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Clojure as a first progamming language? | kunley: I'd say something a bit different that most responses, well I guess it's worth taking your time.Choose language which seems most natural to think in. It's really important.For example, many people just don't have that wires in brain which cause them to see everything as objects, so all that OO & design patterns stuff seems missing the point. But others love it and use this approach naturally!You just want to avoid the situation when after a first-time crush on some programming paradigm "wow how is it powerful" there comes realization that writing anything in it is a boring and misplaced experience. Just switch to another paradigm instead.And don't be lured by the current popularity of some web frameworks, tools or whatever. They come and go. Your language of choice -- given that it's actively developed and not only an academic experiment -- will have them sooner or later. In the meantime you will expand your mind with the language you really like. It's worth. |
Clojure as a first progamming language? | patrickdlogan: Clojure has a simple functional language foundation that should be good for learning as a first language. The biggest impediment may be the lack of a tutorial from a beginner's perspective, that focuses on that foundation. Using most material for Clojure a beginner will soon be exposed to features probably beyond their understanding. |
Review My (Common Lisp backed) Startup | rudd: A weird problem I'm getting: it focused in at the top of Brooklyn for me (where I am), and showed some restaurant deal (this: http://postabon.com/pc/deal?guid=138&lat=40.694&long...). However, it was at the top of the map. Instead of trying to click a small target, I pulled the map down so that it would be in the center. As soon as I let go of the map, the point disappeared and loaded a bunch of other pins a bit further north. It'd be great if you could make it so you didn't delete the pins that were on screen before a move and stayed on screen after the move. |
Review My (Common Lisp backed) Startup | pchickey: The app looks good, and you've made a lot of great design decisions. However, it took me a little too long to figure out what the idea was. Three suggestions:'shop. save. share' doesn't tell me enough right off the bat. Maybe users who aren't logged in should get a 15-word blurb ("Postabon allows you to find and share deals. Check out the (link)introduction video.(/link)")I didn't notice the introduction video side-tab until my third glance back at your site- most new users are going to totally miss that.The 'about' page had more words than my eyes were comfortable with. Cut the word count in order to space the text out more. And some hyphens show up as em-dashes in firefox, not sure what the deal is there. |
Review My (Common Lisp backed) Startup | Freebytes: I actually found all of the pop-up divs a bit annoying. It is a nice feature to have the pages display the pop-ups that darken the remainder of the page for features where you do not feel like you should leave the page, but honestly, I would prefer some of the other pages to load. I am not sure if you know what I mean from my description so I will try saying it again. When browsing web sites, sometimes content is dynamic and it does not need to load the entire page. However, to have a pop-up div for what seemed like everything I clicked is a bit of a bother. It does not seem to flow as well I would have liked in that regard.Also, I had no idea what the site was about at first. I had to actually search the site a bit to even figure out what was happening.In regards to the idea, I think it is a decent idea, but this seems like a feature that may be best featured within another web application. After this is perfected, I can see the potential for a company purchasing it if only for integration within their own products; however, it does not seem like it has much potential value until you add a bit more to it. It needs to be tweaked slightly. I would continue focusing on the core concept just a tad longer before moving on to additional features. |
What do you use for SaaS subscription billing? | jlarkin: Another SaaS based Subscription billing provider: Aria Systems - startups through enterprise. http://www.AriaSystems.com |
Review My (Common Lisp backed) Startup | JoachimSchipper: http://postabon.com/pc/deal?guid=451&lat=40.757&long... has some broken encoding. Did someone copy/paste from Word? |
Review My (Common Lisp backed) Startup | zitterbewegung: Looks pretty nice, clean interface and well polished. What is your profit strategy? Do you plan on making money through sponsorship? |
Review My (Common Lisp backed) Startup | simplify: I figured out what the site was about when I first loaded the page, but only because the popup told me "No _deals_ around you, redirecting to...". You _need_ to have the word "deal" somewhere on the page in big bold letters. As soon as I saw that word, I immediately knew what the site was about. But it was only in a popup!After selecting a deal on the map, drag-scrolling the map deselects it. This is especially annoying when the description text is bigger that the map view (e.g. "3 Day Bloomingdale Holiday Sale").It was hard for me to notice the "Search Bons" button because of the way the page is laid out. The map / sidebar visually separates the page into parts, and having the search components span across those two parts feels a bit awkward. I suggest you add a separator under the search stuff, or move the categories/button to the left part of the page, under the two text fields.I noticed on the "more info" page, you have a "save bon" link. Do you plan to have this link accessible on the main page as well?This is just an idea, but it seems very fitting to have the results list scroll up/down when clicking next/previous.Overall, I really like the idea, and I think it's pretty well executed. I think it has great potential once it gets more content. Time to start scraping :) |
developer turned manager | keeptrying: You've been a developer much longer than you've been a manager. The first step is to realise that your probably a "bad" or "not-so-good" manager. Realise that it is okay to suck at anything that you've only done for a little while.Second step is to read about management. There are many many factors involved but essentially how you "manage" the tension between keeping your bosses happy as well as the people working under you happy+productive is now your lifes work.Third after you have 6 reports, you really shouldnt be coding. Ie be a manager or a developer. Dont do both. If you try to code with a large group then you'll really not be working on the strategic end of things which could essentially make the whole group's work a waste of time.Fourth, the chances of always working for a good boss is negligible so you'll have to "play the political game" if you want to increase your compensation. To do this you need to figure out the rules and then play. To get an idea of what is involved read the following:
http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/10/07/the-gervais-principle-o...
http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/11/11/the-gervais-principle-i...Lastly, this WILL hurt. Best of luck. :) |
Review My (Common Lisp backed) Startup | gruseom: Your About page has waaaay too much text on it. Pare it down to less than half that. It's hard, but you'll be forced to clarify. (Also, typo: "good dead" => "good deed".)If I were you, I'd be thinking a lot about how to take advantage of game dynamics. If Foursquare can do that about going places, surely you can do it about finding great deals, which is inherently competitive to begin with. I'm not fond of shopping, but even I will boast about great deals when I find them. If you can get that right... wow.How do you prevent people from posting fake deals? Is there a way for others to validate? Would it be useful for people to post not just new deals, but confirmation of deals they benefited from? That would have two advantages: 1. you'd get people participating both ways; 2. you'd get validating information about what the really good deals are. If I post something lots of people benefit from, that should earn me status.You need to have a blog. Tell stories. True stories about deals users have found would be good. Also, a personal touch can be a big deal: consider taking the "Team" thing off the bottom of the About page and put it in its own place where you introduce yourselves. As a user, if I feel a personal connection to the people behind a site, I'm automatically more sympathetic.The Community page doesn't draw me in. It looks like a database report right now. That page is a chance to get people to participate, so you want it to be warm and inviting. Also, it's hard to react positively to something one doesn't understand, so getting the key information across in the first 10 seconds is critical.Don't bother putting up messages like "nothing in your location, redirecting to New York". It's obvious that you're redirecting me to NYC anyway, and a message box just irritates the pig. (Maybe put this information in some text on the actual page?) Also, when I load the page in FF I'm getting a status box overlay that says "Detecting your location" that takes a long time to go away and blocks my use of the site (plus is ugly). Drop that. You don't want any barrier to entry at that moment. People can bail on you in less than a second.If I were you I would pay super-close attention to the psychology of how people are using the site. If you find a dynamic that works, this could be killer. It's not obvious that appealing to people's altruism ("good deed", "karma", etc.) is the right approach. Competitive shopping can be vicious! Think about that question, "What's your deadly sin?" It may not be so much greed (saving money) as vanity (winning status).I'm afraid I don't like the name. First, it reminds me of Cinnabon. Second, American names with French roots are good for a fancy, specialty vibe (e.g. gourmet, luxury), or conveying effete sophistication, but that may not be what you want.Summary: you guys could be on to something. Best of luck and keep us all posted about how it goes! |
Review My (Common Lisp backed) Startup | txxxxd: I see an alert box with "Unable to figure out your location! Defaulting to New York City" when I load the page. It would be a nicer experience if you displayed this message above the map (or somewhere on the page) instead of a using modal dialog.The site navigation links at the top of the page have very small hit-boxes and provide no indication that they're click-able (other than the mouse cursor changing.) Its harder than it should be to click these items.The "Category Filter" and "Hide Result List" links are even more confusing since they display a text input cursor instead of a link cursor. This problem is also present on the result title links. |
Review My (Common Lisp backed) Startup | ovi256: Abandon the 'bon' word ASAP. Nobody really likes cutesy made-up words. I know that in French it means coupon, but use common language.It's like the recommendation to not use custom UI. Same reason, nobody likes to learn something just to be able to use your site. It raises the cost of entry for new users, and hardly provides any benefit, not even for you (Brand ? Stop kidding). |
Review My (Common Lisp backed) Startup | tsestrich: Two things about the community page and user pages in general...It would be nice to see a "More..." or "All..." option to see more than just the top 25 users, in case someone wanted to see where they fell for instance.Also, the user pages: the URL has some GET information that seems sorta odd... like the latitude and longitude to some location (theirs? mine? not sure) and a "comingfrom=..." field that seems to change nothing when modified. Not sure if you care at all about those things, but just seemed like weird information to be passing via GET on every page |
Review My (Common Lisp backed) Startup | tdoggette: "No deals around you, redirecting to New York City"That's my first interaction with the site, after opening it in a background tab: it created a focus-stealing window to inform me that it couldn't help me. |
best simple 1U server to purchase? | pquerna: I would use Silicon Mechanics or Dell
http://www.siliconmechanics.com/
http://www.dell.comBoth of them have 1u server builds pretty cheap, with 2-4 SATA or SAS disks depending on your needs.Most everywhere else will be the same prices or more expensive for the base servers. |
best simple 1U server to purchase? | brk: I've had good luck with options from SuperMicro and the configure-it-yourself stuff at TigerDirect/GlobalComputer (forget what brand they sell it under).Also, you'll often find a huge price difference between a 2U unit and a 1U unit of the same specs (2U being cheaper...). Might be worthwhile to spend a little more on a 2U unit (mostly for more RAM) and get more bang for your buck and run VMWare on it. That way it could have a couple of different recovery images on it, or possibly room in the chassis for mirrored drives or something. |
developer turned manager | bhousel: Rands has written bunch of great essays (and a book - I haven't read it yet myself) about what you're going through.Start Here: http://www.randsinrepose.com/cat_management.html |
Review My (Common Lisp backed) Startup | nearestneighbor: Which CL do you use? I find some popular CL implementations too buggy to be usable. |
Have you changed your mind about global warming? | cpr: I've long been a skeptic of AGW, because of the tie-in between the one-world-government/population control people and this particular "OMG the world's ending unless we all scale back immediately!" set of folks. I like my science to be less ideologically-driven from the start.Also I think the science has not shown that we're drastically affecting the earth's normal cycles, which can be drastic & on on a very short time frame themselves (witness the mini-ice ages of 400-500 years ago, and also witness medieval warming (which this particular set of folks tried to suppress but were corrected about)). |
Have you changed your mind about global warming? | bdfh42: Let's start with the basics. Climate change is inevitable - it has always been a continuous process and always will be. Looking back at the past one might well assume that the world will be ice bound again or that the world will be (again) a warm watery place. So the question is not really about climate change per se but our part in the process. The evidence supporting the proposition that climate change is currently driven by the actions of mankind is all bound up in computer models. As an (ex?) computer modeller I have doubts about our ability to model something as complex as a climate.My general view is that in 100 years or so it will be warmer than now (following the long term trends of that last couple of thousand years) or it will be cooler than now - if the next ice age has started. It almost certainly will not be the same as now - and (generally) that has always been true.The science is hamstrung by a lack of good data and the influence of politics. We should be looking for more and better data - and crunching that - not getting involved in belief systems and their inevitably poor resulting decisions. |
best simple 1U server to purchase? | nwatson: Before you buy your servers make sure the "4U" space is really all about space and not about power consumption.At Hurricane Electric in bay area California you can rent sub-rack space that could hold, say, 8U. However, if you try to fill all that space with SuperMicro high-density 1U systems you'll far outstrip the power they're willing to supply for the rental rate.I don't know about your colo's policies but please double-check. |
Review My (Common Lisp backed) Startup | sgrytoyr: Interesting. I recently spent a few months implementing almost exactly the same idea. It’s at http://gotosale.net/It’s been dormant for a few months now, after I realized people wouldn’t just magically start posting sales for the benefit of random strangers, especially when practically no one knows the site exists :) Marketing isn’t my strength, I sort of lose interest after the build phase. You guys have taken it further than me, with a much more polished iPhone app and the whole karma thing - kudos.I am pretty certain that the idea has merit - everyone I’ve talked to about it were excited and said that they would use such a site, and probably pay for an iPhone app, but getting content has proven to be difficult. I haven’t given up on it yet, and I intend to give it a fresh go very soon, with a slightly different approach. I’m sure there’s room for both of us. |
best simple 1U server to purchase? | cd34: While you have 4U, how much power do you have allotted to that 4U?If you run a Q8400 with a 260w power supply for a 1U, you have a max load of 2.16A and probably an operational .9A-1.1A under normal load. Make sure you can run 4-5 Amps in your 4U. Many colo facilities allow 20 Amps per 44U so average consumption per U is just under .5A.andy @ interpromicro.com sells Supermicro equipment which run Debian without issues. Recent invoice 9/25/2009: Supermicro X7SBL-LN2, Q8400, 4gb RAM, 811T 1U dual hot-swap case, (no hard drives) Fedex 3day at $710. That motherboard does support AHCI in Debian allowing hotswap, sensors work, env/fan speed, etc. |
Rate my startup, Gradifi.com | theli0nheart: I realize that most of you won't actually be able to create an account, so forgive me in advance for that. The service revolves around college students at a few select schools, and if you don't have an alumni or current email address for any of those schools, you're out of luck.So, my biggest worry is conversions. How do I get people who visit the front page to actually make an account? Are there too many "barriers" to entry (i.e. graduation year, first name, last name, etc)?Also, I'm concerned that people who visit the site don't actually know what it's about, or what it's used for. How would you recommend I make this a little more clear? |
Rate my startup, Gradifi.com | DanielStraight: I think the biggest barrier to entry is that the front page doesn't tell you anything about the product. I can't even tell what the product IS. Is it a website? A desktop app? A smartphone app? A Facebook app? What does it do? How does it work? What does it look like? Where are the answers to these questions? |
Quick tips to get more performance out of your server | jacquesm: Mount your filesystems with noatime. |
Quick tips to get more performance out of your server | jeromec: Re-check code for better efficiency. |
Rate my startup, Gradifi.com | spokey: The purpose of the site as expressed on the about page ("We think choosing courses is hard, and we're here to do something about that.") seems to bear no relation to the purpose expressed on the homepage ("Share your notes. Sell your books. Make money. Get better grades. Dominate."). Of the two, I think the about page MVP sounds more interesting, although probably less profitable.Out of curiosity, why do you have that RackspaceCloud logo in your footer? Are you affiliated with Rackspace somehow? Are you getting a referral bonus or something? Just big fans? |
provide feedback for loc.is | ErrantX: Pretty neat.However it is not immediately clear what to put in the search box. It might be obvious but I actually had to think about it for a second :) |
developer turned manager | japanesejay: lol. I think the first two responses sums it up.
...and I think you've answered yourself. If you enjoy development, stay where you are. Theres no need to rush into being a manager. Having the power to create and be creative can be a lot more rewarding than being part of the "management team" (depending on how your company is structured).A while back, I was lucky to get pulled out of the developer's chair and try out something else. I was given the opportunity to manage a small project with a dedicated team and then gradually worked with and managed teams across the states (and countries). I had to fight the fights and play the games but for me, I found that orchestrating the flow of the development process to be very exciting. I played an intergral part of developing part of the core product and was given a very fun and challenging role.At the same time a good buddy of mine at another company was promoted to Director of Engineering. He was happy about it at first but within a few months, absolutely hated it. He was one of those stereotypical hardcore code junkies living off of an IV of caffine stuck in his veins. He was brilliant at the engineering side of things, but didnt want to/couldnt deal with the people side of things. He was stuck having to deal with grouchy execs, engineers in constant disagreement, personality conflicts, you name it! Of course as a director, you dont really code at the end of the day either. Eventually, he stepped down and took his former position back. I know he felt like a failure for a long time.That being said, if its not your bag, its not your bag. Its ok. There's no shame in changing your mind. After all, you're the only one who can look after #1. Prioritize whats important to you and figure out what makes you happy. If you want to try it out, read, observe the goods and bads of others around you, change your perspective and give it a go. Good luck! |
How do you start a blog? | icey: Rule number 1 is to write, write, and keep writing.You'll figure out your style and your stride with a ton of practice. The biggest thing that people do wrong is that they don't write enough. |
How do you start a blog? | jmonegro: Make sure you have something to say/have some expertise on a subject. |
Have you changed your mind about global warming? | brc: Well, for me, I flip flop as the issue goes along. I was a long time non-believer but started to sway when the whole 'scientific consensus' line was thrown around. I figured, 'well, if they all say it's true'.Since then I'm more a non-believer in the AGW line as presented by the IPCC and some of it's main champions. This is not the same as being a person who doesn't believe in GW at all, far from it. I just find the predictions and catastrophe claims a bit rich and too much like fear mongering, in the same category as 'reds under the bed', 'WMD' and 'Terror Alerts' and who knows how many other scare campaings have been pumped up, held aloft and then quietly deflated over time. The whole thing has taken on a religious quality.For the record, here's my problems with the current theories:
1. The predictions are all the result of computer models. As a programmer myself, I know how hard it is to have faith in the results of a program processing large amounts of data when there is no real way to check it. The release of the code from CRU has firmed this belief up considerably. It's clear these guys are not software geniuses.
2. While I have no complaint with the concept of carbon dioxide as a warming agent, we don't know enough about the concentrations needed to increase. Is the relationship linear, exponential, or subject to diminishing returns.
3. The AGW proponents often talk of runaway warming or positive feedback. How do we know there is no negative feedback? What if warming increases evaporation and cloud cover, and lowers temperatures over time? You've only got to spend a week in England to realise cloud cover can really affect temperatures. Remember all that fear mongering over a Nuclear winter?
4. Is it really known if warming is net negative for humans? Would the conversion of currently frozen lands into productive pasture outweigh loss of some farming land? Most of the change involved in Climate Change is seen as a negative, but all change involves wins for some and losses for others.
5. Are we talking about true Global Warming or just Arctic Warming? Because the old timers around where I live will tell you it was a lot hotter in the '30s and '40s than it is now.I'm not pretending I have the answers. I just think there are more questions than answers, and that some of the facts and data thrown around are subject to wide prediction ranges, yet we always hear worst case scenarios.Finally, my firm belief over the last 10 years has become that functioning economies are the most important factor of human life quality. You've only got to travel to a country with a non-functioning economy to see how bad life can get. With moribund economies, you get increases in crime, disease, death and an end to innovation. Only the strong and performing economies can afford the changes to lower polluting and sustainable energy sources. Printed money paying for uneconomic projects and empty promises aren't the way forwards, innovation and new ideas are. There should be more focus on the reward side (cash, prestige, positions) for those who come up with the answers rather than punishment (taxes, industry penalties, outright bans) for those continuing to use current technologies. You just can't tax or force people into prosperity - they have to take action themselves by rationaly deciding the better way forwards.So, to answer the original question : the CRU leaks have pushed me further into skepticism when you see how far the grab for power and money has seeped into the whole thing, and how low the quality of the data is that these predictions and decisions is based on. Nobody, not the scientists, politicians or do-gooders are immune from the draw of power, money and the chance to rewrite society in their own plan.[edit:just wanted to add one more thing. I don't like how you can be genuinely skeptical, and want to see more evidence, but you are immediately labelled a 'denier' and lumped in with the global-conspiracy theory people, creationists and other assorted non-thinkers. It's this in-or-out attitude that makes me uneasy. If you've got a genuinely true theory, then you should let people agree with you as they see the evidence and decide for themselves.] |
How do you start a blog? | Mz: I think you need to pick some kind of theme. It doesn't need to be overly narrow or specific but I think to be successful you can't just willy-nilly talk about everything under the sun that strikes your fancy.A reason to not start a blog: If you don't have clear boundaries and/or you are not very Net-savvy, the risk of getting fired from your job/losing your love interest/getting arrested/etc for something you stupidly posted for the entire world to see may be inordinately high. |
How do you start a blog? | blahedo: Don't write for "an audience". You have two main options on who to write for: yourself alone (i.e. a public diary) if you have the discipline to keep it up, or some specific person, e.g. your mom, your spouse, your officemate. Either way, don't worry about your readership. It'll come or it won't, but the surest way to be a bad blog that can't attract readers is to actively try to attract readers.Good luck! |
Review My (Common Lisp backed) Startup | kluv2run1600: It's about time we got a decent location-based deal searcher. The website runs very smoothly for an initial release, and combines tech and business acumen :)My suggestions may have already been previously suggested, but here they are
- Instead of saying "No deals around you, defaulting to NYC", you may want to look into something that implies that Postabon is on a nationwide rollout or that it's only available in NYC at this point. I'm in Chicagoland , and from the current message, I would just assume that Postabon is a failure in Chicago. Just a thought -- You may even want to embed (in the text of the webpage) something that asks the user to submit an email and/or state their location (pulldown of major metropolitan areas) if they are interested in receiving an email when Postabon launches in their area.
- Make the deals = bon equation even more obvious so that there's no way the user can miss it. I'm using Chrome, and the text blurb explanation isn't very catchy |
How much did you spend on your startup before you got ramen profitable? | jv2222: http://tweetminer.net/stats -- I spent $zero! :)(check out http://techzinglive.com for weekly updates on how the business has been built)Oops I guess the domain was an original cost $9 |
How much did you spend on your startup before you got ramen profitable? | pplante: Mostly just time invested so far, thats the biggest chunk by far. Funds spent so far: $500 for legal, domains, hosting, etc. |
How much did you spend on your startup before you got ramen profitable? | atkuebler: To those who have said and are going to say that the time they have spent isn't worth anything, it is. The time you spend on your start-up is time you could be spending working a paying job, be it a "real" job, a freelance job, a consulting job, etc. You time is not free!Now there is nothing wrong with this. You are investing your time into something you believe will be worth it in the end, but don't think you time has no value.Evaluating how much your time is worth is another question though. |
How much did you spend on your startup before you got ramen profitable? | patio11: Disclaimer: I had full-time employment to put a roof over my head and food on the table for the entire duration I've had a business.$58.17 of my own money, spent in the one month before I had enough sales to fund all business expenses out of incoming revenue.If I had to do it over again, I'd tell my younger self that the "bring it in for under the price of a video game" discipline was worthwhile, but $500 or so on icons, visual design, domains, and directory submissions in the first few months would have made my life much easier.If you (somewhat arbitrarily) say having a day job is cheating and that my basic living expenses were de-facto invested into the business, then I'd estimate I probably spent something on the order of $15,000 of implied investment prior to ramen profitability. I think that is a pretty useless statistic but, hey, full disclosure. |
How much did you spend on your startup before you got ramen profitable? | pxlpshr: This is an interesting question because I spent the better half a year ignoring consulting work and focusing solely on our mobile software company. So if you include opportunity costs, you could say about $60k was "spent" over the course of about a year (about $5-7k or so was hard cash, the rest was 6-months of not doing service-related work).The company became ramen profitable pretty quickly but I went back to doing part-time consulting work to maintain a lifestyle. As the AppStore grew exponentially, our apps pretty much remained ramen profitable. We missed our opportunity to make a bigger return when we launched our first app in Nov/Dec 08. Part of that was my fault based on how I setup the company, and being way to tolerant of lack of effort from developer-partners. Fortunately I learned my lesson with my own money.We received angel funding about a month ago to start a new company, we'll have 1 (maybe 2) apps on iTunes but we won't be solely dependent on it for our success. This will let us stay focused on making a really fantastic mobile app, not only for Apple but also for Android and other platforms.Right now I'm trying to decide if I should sell my former small business on SitePoint or something. I'm not sure we'd get much for it but it would be nice to put a nail in the coffin since I don't have time to really maintain the company. Anyone have any experience with small sales like this? |
How much did you spend on your startup before you got ramen profitable? | apowell: $70, because domains names were expensive in 1998. Best $70 I ever spent, that's for sure. |
How much did you spend on your startup before you got ramen profitable? | yosho: i wonder if there is a correlation between initial spending vs later success.In some cases, i would be willing to bet that high initial spending lead to a greater turnout because you're able to leverage the money and convert it into increased traffic and sales. |
How much did you spend on your startup before you got ramen profitable? | sosuke: Well, I spend enough for a nice new BMW or Mercedes Benz and I'm no where near ramen profitable after 6 months. |
How many of you have been to a psychiatrist? Did it help? | jelloman: throwaway account; my normal username is my real name.My GF of three years is clinically diagnosed with OCD and in the past has suffered from depression (history of emotional and physical abuse). One of her psychiatrists was helpful, the other(s) were not so much.I went with her at her request on a visit to the helpful one. He basically told her that someone who came to therapy with her obviously cared about her very deeply, and if she had such caring individuals in her life then she had no reason to engage in self-destructive behavior.Since that time she's been quite stable. Your mileage may vary. |
How do I find a marketing/sales/business guy (university)? | Scott_MacGregor: 1. Take out an ad on Craig’s List.2. Look for someone who has some maturity and a few years experience. Try to interview a few people so as to give yourself some selection.3. Make sure you supervise this person closely in order to ensure s/he is actually working everyday for a full day. |
How do I find a marketing/sales/business guy (university)? | cwan: Consider talking to marketing professors for recommendations. I've found that professors in general are pretty receptive to giving free advice and help though the obvious caveat is that book smart doesn't always translate (try meeting with them during office hours - they may even provide you with some free advice).If you're really lucky you'll find a prof who is willing to use you as an example for a case/class in which case you'd have exposure to a number of business students who might end up being interested in working with you after.I would also clearly define whether you're looking for someone who is strong at sales vs marketing as the skill sets are different. You may find better and more driven candidates in sales at a technical college. |
How much did you spend on your startup before you got ramen profitable? | Raphael: Mr. Simpson, I didn't get rich writing a lot of checks. |
How much did you spend on your startup before you got ramen profitable? | wlievens: Working on a new game project; spent $590 for art, $20 on domains, using a server I'm already renting on another budget. Spent about 200 manhours on it (worth €10k or something). |
How much did you spend on your startup before you got ramen profitable? | fookyong: I stopped doing consulting and lived off my savings whilst building my first SaaS app. It took a few months to get ramen profitable and I had zero income the whole time during development. Looking back, that was actually kinda stupid of me...But we're not talking about time or opportunity cost, we're talking about hard expenditure right?In that case, probably about $3000. Got spent on a bunch of things - hosting, buying software licenses, SSL certs, icon sets etc etc.My biggest expenditure was on hosting. I went with a dedicated Rackspace server and I signed up way too early. 2 months into my contract I still hadn't launched and was, of course, paying a flat fee per month (not cheap!). This is precisely the situation I could avoid by using cloud solutions, but at the time there wasn't a cloud service out there I was comfortable with using. Tried out Rackspace Cloud Servers recently and would like to use that for future projects.You live and learn. |
How much did you spend on your startup before you got ramen profitable? | jacquesm: Camarades.com was funded from a software licensing scheme that brought in about 700,000 annually. In one year all the licensing income was spent on salaries for employees we hired and bandwidth (which was very expensive back then), the second year the business became profitable when we added 24x7 media advertising.The licensing deal was abolished and the licensed software became completely free as long as people would host their video streams with us.After that the whole thing was spun out as a different company underneath the parent, and extra shareholders came on board.All told I figure about a million went in to it before it was really profitable, because it was launched off an existing stream of income we had in that sense a relatively easy time of it. It definitely is a lot of money to spend on something you are not sure is going to take off though, fortunately it did. |
How much did you spend on your startup before you got ramen profitable? | Concours: I'm still spending, altought it's more of time and energy, so far probaly >1000 $, I won't count my time I hope to break-even in January 2010.I will post it here. |
How much did you spend on your startup before you got ramen profitable? | ag: Around 10K€ or $15K in USD. |
What to do with 1 hour per day? | sidmitra: > I want to increase my problem solving skillsTry these if you haven't
http://projecteuler.net/
http://www.pythonchallenge.com/ |
What to do with 1 hour per day? | losethos: Pray |
What equity percentage for a co-founder joining after de-risking? | brk: He believes in the business and his projections suggest it can be very profitable.He damn well better, otherwise, what's the point?This "how much equity" thing comes up ALL the time here. There is no pat answer, but it often seems like every founder/co-founder and first employee has delusions of grandeur about the whole thing.I'd guarantee that whatever risks you eliminate now are less than 5% of the risks and roadblocks you'll have to knock down in the next year. In otherwords, until you have a product and customer and enough data to make a real extrapolation from, your value is essentially 0.Alice's risk is exactly the same before or after Bob addresses these theoretical risks.If Bob wants to haggle over small equity proportions now he probably has his head up his ass. |
What equity percentage for a co-founder joining after de-risking? | petervandijck: Whatever you are both slightly unhappy with, while still beig able to live with it, is probably the best answer. If one of you feels they got a good deal, it's probably not right. |
How do I find a marketing/sales/business guy (university)? | rcmorin: drew: i'm in boston. here's a project i'm working on: http://www.slideshare.net/rcmorin/say-hi-presentationlet's connect. rcmorin (at) gmail.com |
What equity percentage for a co-founder joining after de-risking? | petervandijck: It sounds like Alice isn't ready to join until Bob reduces risks. Fine. Then they shouldn't agree on a percentage now, they should negotiate AFTER those risks have been reduced. Else you're talking theory in lala land. Alice should walk away, saying "call me when". Bob should reduce risk while continuing to look for cofounders.In any case, this doesn't sound like cofounding, this sounds like first employee. |
What equity percentage for a co-founder joining after de-risking? | volida: "but points out that since Alice will be assuming less risk at that point"Why is it going to be less risky for Alice? As I can see there is no software and no revenue/customers.How are risks going to be lowered exactly so that is attractive for Alice to join?While there is no product yet, practically this means you will put money into this. If that is the case, then relative to the amount + what your contribution worths vs Alice's, then you find how to split the percentage. |
What equity percentage for a co-founder joining after de-risking? | joolz237: I've been in this situation a couple of times - as Alice. What it tended to come down to was my other opportunities were well-paid jobs that I could take but that didn't have the potential pay-off of a startup. Because most startups fail the choice was between high guaranteed income + not much fun or a lower income, more risk and more fun.The answer in both cases was that Bob produced a sliding scale of salary vs. equity. The more salary I took the less equity I got. If I wanted the startup life without the risk I took a bigger salary and got less equity. The only question then was what the top and bottom ends of the scale looked like.As the other comments point out, risk is a dynamic and subjective thing, so it makes sense to review the ratio from time to time to make sure it's reflecting reality. |
How many of you have been to a psychiatrist? Did it help? | jelloman2: Throwaway account for same reasons.My experience with a psychiatrist did not help much. My main problem being with dealing with people, I really hated having to talk to one more person. I dealt with whatever problems I had on my own and I think I'm fine now. Still, I really wish there was a good AI I could talk to...What ever happened to Dr. Sbaitso? |
Apple webserver hardware | jrwoodruff: I don't have the mini, but I'm running os x 1.4 server on an old G4 xserve. Coming from a graphic design/mac background, the initial server setup was dead simple. The workgroup and server admin tools are excellent and allow you to administer every function of the server remotely. It ships with Apache, tomcat and jboss and mysql, etc. and provides nice interfaces to administer all services. When I bought the xserve it was running server 10.2, I considered updating it to a regular 10.4 or linux install, but found the tools and other utilities (and stability) convenient enough to purchase a copy of 10.4 server. Hope that helps.All said, I love my mac server :) |
How do you overcome perfectionism? | brk: You have too much hacker and not enough capitalist in your DNA.No one is going to use or pay for a product they can't access.Without users/payers, you're going to remain pretty broke for the foreseeable future.You can toil away to perfectionism (and likely bankruptcy) or can release now and start to build value (and capture user feedback before it's too late to make changes). |
Review this product / startup | DanBlake: Clickable links:Main view: http://ioj.com/v/qzbp3Alternate Theme, Settings open: http://ioj.com/v/0xretIndividual item view: http://ioj.com/v/yui6v |
Question on situation | brk: I don't really think they are obligated to describe to you how they make the sausage.As long as the end result is what you paid for, does it really matter if they employ trained professionals, or monkeys with notepad.exe? |
Question on situation | tbgvi: You'd be surprised how common that is.The same thing has happened to me and I didn't know until after the project was over. In the end, as long as your happy with the design it shouldn't matter who worked on it. That being said, stopping the project is def. within your rights since you're the client :) |
Question on situation | huangm: You hire a design firm because you like their portfolio work. As a client, you shouldn't have to ask if the same people responsible for the portfolio work are going to work on your project. My guess is that this is an assumption that most clients will make (I certainly would), so it certainly seems that their actions are a bit disingenuous. |
Question on situation | timr: This is really common in the design world, especially in this crappy economy. Design firms don't have steady demand right now, and a lot of them have laid off former full-time designers, only to pull them back in on contract when work comes through the door. I have friends who are/were in exactly this situation.I think you probably overreacted. Why don't you trust the professional designers to choose their employees? What does the employee's tax status have to do with the designs they deliver? |
Question on situation | roedog88: I don't think you overreacted. I would find it difficult to trust a consultant who pulled a bait-and-switch on me.An alternative to firing them might have been to re-negotiate their fees based on the less known designer, or to defer payment until the job was finished to your satisfaction.But given the breach of trust, I don't think canceling the contract was out of line. Especially if staying with them would require extra oversight and heartburn. |
Enterprise SaaS UI Design resources | maxdemarzi: Whatever you use, have a template system to let your customers use their logos and company colors to brand their piece of the site. |
Question on situation | tdavis: I don't think they were wrong or that you overreacted.The thing about design firms that have a very distinctive look is that they have probably taken the time to refine and largely automate the design process (Photoshop actions, etc.) Take for example Metalab (which I would guess is who you hired, as they immediately came to mind as fitting this mold): all their work looks nearly exactly the same; I can spot one of their sites on first glance. When you have as refined a style and spec as they do, you can probably get freelancers to make you designs which conform to the spec pretty well.The bottom line is that companies like them (not saying they do this because I don't know, but it's as good an example as any) don't make money by doing crappy work; they make it by sticking to a token style. If they can get somebody to duplicate that style using their tools and guidance for cheaper than they pay employees, why wouldn't they? You get what you wanted and they make more money -- everybody wins.You're entitled to react however you like, obviously. If you wanted a staff member and would feel unsafe about using a freelancer, that's your prerogative. My point is simply that the company probably arranges it such that it doesn't matter in the long run (except to their profit margin). |
Question on situation | gte910h: You overreacted.If you want quality guarantees, make those.If you want a certain style, specify that.Otherwise, calm down, breath easy, and be aware that companies sometimes hire people. Actually, that's pretty much the definitive factor between hiring a company and hiring a freelancer: The company is made up of multiple people, some of which you may not know. |
What equity percentage for a co-founder joining after de-risking? | peripatetic: I cannot imagine what you could do to "de-risk" a company with zero capital, zero customers and zero product. |
Review My Weekend Web App | calminferno: Bookmrk is a simple web application that allows you to easily save and orginize your bookmarks via tags. You may choose to make your bookmarks public, which allows other to enjoy what you have already found.It is an experiment to play with redis. I'm using the phpredis extension as well. It's pretty basic but was a fun little weekend project. |
Question on situation | tptacek: Yes. Fire them.When you do contracts next time, include a clause that says subcontractors aren't allowed without prior approval. That's standard in the industry I work in, and subcontractors are a fact of life here.Meanwhile, it doesn't matter who's right and who's wrong. It is a sensible business decision to work with firms who will staff projects predictably and, preferably, with their own people. There are enough good web design firms in the world that you shouldn't be compromising.In some cases, you might benefit from being staffed with a sub; maybe the sub was a former partner, or a rock star they're actively trying to recruit onto the team. In those cases, that benefit should have been sold to you at project start. The fact that you didn't even know who would be working on the project until it kicked off tells me you could find a better firm to work with. |
Equity for a first employee | iag: Interesting question.Assuming this engineer is fairly valuable to your startup due to the non-technical co-founders, you might have to give up more than normal (0.5-1.5% equity). I don't have a number in mind, but I'd be interested in hearing other people's thoughts on this.Guys, thoughts? |
Equity for a first employee | jhancock: With similar funding, I've given 5% reverse vested shares to a tech employee. It created vast incentive, and if he stays with the company for 3 to 4 years, he certainly earn the 5%. I also gave 7% to a key tech employee before...no regrets. |
Equity for a first employee | tptacek: 1-2%. A lot of people say 5%. 5% is what you'll give to an executive down the road. First employees are very important, but probably not as important as your second CEO. 6% is what you give to YC. First employees are very important, but a first employee who is worth almost as much as YC should probably be your cofounder, not an employee.This is also for your first employee. You may live or die based on the work this person does, and more importantly they may be accepting extraordinary risk (if your runway is less than 6 months, say). The same rules do not apply to employee #3.Finally, if you don't pay the person, or if you pay them bare subsistence wages (say, $20-30k) and they're senior talent, you've introduced an additional level of risk, and you should pay a premium for that. However, there may be better ways to compensate that risk; for instance, you can defer salary at a premium rate.A really important thing to remember about employee options is that employees don't know how to value them. You need to be really engaged with the strategic course of the business (not just the product: the business and its future cash flows) to really grok what options mean in rational terms. This is a good reason not to grant huge amounts to early employees; it costs you dearly and doesn't make them much happier. |
Equity for a first employee | sganesh: Depends on the pay. If you're paying market, < 1 %. If you're not paying market, match the difference to a max of 3%. Either way, make sure it is vested 1/36 every month for a period of 36 months. But if you get bought out, or go IPO before that time frame, make sure all of that is vested. And also, if you get funding that pays out the founders in some way, find a way to pay something out to the employees too. |
Equity for a first employee | jimboyoungblood: Are you the prospective employee or the employer? |
What more is needed in Ecmascript 5 to turn it into a mainstream lisp? | mbrubeck: Atoms/symbols. Continuations. |
Equity for a first employee | efsavage: I hate to get too Paul Graham-y on you, but it depends if this person is genuinely interested in your problem. 1-2% equity isn't going to solely motivate a talented engineer because that's unlikely to convert into life-changing money. |
What more is needed in Ecmascript 5 to turn it into a mainstream lisp? | pivo: It can't really have proper Lisp macros with its current syntax. |
Equity for a first employee | jacobscott: It seems like there's vague consensus on first engineer equity. Are there any common rule-of-thumbs for Nth engineer (or Nth employee) equity? |
Review My Weekend Web App | christiancoomer: I arrived at your home page and found nothing that indicates that it's any different than something like Delicious.com. This caused me not to register since I already have an account on Delicious.I'd mention on your home page what makes your app different than your competition. |
Equity for a first employee | luckydude: The people saying 5% are probably wishful thinkers. It's a fact of life that in all but very very few cases it is only the VC's and (sometimes) the founders that get rich.There are exceptions, I got a tiny part of google because I was there (briefly) very early and that paid off nicely. And there are other examples of non-founders doing well, where "well" means life changing amounts of money (measured in millions).But people need to keep in mind that those are exceptions, not the rule.
Most non-founders end up with what amounts to a nice bonus, a year or two's salary.Unless I'm mistaken this question was sort of "what's normal for this situation?".What's normal varies but not by much. 5% is high. I agree with tptacek, 5% is what you give the 2nd CEO (which is a different topic, that's usually 5% wasted because that CEO will probably drive your company out of business. Anyone remember the Pepsi guy running Apple?). .5-1.5% sounds about right for the first engineering hire.Remember, you can always give out more stock but it is close to impossible to take it back. |
Equity for a first employee | minalecs: how do you guys feel about .. how much equity first employee should receive with little to no pay, as sort of like a side project ? |
Equity for a first employee | bokonist: I joined a startup in a very similar position. I ended up taking 4-5% equity, and about 50% market salary. This was perhaps a bit low, as it was barely enough to get me and keep me on board at the early stages. But the salary went up as we grew, so now I'm quite happy.Also remember this is an early round, and that 4-5% will get diluted a lot as you take more venture. So it's not really comparable to what a future CEO might get. |
How do you overcome perfectionism? | drobilla: Realise that adding features does not make anything "perfect". Perfect software is robust, stable, tested, used, solid, etc. The only way of attaining this is to have it be widely used.Therefore, in order to make perfect software, you have to crank out releases and get it into the hands of users who will find any imperfections for you (including both bugs and 'softer' imperfections like an inefficient UI). |
Equity for a first employee | enjo: My rule of thumb (early stage at least):Start at 2% and increase by 1% for every $10k under market your paying in salary.I'm happy to give 5% in equity to a top-notch engineer who is taking a 30% pay cut. |
Apple webserver hardware | towndrunk: I'm using a mini for a server in the home office. Basically, it's just a file server but I do have Tomcat and MySQL on there as well. Like the other poster said, it's dead simple to set up and work with. |
What Can I Do About this Freelance Gig Gone Wrong? | brk: What can I do?What's wrong with "so long, and thanks for all the fish"?Tell them it's not working out, it's not worth your time, and that you found something better.If you're 3 weeks behind and they're paying you $2000/month, it seems that your worst-case liability is that you owe them $1500-$2000. I would probably tell them they can keep their 3% and we'll call it even. Bye. |
Equity for a first employee | trunnell: If software is the product, I suggest the first engineer should be taken on as a co-founder and/or get the same equity as the non-technical founders. Anything less will undervalue the incredible and unique contribution of that engineer.Otherwise, I've seen two methods of valuing startup equity offers:1. Options are worth nothing, until they are worth something.2. Options are worth their face value times the probability you will meet that face value. Example: 2% equity of a startup targeting a $100M exit, with a 1% probability of hitting that exit = (2% * 100M) * 1% = $20,000.I agree with other commenters that a chance at "life-changing money" is usually required for higher-risk situations like being a first employee. So that's the real test, not a fixed percentage. |
Equity for a first employee | jarsj: You do not describe the nature of the company. If its a technical company and you do plan to stick around, you should negotiate founder stakes, which degrade to employee options if you quit within say 4-5 years. Since none of the co-founders is technical this is reasonable. |
Regression to the mean math question | mbrubeck: Regression to the mean does not imply that the first slope should be less than one.If for some reason only the above-average students regressed, then the slope would be <1. But regression to the mean also affects the scores of students who started below average; as a group we should expect them to regress upward toward the mean. Combine the two groups, and the effects exactly cancel out, leaving a slope of 1.(Since you say the slope "should be" one, I assume the scores are normalized somehow so that the mean score for exam A is the same as the mean for exam B.) |
Equity for a first employee | alexdmoore: 2-2.5% and a lowball salary is right. I would argue that folks are only getting more when the founders are weak in some area. If you are weak and the 1st emp is a sick engineer give whatever it takes to lock up the talent. Otherwise 2% and 50k is right. |
Question on situation | tboxer854: In addition - this design firm put out a ad the day before my project started looking for a new designer. If this person was so good, why didn't they just fill that job? |
As an employer, what do you wish applicants did more often? | jonaldomo: I hate job hunting. |
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