TWSS

I was paid less than someone doing the same job at the same company as I was many years ago. When there were layoffs, one of the reasons they kept me instead of him was that I was cheaper.

I understand you're the sole tech guy at your company, but the same dynamic may apply.

I love that most of the dogs seem to be adoptable. It's a great hook. I wonder if you could allow users who've logged in with Facebook to only see dogs near them.

Thanks for posting this, Rick.

Chris's advice is predicated on having a good relationship with your investors. That's not always the case. If a CEO is hesitant to invest in transparent communication with investors/advisors/board, it might be worthwhile to ask him or her why not. If it's solely a case of lost opportunity cost, there are plenty of tips here on how to minimize that. But if it's a deeper issue, that deserves to be explored, too.

Well, here's the first one that came up when I Googled: http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/search/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb...

I'm interested in reading the article, is there a free version somewhere?

OP here - my proposal is that we might benefit from women-only support groups where we can share the frustrations and experiences of being in the minority, not women-only workplaces.

That said, there's some research that single-sex education leads to better student outcomes, especially for girls. I wonder if similar research has been done for work environments.

I'm also very grateful to Katie and Shanley for being brave enough to stand up and write about their experiences.

While there is some great advice here, I don't think it's necessarily for people who haven't done a ton of public speaking before.

What I agree with: Find your power animal (the pose or gesture that feels natural/empowering to you), pick two people in the room to speak to (I prefer to pick four, only two of whom I can usually see due to stage lighting), and practice as much as possible in front of an audience.

What I disagree with: Don't "um" (it's distracting and unless you have the gravitas to pull it off, you sound like a Valley Girl), and memorization may be exactly what you need to be comfortable speaking publicly. Like another commenter, I've memorized my pitch almost verbatim, but use conversational language based on bullet points. The "script" gives me something to fall back on if I get distracted.

For context, I was a competitive CX debater in high school and recently had to relearn public speaking 20+ years later as a startup founder: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClznRU8-Xfw

This tracks with my anecdotal experiences working in startups for 15+ years. Namely, that companies need audacious, aggressive leaders in the early days of initial fundraising, customer acquisition, etc. But those domineering, borderline-sociopath leaders are rarely adept at maintaining and growing a stable, established company.

Another vote for Posterous. I also like the simple customization, and the fact that I can easily add new members/contributors - a nice feature for a company blog.

I love the idea ("Uber for carwashing!") but I have some doubts.

The price point is too low for me to believe they'll do a decent job. There are already mobile car detailers here in Portland, and a good exterior detail costs around $100. That's because the companies are licensed and bonded. If I'm going to go cheap on a car wash, I'll do a $6 drive-through special at Washman on my way to the grocery store.

Not knowing the coverage area before signing up is a problem for me as well. My email address and phone number are private - I'm not giving them up until a company gives me something in return.

I approve this post.

Awesome lesson, and I appreciate that you explained the implementation.

We already have too many apps shoved down our throats. Make it as seamless as possible for your app to work with the tools people are already using (i.e., don't send emails that say "You have a new message at NewApp - click on this link to see it" - actually SHOW the message) and you'll have much better adoption.

You can add more permissions later.

You might want to consider a stepped permissions model for the Facebook auth. Asking for a crapton of permissions up front before establishing any trust with the user can be off-putting.

For example, get the email first, give users more info about pricing, how it works, etc., then get photo permissions.

And don't ask for permissions you don't need. Why ask for access to my friends' likes?

Thanks for answering my questions. While the lifetime risk of ALS is (relatively) low, I feel that its high mortality rate should increase the importance of funding research.

What this points out to me is how little we know about ALS/MND. The majority of those diagnosed die within three years, but a handful can survive for decades.

Do bulbar onset ALS patients live longer than limb onset? What about those with familial ALS? Were patients who die sooner exposed to an environmental trigger? ALS is significantly more common among military veterans than the general public - why, and is their survival rate better or worse than civilians?

I love that Dr. Hawking has survived so long. He contributes to awareness of ALS and gives patients hope. But I sometimes wonder if it's a sadistic, unrealistic hope and if his longevity decreases the urgency of the need for research into causes and treatment of a disease that is a death sentence for the majority of those diagnosed with it.

I've wrestled with this, personally. Honestly, I think it's hard to tell what's viable and what's not when it's your baby, and you've been living and breathing it for months.

The standard that I hold myself to is whether or not the product provides value to the user or customer. Does it do something new or interesting that someone (besides your team) cares about, or is it just the first part of something that you hope will provide value? It's tempting to jump the gun, and I think honesty on the part of those around you can help keep you from releasing a minimum, non-viable, product.

Right?! What an awesome way to kick off 2012.

This is something we struggled with. We eventually figured out that being the Airbnb of the market we're addressing didn't translate well and we moved to a different model.

Unfortunately, I still hear people describing us as "Airbnb for X". Comparisons like that stick, and if your business changes, it's hard to change a facile comparison like that.

Not just your experience: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/teens-health/CC00019

Your circadian rhythm changes in your teens, and too few schools are willing to work with this rather than against it. The results are sleep-deprived kids doing crap work in school and getting into car accidents like the one mentioned at the start of the HBR article.

Because it would be TOTALLY OUTRAGEOUS to expect a father to participate equally in the raising of his child.

It's funny, I was 35 when I realized life was short, quit my corporate job, and started working on startups. My mid-life crisis, complete with impractical sports car.

At 35, I had enough experience that working on boring projects for idiots became physically and emotionally painful. I'm still working for an idiot, but it's the one I see in the mirror every day, and at least now I'm fully engaged and invested in what I'm working on.

We've recently had to do something similar, and I appreciate the transparency around this. Thanks for sharing your experiences and intentions with your customers, it's a good template for how others can gracefully make decisions like this.

The point about deferring to a man when you both start talking at the same time struck a chord. As the CEO of an early-stage startup with two male partners, I'm slowly breaking myself of that habit when we're talking to a mentor.

It's painful to keep talking over my partner. Frankly, I label myself a pushy bitch when I do it. But the fact that I need to earn this title keeps me doing it.

Because the list is so long, and a bunch of the cons mention cost, I'm going to flog my friend's company, Cloudability (http://cloudability.com). They help you track and control your cloud spending and they're an AWS solutions provider.

There are only three of us at Stayhound (http://stayhound.com), so our list is pretty short:

Mockflow for creating and sharing flows and wireframes

MailChimp

Google docs & calendar

Gmail IM

Google+ hangouts for team video conferencing

Trello for task management

Capsule CMS

Github

Google AppEngine

And we're in the process of considering a move to AWS.

As someone with a failed education startup in my past, this makes me deliriously happy. It means that there are still teachers out there who haven't had all the initiative beaten out of them yet.

That said, yes, education publishing is a huge business. It's really only a matter of time until the publishers take over the digital publishing space, too.

Re: fiber. I wonder how much of this has to do with NYC's older infrastructure. Does Boston boast better access?

It's obvious that his sister shares his genius. I'm so grateful she shared this intensely private experience with the world.

I have a half brother, ten years older. We didn't grow up together. Mona's story gives me hope that there are relationships we seek out later in life that are just as fulfilling, if not more so, than those we are given as children and take for granted.

+1 for Portland, definitely.

Holy shit. I'm in a tech incubator now (http://www.piepdx.com) and this sounds nightmarish to me. To be frank, I hadn't been following the show all that closely, but I can't even imagine the added stress of having cameras around filming me with my co-founders.

Melanie, I'm really glad you called bullshit. Keep rocking.

"Overmentored and undersponsored" really resonated with me for two reasons - first, there aren't that many women in a position to act as sponsors (either as CEOs or angels), and second, because it's hard to ask someone to go all-in on you.

Women tend to showboat less than men, and want to let their work speak for itself. Unfortunately, it's never going to speak as loudly as an ace self-promoter.