Princess Pricklepants, Startup Founder Extraordinaire | Hacker News Reader

Princess Pricklepants, Startup Founder Extraordinaire

princesspricklepants.com

131 pointsnemo23 comments

Hello, the author here. I assumed this would fizzle into doom. Happy to see the strange gaze of the Internet pass briefly over my odd little blog. If you have any hedgehog-related questions, etc. feel free to ask.

What was the inspiration for launching this?

I'm having trouble creating a new site for myself right now because I'm embedded in a career that would likely frown upon a) sharing trade secrets, even though that'd be the only compelling professional content I can think to write and b) sharing my personal views on any number of things (+ I don't want to just write an online diary like it's 2002 and I'm livejournaling all my feelings).

I guess what I'm trying to say is that this is wonderful and an inspiration and I'd like to know the origin story (really).

edited to add: PLEASE create a LinkedIn profile for Princess Penelope Pricklepants.

Thanks! The back story isn't exactly what I'd think of as inspiring. We got a pet hedgehog, who was adorable and entertaining, and I thought it would be fun to make a blog to share with family, friends, and hedgehog fans online. While you probably can't tell so well from that blog post, I'm a decent photographer, so I took a lot of absurdist photos of the hedgehog doing various things in little sets, and was amused by taking a set of photos and figuring out how to weave some kind of absurd shaggy-dog story out of it. It's not monetized in any way (other than costing a tiny bit for the domain), and is purely for the entertainment of me and whoever winds up reading it, so it's much more fun.

Until relatively recently I worked at Apple so I know the feeling of needing to compartmentalize work into a private space. The last project I worked on there was way too much pressure and really not fun for me (replacing an internal software system with heritage from the NeXT days that I'd worked for years with a system that was technically inferior but more "Enterprise"), so writing silly stories helped as a steam valve. Happily the new job is cooler, more interesting, and something I enjoy doing, but the absurd stories are still fun.

"PLEASE create a LinkedIn profile for Princess Penelope Pricklepants." That is a brilliant idea and must be done, though it might be a little bit before I get to it.

2 hours later... :)

Feel free to add Princess Pricklepants to your professional network: https://www.linkedin.com/in/penelope-pricklepants-98198010a

This reads alarmingly similar to many techcrunch articles.

Perhaps techcrunch could be improved with the addition of plastic cows and/or hedgehogs.

I'm trying really hard to think of internet articles in general that wouldn't be improved, especially with hedgehogs.

Is their EIR the new CEO? He was VP of Fax Development at TeleCorp and increased ARR by nearly 10% in the early 00's. Also has an MBA, a great haircut, and enjoys wine and golf.

This has uncanny resemblance to my own startup. I'm encouraged that Telstar Ettiquettronics were able to raise capital.

I think I've worked with their CFO

When I'm at a party and random person starts babbling about how they have a "great" idea that makes no sense in any universe - this is exactly what flashes through my mind.

Cute photos, it reminded me of the classic Beatrix Potter tale if anyone hasn't read them they are great:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tale_of_Mrs._Tiggy-Winkle

How on earth is "telstarettiquettronics.com" still available?

It now redirects to http://smallrooms.co/ which seems to be some kind of entrepreneur podcast. Growth hacking!

Man, the NXDOMAIN was part of the joke :( The spelling error in etiquette bugged me, but not enough to do anything. SEO-ish behavior, though, that was enough to motivate me to update things.

10/10 - Alarmingly similar to reality.

Got two words for you Nemo: this thing definitely needs to be published as a children's book made from real paper and ink.

Thanks, though that's seventeen words. A few people have suggested trying to publish a book, I was planning on looking into it next year. While I am dubious that publishers would be too excited, you never know - the world's a really strange place.

There's always LeanPub / Gumroad

Bravo! A+ for creativity!

This is exactly like the last start up I worked at and any tech meetup i go to.

I think the mythology as a service thing is a truly excellent idea. It should be on Y Combinator's list of startup ideas.

YC are just too conservative to see the value in such unconventional ideas.

"Also, synergy.”

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