HNHacker News
TopNewBestAskShowJobs

billboebel

36 karma · joined July 20, 2010

http://billboebel.com
submissionscomments
billboebel··on Stripe Home
We built something similar in 2014 for our coworking space, Capital Factory. Slightly different use case though -- to make sure all the founders at the startups working at Capital Factory know who each other are, what they're building and who's an expert at what (so you can get peer feedback/etc).

Since I was seeing dozens of large companies, like Stripe, building their own versions of this, we created a version of ours for other companies to use: https://pingboard.com

Pingboard centers around org charts, and underneath there are rich employee profiles & cross-functional teams. And now we are expanding into hiring planning -- another area that lacks optimal collaboration and transparency inside most companies.

billboebel··on Tell HN: Startup school acceptance emails are out
Yes. From austin.
billboebel··on Law Would Force Patent Trolls To Pay For Failed Lawsuits Against Innovators
Why don't they require plaintiffs in a patent suits to be actively using the patent in some sort of meaningful way in order to be allowed to file a suit? If they are just holding a patent and do nothing with it they shouldn't be allowed to sue or the patent should expire early.
billboebel··on I hate the news
I gave up main stream news 4 years ago and I pretty much only read tech news. However, I find that important news still bubble up to me quickly through other channels such as word of mouth and through the tech news feeds. And I find that none of my time is wasted by worthless news, such as partison bickering, the latest traffic accident on I-35 or celebrity gossip. You should try it.
billboebel··on Screw the Black Swans: Ichiro is our role model, not Barry Bonds.
There is no startup investing strategy that can ever be considered the "right one". The best VCs and angels intimately understand their personal strengths and develop a strategy they can execute leveraging those strengths. And even more importantly and almost always overlooked is they market the hell out of that strategy, even if they don't always stick to it. PG and DM are terrific at this.
billboebel··on Organic Food Isn't More Nutritious, but That Isn't the Point
Vegetables and fruit are only as good as the soil. Big commercial organic farms aren't able to have the quality of soil as smaller organic farms... so if big ag is just cranking out organic vegetables at the same rate as conventional vegetables then the quality of soil will be the same, and therefore the nutrient qualities will be similar.

SO if you want more nutrients find a local farmer to support - typically the smaller scale farm uses compost in their soil mix and crop rotates. Many smaller local farmers aren't certified organic but are "organic", often times go beyond what it means to be organic. Ask the farmer and if doesn't seem better than big ag, keep looking.

billboebel··on New bill to allow $1m crowdfunding rounds
what is a "registered internet website"? Is that just their long winded term for website or do crowdfunding sites need to register with some government agency?
billboebel··on For Thanksgiving, give your parents a treat: upgrade their browser
I did one better 3 yrs ago and replaced my mom's virus ridden Windows w/ Ubuntu. Best move ever, because it drastically reduced the amount of tech support I do for her. Shit just works. Today I upgraded her to Oneiric Ocelot (Ubuntu 11.10), doubled her RAM and moved her 10,000+ photos to an ext4 partition. Now she'll be good for another 3 years as a Linux mom.
billboebel··on United Airlines' 26 different ticket fare classes
Even as a 100K flyer this shit is extremely confusing to me. No wonder the airlines are so screwed up.
billboebel··on How Good is Spotify for Indie Musicians? (Not Good)
When I hear a good indie band, I try to buy something from them. I don't care what it is... a tshirt, a cd (even though I never play it), a beer cuzy, whatever. Today I can only do that at a live show. I wish someone would make it easier for me to give my money to bands I like.
billboebel··on Google Flight Search
I can't find it either. I would have actually used it today since I found it right as I was about to search for a flight on Kayak... but w/o one-way I can't use it.
billboebel··on Startup Idea: Legally sell copies of your mp3s to your friends
I hear that artists only receive like 15-20% of the itunes price. That a market inefficiency that I want to fix.
billboebel··on Silicon Valley in 72 Hours
Glad you got so much out of the trip. Great write up.
billboebel··on Ask HN: Tool for tracking open-source contributions?
Thanks. Ohloh looks like what I'm looking for. Will check it out.
billboebel··on Facebook Derivatives: Wall Street Goes Rogue-er
No idea. But I will ask because now I'm curious.
billboebel··on Facebook Derivatives: Wall Street Goes Rogue-er
Yes, you need to be accredited (I am an investor in one of these funds)
billboebel··on Facebook Derivatives: Wall Street Goes Rogue-er
I am an investor in the Felix fund mentioned in the business week article. All they did is buy up several million dollars of Facebook stock from original shareholders, put it into a simple LLC, and then sell shares of that LLC. Investors pay an upfront transaction fee on the investment, a minimal operational cost, and then a fee on the backend if there is a liquidation event but only after the investor gets 100% of their investment back.

This is very similar to how traditional VC funds are structured and the only reason this is getting press is because it is another story about Facebook.

These funds actually do a service for the original Facebook shareholders because it allows them to take some cash off the table, rather than waiting for the IPO.

billboebel··on Bubble or bust? Nobody knows anything
Something about the availability of money for entrepreneurs feels like a bubble, but I suspect that it is not. I've been on both the receiving side and investing side since 1999 and the pace of change in terms of increased availability of money from angels is just weird. I suspect it is not a bubble though and rather it is the early stage of complete disruption of power in the investing community. And of course disruption = opportunity, so as angels we should be investing more right now, not less.
billboebel··on Google Voice for iPhone Released
Now that they have an official app, maybe they'll iterate fast to catch up to GV Mobile's features.
billboebel··on Tell HN: Facebook email is live
Doesn't work for me.
billboebel··on Multi version control hosting
Nice. I will check it out.