LukeFitzpatrick

If I were you, start reading about startups, check out Sam Altman's awesome site on startup theory, it'll be a good place to refresh yourself and start thinking about things: http://startupclass.samaltman.com/

Glad my answer helped you out.

It seems to me that you want to be involved in startups that have just got traction in the B2C market, AkA created that 'wow' factor that you mentioned.

Your long track record in a fortune 50 company might be the thing that steers you away from getting accepted to such companies. If I was hiring you, the first red flag I'd get is 'this guys experienced' - how much is this going to cost me?

Likely, the jobs at small disruptive companies probably work on recommendations. I see your options like this if you want to make the change:

Option 1: Get a recommendation to a company your interested in and expect a pay cut.

Option 2: Find a startup that you're interested in, offer to help them out, make connections; or, join one.

Option 3: Start your own B2C startup, do it as a side project, build a team and quit your day job when you're ready.

There is nothing worse than doing a job that you're no longer interested in. I know your pain, everybody has been in your shoes at one stage in their life.

This is my email, your welcome to email if you want any advice, lukejamesfitzpatrick@gmail.com

The difference between a hack and cyber warfare is this: cyber warfare results in death or substantially loss to property. Here's a link that has a cool presentation about the differences to clear up any confusion:

http://www.slideshare.net/mobile/digicomp/cyber-warfare-vs-h...

Disclosure: I didn't write this presentation, but I wish I did :)

According to the presentation, Steven2012 is right. Oh and there is even a definition of cyber warfare in the presentation.

Yeah, I'd just refund it like jasonkester said. It's not worth the hassle and besides, that customer is likely to complain about your service if you don't refund it. The chances are, they are probably really strapped for cash and are looking for ways to cut down on expenses suddenly. Or they are just (---: 's

Nice looking site. Just letting you know, the video really slowed up the loading time. Took about 30 seconds+ for the second half of the page to load up. And, I've got a super fast connection.

Programming side looks nice, but it's overly heavy on copy, you might want to simplify it a bit. Just a tip, I like the idea.

Lol, it would actually enjoy it, but if other people did it to me, that would suck big time.

I'd assume, if I built it, people would spam the crap load out of me, just by spite.

Same here, assume on the U.S.

I agree with the comments here. Join the startup if you believe in the 'team' and the problem they are solving.

Look at the teams track record, is this their first startup? What experience do they have? How committed are they? What do they require from you? Do they have a clear way to acquire customers? Are you dealing with a chicken egg problem? Do they have a clear goal to monetize their site? How long have they spent on validation? Have they found customers that would pay for their service before launching it? What's the time frame, as in, how long do they expect you to be working on this project?

I read an article, I think it might of been on Sam Altman's site, that said, you need a leader, a manager and a techie. Each having very distinctively roles to play.

Having a reputable investor is a good sign, but doesn't mean it's going to work. It all comes down to the team executing it. Focus on skill set of the team, rather than the investors big name.

Do some background checks on the Founders, if anything seems fishy, get out of there. On the other hand, if it looks like you have found an awesome team - sign yourself up.

I'm on my second startup now, it's a side project. I'm interviewing people for my team. I got hustler from Rutgers, who went out and got the sign ups for a social network, she has connections to TechStars and Y Combinator. Her previously startup, she was working with a growth hacker (which is what I do). So we are a good match. Have 5 interviews with programmers over the next two weeks, and I've found people that will help out with marketing and programming for free. I focussed on 'specific sets of skills' I want my team to have.

Best of luck!

The copy is ok. You could tinkle with a little bit and do some AB testing. Do a google search on Buffer AB testing, they have some awesome advice on their blog.

Pricing, looks different. Usually, it's cheapest (on the left) with most expensive package (on the right). I wasn't sure if you did this to be different? With pricing, you might want to add in 'time', for example live chat 24 hours, if you can offer this, it will make your value proposition stronger. The States and Australia are on different time schedules.

I'd also offer a free account, whereby founders of startups can 'do' live chat with their customers. Realistically, they are the people that should be doing live chat, as it's their customers. They need to know what's going on. You could even consider charging for this ($10-20 per month).

If you want me to take a look at your copy more seriously, email me at lukejamesfitzpatrick@gmail.com on the weekend, and I'll see if I can come up with anything better.

This concept seems strange, a random person calling to wake you up.

It makes me think back to an annoying app idea I had, Spam the Spammer - the idea for this was, anyone that sends me spam, I send it back to them and crash their account. Don't worry HN community, I didn't build this product.

Back to the topic, their features on having recorded celebrity voices seems a bit stalkish to me. I don't see any real need for an app to call me to wake me up. I'm a heavy sleeper, and usually set about ten alarms each morning - this works fine for me.

I'd expect this app to be semi- faddish.

I think Quora is awesome for finding content related to what I do - being startups. Most of the answers I read on there are of high quality, just like HN.

I've had startups PM me for advice, feedback, done Skype chats etc. I always try to help people when I can as I was once in their shoes. People have also helped me out too.

I dig anything related to tech, I enjoy using HN and Quora, and I feel - by only limiting yourself to one service, limits your knowledge. That's why I use both.

The sign in thing with Quora, did really bug me at the start, same goes for the dirty thing Facebook Messenger did - once, you can get over that, you might actually enjoy it.

Back on topic, Uber is everywhere in the news!

What I'm surprised about is how much press Uber gets these days. I jump on Quora, I've easily seen 10 questions in about a week? Went to a startup event that was hosted by Uber. Have been given Uber discount cards. Likewise, goes for Twitter too. I've seen bad and good press about Uber. And, of course, I'm seeing Uber on HN.

I'm really keen to see if their growth startegy works and if they're able to dominate the industry; or become one of those companies that rises too fast and falls quickly.

Met a young kid recently, claimed he had the idea for Uber too.. Told him, it's all about the execution.

I'd expect the lawsuit against Uber will not be the last. They have really got to keep on top of their legal department to protect stakeholders.

I'd definitely like to know this answer. I have had a lot of success with cold emails.

Usually, I think being genuine is the best way to go about it.

There is cloud computing, now we have AI in the cloud. I found this on Betalist, thought the HN community might be interested.

Machine learning is in its baby steps. I'll be curios to see where the future goes in the next 5-10 years.

Yeah, I'm a little disappointed in my friends. I still think they have a product. But the whole team broke up. Awesome your making sales, and your right, universities will most likely continue using the same service once it's been adopted.

I'm also very surprised this happened. I've done my fair share of Ramen, can barely eat it anymore. I'd assume they sold the investor on selling the service to Universities at 50K each, the investor believed in them and that he'd get a good return in his investment.

The market size wasn't too small, it allied to college students everywhere.

From what I know, a startup should look something like this. Build your MVP, get some traction, add on another feature, get more traction... A continually process of expanding your features and user base. Every time you add on features, you want to see growth.

The same goes for getting investment. Seed A, MVP with traction, add on a feature and go through Seed B stage etc etc. Adding on features to get more users which can lead to more investment. Investors want to see a plan for what a startup will do with that money.

The investor they got, was actually doing something similar. Running a tutoring company that became quite profitable. Two of the guys working at the tutoring company got the idea to make this service, and sold the idea to their boss at the time.

Raising money is hard work, these guys got lucky in that respect. I think they made the absolute rookie mistake, afraid to talk to as they might 'steal' their idea. They thought it was a sure thing. Especially when they received the investment.

Yeah, they used all the money on themselves. A free learning period so to speak. But, I wouldn't want to do that with investors money, reputation might hurt them in the long run.

One of the guys is a product manager at Google now, another moved back to his home town. Only one of them is still doing the startup thing.

They definitely got a lot of experience, this only counts if they learnt from their mistakes. Which, I really hope they did.

I think they had the options to target Universities or college students. The product connects college students to other students to for help with problems. It's mostly suited for the mathematics, engineering and computing faculties.

The big issue is, they didn't have anyone to do marketing for it or test the market to see whether it wants their service or not. They should of done a pilot system. Focused on one university in Beta mode, and then expanded. They were too fixed on selling it for 50K a piece.

Your awesome, cheers for the tip. I've only had my iPad for a couple of months so I don't know many iPad tricks yet.

I agree with this article. Founders overspend once they get their first initial investment, and rely on the next investment too much. Founders should be paying more attention to burn and churn rates.

I once saw one of my best friends fail his first startup. They had a kickass programming team, received investment and did a bunch of things wrong.

1) Spent the whole investment on Founders salaries. They had 4 tech programmers (top notch guys), and used the money to pay for their time whilst they were building the platform.

2) They had the wrong product market fit. They expected to sell their services to Universities for 50K. In my opinion, they should of targeted college students, and add a tutoring service and take a small commission.

3) They built a fully finished product. Their was no room to scale it or grow.

4) They expected that the product would just sell itself. We all know, that's not how it works in the real world.

5) They didn't do any market testing and validation = wrong product market fit.

The end result, they got an investment and spent it quickly, they didn't try to pivot, tried to get another investment and failed. The team broke up pretty quick, or as you referred to in your article, they got an unwelcoming 'pinch' on the backside.

I learnt a lot from seeing my friends fail, and their failure has helped me out a lot with my startups. When startups first get their investment, they should have a 1-2 year plan for that money (burn rate). Divide the investment by a specific time period and that's how you spend it.

Realistically, after you get through the TechCrunch 'trough of sorrow' as Andrew Chen puts it, you have to stay motivated and plan for the future. The future looks dim if your startup is heavily reliant on receiving additional investments to keep you alive.

More on the pinch, startups shouldn't be getting an investment to keep them going. They should have this already sorted out. A very wise person once told me, you should seek investments when you don't need them, as this means you have done your homework and can also find the best deals.

Great article, and I appreciate the awesome content.

This is what I do. I have the Pages App on my iPad. I copy and paste anything into it that I want to continue to read, reference or check it out later on. I only use this app for this purpose. I also created a reading list on Quora too, but I've only just started using this feature. If there is a specific app for this, let me know, I'd use it.

You could possibly offer referrals to other Bitcoin sites and charge a fee. Some sites offer Bitcoin wallets, others can predict the market market. I know of one Bitcoin site which has a 90% accuracy on prediction.

I'd say, safety of Bitcoin will become a big thing later on with quantum computing on the rise.

Checkout Meetup.com in you local area. I live in Seoul, it has regular meet ups about Bitcoin. If you attend this, you should be able to get some ideas.

Best of luck! I think I saw your post on Quora.

A 3rd approach to University outreach:

Work placement programs/ mentorship/ networks Ex. Ivy League

Thanks for this post. I won't be storing any exe/rar files in my gmail account.

I know a group of cool guys building a quad copter. It seems like a few of these projects are popping up.

DIY quadcopter tutorial, sorry I don't know of one, but you could try going to the closest University to your house and chat to the mechanical engineering department.

If you have never done a forum before, it's a lot of work, I can't stress this point enough. You'd want to find 50 loyal people to start it off. Have a quick search about what Reddit and Quora did in their early stages.

If you're not good at communicating, it's probably the best way, but a messy one. I'd chat to him first, then get a lawyer if necessary.