Hacker angels

gabrielweinberg.com

83 points·icey··8 comments

It's fascinating and inspiring and exciting to watch this "hackers all the way down" ecosystem grow. What'll it be like in five years? In ten?

"sorry, we can't invest unless you use OTBS"

You should become a Segway gang and wear black hoodies that say "Hacker Angels" in green Terminus.

"But I'm using Python..."

I know very few hackers that can make great products for my mom or my sisters. Insert Steve Jobs' spiel about the intersection of technology and liberal arts.

I know many many extremely intelligent, driven, and practical people that want to start a startup (or have started one), but lack the mentorship to put them into the right mindset. Great mentors are really difficult to find, and it's fantastic that you're offerring your advice to people that would otherwise have a hard time getting it. (Of course some funding is nice too, though I'd argue it's less important).

In my opinion, the internet is the great equalizer. You can ask someone a question over email, or on a forum like this, or over Twitter and you can often get thought-out responses.

Not that it could ever replace an investor relationship, but there's no reason that people can't solicit advice from people who have already achieved success. Of course, you may not always get a response, but you'd be surprised by how approachable many people are.

This is where I hope to be next year. Now back to coding...

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