guard academy. There are indeed some people from the Coast Guard that go to Iraq to guard offshore oil platforms, but comparatively few compared to the other armed forces. |
military reserve for startup owners? | pmorici: Government work and start-up work are diametrically opposed. My advice to anyone considering any kind of government employment... DON'T DO IT, it will suck the life out of you. |
military reserve for startup owners? | alaskamiller: I was a Marine combat engineer veteran and then a reservist and a recruiter for a bit of time.You're jumping the gun on a lot of things. Military benefits, especially for a reservist, isn't as cheery and rosey as you're picturing it.For example VA loans are only given to veterans, the same goes for the health insurance coverage.In addition, I find it somewhat disingenuous that people (this might not apply to you, feel free to email me to say I'm a pompous douche) are interested in the military, to only want the benefits but not the burden that few carry. |
military reserve for startup owners? | gexla: I was in the Army Reserves and then the National Guard. The biggest problem for me was the 7 months of straight training before I could get started with my unit.What the experience will be like almost entirely depends on the job you get. Some units are very active and actually a lot of fun. With other units you might do absolutely nothing, and the weekend ends up being a long nap.I was in an aviation unit and my unit allowed me to fly in the Chinook helicopters. We did a lot of civil stuff like helping carry supplies to the top of Mount Ranier for the forest service. I also met a lot of new people and got do to some interesting jobs. One of my "2 week trainings" was really a two week party and sleep during the day. Really, it could be a good way to break things up.Really what you need to do is go talk to your recruiter. Make sure you figure out what sort of units and jobs are available. If you can, talk to the unit you would be joining first. Ask your prospective unit about the sort of jobs they need filled. You might find something that interests you before you even start the process.Also take a look at the other branches and see what is available for them. You might find you won't be able to do exactly what you thought you might be able to do with the Coast Guard but something else might interest you in another branch. As I mentioned, aviation can be a lot of fun as well.When looking for other branches, the likelihood of getting deployed overseas really depends on the job and the unit. If you have a unit that has horrible readiness than you might not get sent out because of that, but those units are not as fun to join. The job is also a big factor. If you are in a high demand unit, then you would be screwed. Chinook units are fun to be in but they are probably more likely to go to war. Also, steer clear of infantry. ;)You don't get much pay so the money won't really be worth it if you are a decent earner. You get access to things like a break in health insurance but you have to consider how much that is really worth to you. As you mentioned, there are other perks available only to people in the service. Again, you have to decide if the reward is good enough.Personally, I couldn't do it. I would have to kill all my freelance jobs, put my networks on hold and generally get stale for at least 3 months. I would hate to be out of the loop for that long and it would negatively impact my real "day job."If you are not in this situation, I say go for it. |
military reserve for startup owners? | jjguy: I was an active duty (fulltime) air force officer, and am now in the USAF reserves. I say do it. Some thoughts:1 -- Typical time commitment is 1 weekend a month and 2 weeks per year; no matter how fast your startup is moving, you can swing that. It's probably a healthy break.2 -- Diversity is good for computer geeks. Life -- esp a startup -- takes a range of skills. Life in any of the armed forces will help build your character and experience.3 -- Your enjoyment will be closely tied to your reserve duty station. There are absolutely places that will suck the life out of you, but there are also places where you will feel like you are in a movie. I am very lucky to have made contacts during my active duty years that got me a great reserve position. Take the long view. If you're not happy with your first assignment, talk to people and work the system to move.4 -- health insurance for reservists is usually not effective outside your duty time (1 weekend/month, 2 weeks/year) note this is a political football; several years ago there was limited coverage for any reservist that did not have health coverage elsewhere. I'm not certain of the current status, and the coast guard is certainly a bit different than the other services.5 -- the pay helps. it's not a lot, but nor is it chump change -- esp if you get the officer slot.anyhow, my two cents. good luck.edit -- reading more of the comments: don't be too scared by the threat of deployment. (1) I'm slotted in the system as a computer engineer, and engineers don't get deployed. 10 total years in, and never even the threat of time overseas -- and that's during the wars. (2) deployment builds character, and is reasonably safe given how many people we have over there. you recall the study from a couple years ago? you're more likely to get murdered living in DC or Chicago than as a soldier in Iraq. |
military reserve for startup owners? | nolanbrown23: I just got out of the Navy as an enlisted Deck Seaman and my brother is an officer and my business partner. My younger brother is also enlisted in the Coast Guard right now.Let me say that it's possible to run a small, single person business while in the military, I did consulting/programming jobs while I was in and it was decent work. I would work while I was off duty and when I was out to sea and not on watch or during working hours. This took a lot out of me but I felt it to be worth it.Before I continue I must say that I'm proud of my service and what I did and the military is a good fit for some people.Let me give you my perspective about the Navy/Coast Guard. It's not fun, fun is rare and always involves a port. I like boats/ships/ocean and saw some cool things out there but it wasn't worth it for me. You spend your time split between watch, maintenance and other work. Coast Guard ships are particularly bad because most are so old, my younger brother's had holes in the starboard fuel tank, fires, parts breaking, terrible living space, etc. (One note about the fire on a ship, it will cause enormous damage and possibly kill crew members and is no joke.)I was one of 3 people on my ship with any higher education in a technical field, many officers outside the academies are majors that don't have good hiring prospects. Because of the lack of "engineers" (not meaning in the same way the Navy does), many officers are below par in terms of leadership, planning, logical abilities. That means the people you work with are dumb, unimaginative, and boring and could get you killed. (I came close a few times because of these type of officers)If you go enlisted your life will be run by your Chief which 90% of the time are not good leaders and not fun to work for. You would be under a 1st, 2nd and 3rd class petty officers who range in age of 19-40. These are hit and miss. My LPO/2nd class was great and will work with him any time. My former 1st class was an idiot and got fired from his job because he was so bad. My 3rd classes were 19-21 and acted as 19-21 years do, except they are your boss and you can't tell them to go fuck themselves.As for location, it's possible you stay in the Bay. If you go active then you'll be shipped anywhere including the gulf. (I just got back from there and don't let anyone tell you there are no ships there, there are some and they always get the short end of the stick.)When you join you'll go to boot camp or OCS depending on if you go enlisted or officer. Boot camp sucks, it's not what you think it is. OCS is 3x as hard as Boot Camp.Benefits are overrated, I do get the new GI Bill which is awesome but don't get to use it until Fall '09 when it starts. I'll be done with school by then and so it doesn't help me at all. I'm not sure the benefits you get in the reserve other then I know it's not worth it to join just for them, you need to have a real reason.My email is in my profile if you want to ask any other questions. |
military reserve for startup owners? | anonymousadvice: I'm not in the armed services - but many of my friends have been, I considered it before health problems ruled it out, and I come from an area of the country where service is extraordinarily common.the rules for joining any military service -1. find a friend who's served in that branch. They can be a good friend or just a friendly acquaintance who wants to help out a potential new member of their branch.however, they absolutely CANNOT be a current recruiter or being rewarded for bringing in recruits right now. Moreso it can't be the first than the second, but either is dangerous. People who have recently honorably left the service are the best.they will give you the straight scoop on the branch, where the bodies are buried, and how to get what you want out of the service while also meeting the obligations and responsibilities you signed up for.the info you can get from Hacker News is good, but it's not a substitute for the real thing unless someone here with Coast Guard experience is willing to take you under their wing.2. get every condition and bonus you want out of a recruiter and your contract IN WRITING. Just like a business contract in the real world, if it's not written down in your contract it's your word against theirs.if a recruiter suddenly starts getting shifty and tries to weasel out of this, find another recruiter. There are lots of them out there, and the odds are good that one of them will give you what you want as long as you're reasonable in what you're asking for.3. understand the phrase "the needs of the service" and what it really means. If you fail out of whatever school you get sent to, or otherwise don't meet the responsibilities and obligations of an armed service member in your initial training, you are going to get sent where the service feels like sending you since you didn't fully complete your part of the contract.this tends to hit people who try doing crazy things like going straight into SF or SEAL tryouts without spending time in a combat arms branch, who then become a part of the very, very high washout rate for the tryout for these groups, and then get assigned wherever the service needs new bodies.if you stick with a EE-related rating you should be fine since you already have skills there.4. Remember that you can back out until you've completed all three of signing the contract, taking the oath, and reporting to basic training, no matter what the recruiters tell you. Talk to a civilian lawyer with experience with military law if you need confirmation. You'll have zero chance of ever joining the military again barring a draft if you back out after signing the contract though, and rightfully so.you shouldn't sign the contract or take the oath if you aren't 100% sure you are ready and willing to serve, but if you have a change of heart, the military doesn't need people who aren't truly committed to doing their duty in this era of a volunteer force, so it's better you leave early rather than be a drain on the service.5. Once you have taken the oath and reported to basic training, you are now under the UCMJ, not the Constitution. Adultery is a prosecutable offense in the military and you can still legally be shot by your own officer under a variety of interesting legal clauses if you don't do what you are supposed to in combat, however increasingly unlikely that is to happen in our current time.there's a flip side to that as well. You also have no obligation to follow illegal orders given by your superiors, and in fact if you follow illegal orders (for instance, orders to commit war crimes) knowing they were illegal when given, you are considered guilty, "but it was an order!" won't cut it as a justification.6. it's looking less and less likely there will be any significant US involvement in a conflict with Iran, but it's not out of the question Coast Guard boats would be deployed. The US Navy is aimed primarily at blue-water combat, and while it is increasing it's ability to operate in littoral/close to shore situations like the Persian Gulf, it has traditionally tapped Coast Guard boats and crews for expertise in that area.For instance, a fair amount of Coasties served in Vietnam running boats used for littoral and river combat.7. The one thing everyone I know that has served has emphasized to me - remember, when you sign up, you're agreeing to serve your country, not just ride the service for benefits and abandon things when they get tough. And no matter how desk clerk-like your job is in the military, there's a chance you will go into combat, and there's a chance you will die. Anyone who pretends to you otherwise is lying. |
military reserve for startup owners? | logjam: Don't join the military. I did. I was successful there, but I regret it. It was the worst mistake I ever made.People who are often incompetent, if not downright malevolent, will be making decisions that affect you in profound ways, often in direct contradiction to your own ethics, and despite your own competence.While that may be true in other fields, when you're in the military, you're stuck with the morons around you.There are ways to get the kinds of benefits you seek, without getting involved in the kind of shameful nonsense that so often is part and parcel of the current U.S. military. |
military reserve for startup owners? | akd: Jeez dude. You make PG's 6% sound like a downright bargain :) |
military reserve for startup owners? | vaksel: I wouldn't, not with the current situation with Russia, things can escalate very quickly, and as reserves you'll be one of the first to get sent to the front lines. And contrary to popular belief coat guard does not protect only U.S. coasts. Just this week we sent a Coast Guard boat to Georgia. |
military reserve for startup owners? | tdavis: I am an Army Reservist since 2003 and an Entrepreneur (YC Summer this year, too).Here are some random points, but PLEASE CONTACT ME if you are looking into the Army (I know jack about Coast Guard) because I simply can't write out all I could say about it.- Most people don't get a bonus, at all, when joining the military. Bonuses are generally for jobs where there is a high demand and these jobs usually blow. Maybe that has changed though; I joined during a different time.- You'll meet new people, but most of them will be idiots. I am in Psychological Operations, pretty much in the top 5 of military communities as far as intelligence goes, and I still take orders from morons once in a while.- Being a reservist doesn't give you the flexibility you think it does. After my deployment I started TicketStumbler with my co-founder and moved to Boston to take part in YC. Since then I have had to skip two months worth of drills because working on our business is more important than sitting on my ass in a drill hall for two days. The military doesn't like when you do this. Furthermore, moving is a giant pain because you have to find a new Unit; I imagine this would be even harder for Coast Guard. Let's put it this way: They will probably kick me out before I can find a suitable way to integrate the military with my new life.I don't know anything about the Coast Guard, but from what I've heard it's not "serious" enough to waste your time with. After serving 5 years I am of only one opinion when it comes to joining the military:Go all in or don't go at all. Eight years is a long time to be tethered to what amounts to an inconvenience (attending drill, so forth) because chances are you will spend most of your time doing... bullshit. I have been on a combat deployment (which was a perspective-changing event) and have traveled many places, but it's not like the commercials. Most of your time is spent doing what equates to nothing.We say the military is 95% bullshit, but the 5% makes up for it. That isn't always true. So, if you are going to join, hell, try to get into SF or Delta or SEAL or... something. Something where you have the opportunity to sit on your ass less. If the average is 5% of time spent doing something worthwhile, maybe the more "hardcore" branches and services can bump you to 15%.Oh, and if you take no other advice, take this: Don't join the Marines. Before you know it, you'll have bumper stickers that say "shoot everything that moves" and Semper Fi tattoos and an IQ of 5. To any Marines who read this: You know the stereotype exists for a good reason. |
How to convince a fellow programmer to join your startup | noodle: the fact of the matter is that there is inherent risk in working a startup. or starting one. it takes a certain type of person to be willing to do this. not everyone has the ability to do it. for example, a guy supporting a family with house and car payments is more likely to want a steady corporate job.to get people, you need to offer a competitive salary. everyone has to pay the bills. after that, its the perks. if working at a company is fun, who wouldn't want to work there? |
How to convince a fellow programmer to join your startup | prakash: As Charlie Munger says “If you would persuade, appeal to interest not to reason.”Address what the worst case scenario could be, in most startups that would be going out of business. Highlight that it would be a better experience in the same period working for a startup rather than said current company.It could also be financial, maybe he/she has stock options & trigers that would vest in a few months. |
How to convince a fellow programmer to join your startup | cperciva: Assume that the programmer is good but isn't that brave enough to take the risksI don't think that "someone who isn't brave enough to take the risks" is really someone you should want joining your startup, personally. |
military reserve for startup owners? | walesmd: If you are in the Coast Guard you can go to Iraq/Afghanistan. I am in Kuwait right now and there are dozens of Coast Guard here, performing customs duty. Usually the Navy performs this but they've been tapped for years.I've seen many Coasties doing customs in Iraq as well.Plus, who do you think defends ports in the Middle East? It's not the Navy (for the most part) - they are an offensive force. Coasties perform patrols constantly within ports/harbors here.Plus, the Coasties are the military's DEA - guess who's tackling the Opium problem in Afghanistan? |
How to convince a fellow programmer to join your startup | azharcs: If you really want him badly, I would say do whatever you can to convince him. Show the advantages of working on this start up and disadvantages of his day job. Sooner or later, he will have a bad day at work and he will surely think about quitting the day job. That is one when you will become an alternative. |
How to convince a fellow programmer to join your startup | wheels: Honestly I don't try to persuade people. I want them to know what they're getting into and be willing to take that risk with us. I feel like if you lure someone away from a steady job with pie-in-the-sky logic, you're setting yourself up to lose a friend. When I got my co-founder in on things, we talked very seriously about the realistic chance of success, how much stress it would be, and well, how much we'd learn along the way and that we might even have a little fun. Expectation management seems to be important. |
How to convince a fellow programmer to join your startup | vaksel: Is gaining this person vital to completing the project? If not do it on your own, until you are far enough to be able to invite the person at the later stage.If yes, you are going to need to pony up the cash, have enough to be able to provide for both of you to survive on ramen noodles for 6 months. |
How to convince a fellow programmer to join your startup | pjr: Try to get him to go part-time, even just a few hours a week, so that he can see why your start-up is so great. |
military reserve for startup owners? | hooande: It's not fun. Don't do it. |
How to convince a fellow programmer to join your startup | DenisM: Here's an argument from an older, successful corporate guy, which I found very compelling:Throughout my life I have taken many opportunities, and not all of them went well. But the only ones I truly regret are the ones which I didn't take. |
How to convince a fellow programmer to join your startup | randomwalker: DON'T!To be sucessful at a startup, the cofounders really have to believe in it. If you explain your project to someone, and they don't buy it, and you sell hard and convince them, sooner or later they are going to have second thoughts. And that's going to doom you. |
How to convince a fellow programmer to join your startup | bootload: "... Assume that the programmer is good but isn't that brave enough to take the risks and has a good day job ..."Are you a born salesman? Do you have great persuasion skills and killer smile that can motivate others to do what you want? Are you capable of identifying the targets motivation and swaying them over? If you did you wouldn't be asking this question.Find another.A programmer is not by default an ideal Startup Founder. Finding someone who is technical and who compliments your skillset is important. Someone who can build stuff. But if someone has to be convinced and not brave enough to leave what they are doing. When things get tough guess who will leave? Are they motivated enough to stick out the marathon? I've often thought to myself, "what is the best measure of a potential co-founder?". Is it a combination of raw ability, skill & determination? Could the "X" factor be a fierce desire to do something for themselves? Build something (product) and profiting from it?If the fire is not there, a programmer might make a good employee. But Co-founder? |
How to convince a fellow programmer to join your startup | liangzan: Sometimes its what you're working on that matters. If its something worthwhile like kiva.com or world vision, I would go for it even if I got to take a pay cut. You got to persuade using the intangibles. |
How to convince a fellow programmer to join your startup | mattjung: I think it is worth the effort to convince him if you are convinced that he will bring the startup forward. Convincing someone is not something to be done in 5 minutes. Ask him the question: what would be the worst case scenario you could face taking the risk? Show him what he might win - I am not talking about money, but experience, fun, responsibility, reputation, stories for his grand-children. Give him some articles of Paul Graham to read, e.g. "Why not to start a startup". |
How to convince a fellow programmer to join your startup | iuguy: You have to turn on the charm, find out what the guys fears or objections are and remove/counter them. Emphasise the positives.DONT offer equity to someone who isn't brave enough to take the risks. I've told prospective hires (and current hires) that providing equity at this stage would cause them more problems than it solves, but then again I'm not looking to cash in my chips in the next 6 months. |
How to convince a fellow programmer to join your startup | anamax: Is another programmer your startup's top need or your top need? |
geographical coordinate data sets for mashups? | pedalpete: Maybe you could clarify what you mean with an example.
Are you looking for data that already is geocoded? if so, what type of data are you looking for?
Or are you looking for ways to geo code data that you already have?I think looking for data that may or may not exist is the wrong way to go about your mash-up. Hopefully you already know what you want to mash. |
Please Review My Mobile Webapp (Drupal-powered) | DenisM: You started off on the wrong foot:1. There is no link to your site from your profile, so I have to copy-paste. That loses a great deal of hacker right there.2. The site (I copy-pasted the link) keeps talking about anything except about what it actually does. I don't know what streetread is. I'm confused and about to drop out.3. So I clicked through to the home page and now I know what it does. You really need to explain how this is any better/different than google finance. There is no FAQ linked from home page. At this point I lose interest and drop out.FWIW. |
Please Review My Mobile Webapp (Drupal-powered) | bootload: "... HN provided some great feedback and advice on the initial launch of Streetread over 2 months ago ... I'm looking forward to any feedback you might have. ...."5m test, here's what I found:- I tried to enter googles stock quote but couldn't find it. How do I find a stock quote of a company I don't know? Maybe this is a useless edge case but it was a problem for me.- lots of words "Click here to login", "Click here to register (free)" so they can be simplified- sampled text news article headlines from http://www.streetread.com/m/feed/site_Yahoo and got 203, 148, 168, 178, 193 without the headings .. bit wordy. Maybe the suggestion is keep the length but decrease the item count?- monkey test for input & doesn't barf when unicode entered- tried getting news from WSJ, the page responded "PAGE UNAVAILABLE" from WSJ side. This exposed a problem that I can't get back home. Is there a back button on the devices? Should a home logo always be there?Works. Is there any chance of a Video demo on the site? |
Favorite websites for intelligent discussion? | greyman: slashdot. (no, I am not joking ;-)) Almost every article I am interested in contains several very informative comments plus a few really funny ones. It has it's own unique culture I like.For non-hacker topics I don't have any I would visit regularly, so I am also looking forward for another comments. |
Favorite websites for intelligent discussion? | VarunGupta: Topcoder Forums [forums.topcoder.com]Though the discussion is chiefly about algorithms and programming, it attracts brilliant people from top universities and research organizations around the world. |
Favorite websites for intelligent discussion? | nick5768: I love the forums over at Ars Technica( http://episteme.arstechnica.com/ ). To me, HN and Ars are head and shoulders above the level of conversation on the other sites I visit. |
Favorite websites for intelligent discussion? | matt1: 2+2's Science, Math, Philosophy (SMP) forum is really good:http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/forumdisplay.php?f=47A couple recent threads:
- Is my vote mathematically meaningless?
- Intelligence, intelligence tests, and psychology
- What is space made of?
- Professors, Doctors, Lawyers, who's smarter?Atheism discussions are a particular favorite (which should generally indicate it's the type of forum you're looking for). |
Favorite websites for intelligent discussion? | kajecounterhack: I usually go to a few IRC channels to get my intelligent discussion. Freenode is great =D |
Favorite websites for intelligent discussion? | AlfaWolph: The Straight Dope Message Boards and plastic.com can be fun and worthwhile. Some finance and econ types like iTulip I hear. |
Favorite websites for intelligent discussion? | river_styx: redditducks |
Favorite websites for intelligent discussion? | reborndead: Newsvine.com |
Favorite websites for intelligent discussion? | GavinB: overcomingbias.com |
Favorite websites for intelligent discussion? | rtra: usenet |
Favorite websites for intelligent discussion? | vaksel: HN is enough intelligent discussion for me. The problem with intelligent discussion is that its very time consuming, since the people are both knowledgeable and passionate in what they are discussing.HN is just the right mix of it, because you have intelligent people giving their view points, but they are all busy people, so there is no 5 page replies. |
Favorite websites for intelligent discussion? | gills: www.tickerforum.org |
What's the best way to stop duplicates making it to the frontpage? | iamdave: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=263098 |
Favorite websites for intelligent discussion? | adrianwaj: http://www.plastic.com : an old fave |
Favorite websites for intelligent discussion? | systems: http://www.perlmonks.orghttp://use.perl.org |
Favorite websites for intelligent discussion? | david: http://freedomainradio.com/board/ |
Favorite websites for intelligent discussion? | sharp: willmott is the best place I've seen for quant/finance discussion:
http://www.wilmott.com/
Nb. has a (required) delayed login before you can post. Very little (if any) noise in the comments - makes freakonomics look like jerry springer. |
Favorite websites for intelligent discussion? | Prrometheus: reason.com/blog and distributedrepublic.net have intelligent commentators, though reason tends towards the smart-allecky side. You would probably enjoy both blogs if you like the Marginal Revolutions and Overcoming Biases of the world. Oh, and Cafe Hayek.For legal issues, there's the Volokh Conspiracy. I believe that Eugene Volokh is a libertarianish law professor somewhere.Is the Becker/Posner blog still around? I believe that both of them have a Nobel prize in Economics.Greg Mankiw has a good blog, with a good community.Most of the internet sucks for intelligent discussion. That's what happens when you let any-old-body in. |
Favorite websites for intelligent discussion? | gasull: iTulip forums, about economics:http://www.itulip.com |
Favorite websites for intelligent discussion? | bokonist: I highly recommend Unqualified Reservations ( http://unqualified-reservations.blogspot.com/ ) and Unenumerated ( http://unenumerated.blogspot.com/ )Both are incredibly smart blogs, with very smart commenters. Their main shtick is bringing historical perspective to contemporary problems of government and economics. The result is fascinating and eye opening. I've learned more history from these two blogs then I learned from majoring in history at Yale. |
University business idea competitions? | czcar: Can't hurt to participate, have entered something similar last two years. Hint though, find out who the Judges are, in our case they were mid-level managers at PWC, IBM other sponsors etc, really need to target their tastes if all you want is the money. |
Favorite websites for intelligent discussion? | Conservationist: Gene expression blog:http://www.gnxp.com/And a heavy metal forum:http://www.anus.com/metal/hall |
What stories would you suggest a tech-editor write? | ScottWhigham: * Why Google Checkout has so much fraud/chargebacks yet no one says anything* Why is Firefox 3 getting so much press when it is so buggy? |
University business idea competitions? | ScottWhigham: I have a friend/associate who judges those and he's sharp as hell w/ lots of experience. He also likes to be an introducer... May you have the same luck.The only possible negative would be that you are working on a business plan instead of a product. |
Favorite websites for intelligent discussion? | slater: i'll go ahead and put the SA forums (forums.somethingawful.com) out there. A ton of IT pros, most of the subforums are not filled with the cliché'd "SA goon" crap, and it costs $5 per user account, keeping many many morons out.And yes, I have stairs in my house. |
Favorite websites for intelligent discussion? | nsrivast: Is there demand for a discussion site that has nothing to do with blog or news posts? Comments and threads could still be monitored and ranked by users. Discussions could be split into topics and subtopics (philosophy might be interesting, because some of the arguments would concern where to make the splits).The hard thing would be to make sure people voted up and down for the right reasons. |
Favorite websites for intelligent discussion? | litewulf: metafilter.com is full of esoteric posts and people from all sorts of different backgrounds post on it with surprising amounts of wit and candor. |
Favorite websites for intelligent discussion? | rosary: Believe it or not, sensibleerection.com has some of the best intelligent and witty discussion I've found on the web. Sure there's the occasional pornography post, but most all of the people there offer intelligent debate. |
Favorite websites for intelligent discussion? | lsemel: I enjoy http://ask.metafilter.com more than the main Metafilter site. |
What is a good Sms2Web solution? | RobGR: You mean receiving SMS messages and putting them on the web, or typing messages into a web page and sending them out by SMS, or both directions ?I advise purchasing a real cellular modem, such as from MultiTech, putting a SIM chip in it from a plan that offers unlimited text messaging.However, if you are trying to just whip something together quickly, you may find this useful:http://www.textmarks.com/You can use that service to receive a text message, and then have it call a URL, and send the number and callerid and other information to your server. |
Your opinion on we heart places? Our startup from New Zealand. | soundsop: There's not enough information on the front page to entice me to sign up. I suggest you add a bit more description as to what users can do on the site.Also, I suggest the usual HN advice: let users do as much as possible before requiring them to sign up.Good luck! |
Your opinion on we heart places? Our startup from New Zealand. | wayne: I couldn't figure out what the goal of the site was. Now that I've clicked around more, it seems a little like 43 Places (http://www.43places.com/), but even now I'm not sure whether I'm supposed to build a collection of places (cause of the "I've been there!" links), learn more about interesting places through comments, share/tag photos ala Flickr, or what. You can possibly be all of those things eventually, but the homepage needs a clearer call-to-action.Also, minor nit, if I click on Register or Login but change my mind, there's no way to close the dialog.Very nice-looking! |
Your opinion on we heart places? Our startup from New Zealand. | froo: (Note #1: I hope I don't come across as too critical mate, I'm just trying to be helpful!)I just had a little play around with the site and I was a little confused to what it actually did for a few moments (even though I did read the tagline, it more or less blended into the toolbar up the top) Perhaps an "About Us" type box between the second signup section that is in a contrasting colour to draw your attention to it? Perhaps a light turquoise or light yellow background to ensure it is well defined in the layout of your pages. This would also give you the opportunity for another signup call to action.So I think you really need to change a couple of design elements to make it clear what the site is about.Some other design elements I would look at (and I'm just being picky now, but trying to be honest aswell) would be caption under each picture could perhaps not be in that little black box underneath each image? Whitespace is a wonderful thing so I'd use it wherever possible. Ensure the flag is there in the whitespace too - It's just right now each image gives me the impression it looks like Google Adsense- Perhaps less boxes for places on the frontpage too? You don't really want to overwhelm your new users with too much information. Maybe try some sort of large gallery that shuffles through various locations and pops up it's location underneath (I'm trying to remember the name of the open source thing you can use, but have a look at http://graphpaperpress.com/demo/monochrome/ and you will see what I mean) ... I think with the larger cycling gallery and an about us box, you could essentially shorten and shift the grey text under your tool menu, ie make it a plain tagline "for remembering and discovering places to visit." and leaving it under the sitename above the tool menu, which would also neaten up the design.- Perhaps explain to users what your features actually mean (the majority of users of websites don't know terms like KML)- The sidebar has a weird amount of extra margin on the right of it, making the whole page seem shifted to the left.- Perhaps you could combine the Login/Signup into one large box by joining them together and where the whitespace is in the middle add the word "or"... it would reduce the amount of hot pink as I think that comes across as distracting. Maybe the addition of a closing option to close the window again?(Note #2: I hope this came across coherently, I've been up & coding/doing math on and off for the last 30 hours and I'm about to go to bed) |
Your opinion on we heart places? Our startup from New Zealand. | bootload: "... Your opinion on we♥places? ..."Good but frustrating to add places. Maybe it's me but I'd rather either:- entry box like twitter to enter locationand how do you enter the street address of a mountain?- so a pin button locator where you can fine tune the placement on the map itselfA geeky way would be allow users to also enter Geolocation, lat/lon. But that's not important. The entry works but adding entry to the front page removing the requirement to add an add-on will increase usage.One thing that does bug me and could be be a problem. It has to do with the restrictions on flickr images but there is a technical solution. I added this image ~ http://flickr.com/photos/bootload/2803128286/ to my account ~ http://www.weheartplaces.com/users/bootload The image is mine so copyright is clear for my use. Others can use it as well, but if you ignore the licensing ~ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/deed.en by placing adverts you leave yourself open to a lot of flack. Eg: If you get big ppl will be able to enforce their license agreements. The technical solution is to use the flickr API ( flickr.photos.licenses.getInfo ) ~ http://www.flickr.com/services/api/flickr.photos.licenses.ge... to check the copyright permissions and respect them. Ignoring the licensing problem will become a problem ~ http://www.flickr.com/groups/api/discuss/72157601196183552/?... and http://www.flickr.com/groups/lawgroup/ |
Your opinion on we heart places? Our startup from New Zealand. | maxklein: It has no purpose. Once again, let me be the bad guy because nobody else will: it's not useful!The idea you have behind it is good, but you have done a shoddy work of communicating it.Think of it from the perspective of someone external to the page. I open it and see a bunch of pictures of beaches. I could go to google images and type beaches and I'd see the same thing. I'm never going to go to Turtle Island, I never heard of it, and I'm not interested in it.So, what would be useful to me then? Imagine I could go there, and then click on my own city. Then I see a bunch of photos of obscure bars and fun places (and not the monument in the center of the city) then it would be useful. If I knew I was going to New Zealand in december, I could click on christchurch or something, and I'd instantly see the cool places to go to, then that would be useful.I know you've had these ideas, the problem is that you presented the actual way to get to the useful stuff as very cumbersome and unclear. Instead, you're putting technical stuff on the front page like "tags", "tools", "KML feeds".I have no idea what a KML feed is even though I'm a technical guy. And why in heavens name is OpenID the most important "feature" you support? Is that not a bit of a wrong setting of priorities?"Cool Bookmarklet"? A bookmarklet that has a low temperature, or does this bookmarklet wear dark glasses and doesn't dance in the club?Yes, I know I'm being rough on you here, but it's better to hear this stuff now before it becomes impossible to change.You have had a great idea, but you need to communicate clearer. You're communicating too technically and you need to do it different. How you do it is up to you, I'm just making you aware of the fact. |
Your opinion on we heart places? Our startup from New Zealand. | astrec: I like the concept & the brightkite integration.I was going to comment on Di fara pizza, but when I clicked post comment nothing seemed to happened. Only something did happen - post comment button is below the fold, but the login/register layer appears above the fold. I found it after clicked 5 or 6 times, giving in, and scrolling up to hit the site id for home.This is in webkit, btw. |
Your opinion on we heart places? Our startup from New Zealand. | davidw: The map here is sort of useless:http://www.weheartplaces.com/places/108-jumbo-passIt needs the zoom controls, and you should probably use the terrain mode. |
Your opinion on we heart places? Our startup from New Zealand. | brm: You need to not copy the look of weheartit.com (visual bookmarking service) unless you produced that too. That'd be a good start |
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