chadkruse

Who is going to be the first to submit the Pull Request? :)

https://github.com/PineappleFund/pineapplefund.github.io

Took a deep dive yesterday comparing a few tagging/classification algorithms to the Google Cloud Natural Language and AWS Comprehend APIs, and I have to say I'm impressed.

I've been searching for the right tool to try to add tagging to a large dataset of charitable data, and while I couldn't find anything off the shelf at Algorithmia, the GUI allows for easy forking and adjustment of existing algorithms. As a primarily front-end developer, never thought machine learning would be this accessible. Great work!

You might be able to pull off the payments side using cryptocurrencies. Check out the CharityCoin directory for Bitcoin addresses: https://github.com/charitycoin/directory. You also might want to check in with the Stellar folks (http://slack.stellar.org/). They're working on some cool international projects dealing with financial inclusion, though there's a good chance you'll have to build the necessary connections to the Stellar network yourself.

@pc - curious if you have plans to integrate ACH into your Checkout product. Seems like an incredibly difficult UX problem, but I'm sure your folks are up to the challenge :)

+1 for Github Pages and Mailchimp (or even TinyLetter). If you're looking for pre-built themes, my go-to source is http://html5up.net/.

Good luck!

If Chrome, you may be thinking about HackerNew: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hackernew/lgoghlnd...

Good start. Couple of quick thoughts:

I agree with others the look and feel can be improved. A great solution to that problem is the open source project JSONResume [0] and its brother-from-another-mother HackMyResume [1].

The exercise of entering your information as structured data may be beneficial in itself (both projects run off a JSON file), as the schema forces you to adopt generally accepted best practices (e.g. each job should contain a short intro summary with a few bullet points to showcase accomplishments/highlights). The primary benefit is it gives you access to dozens of well designed templates, many geared towards recent CS grads.

Good luck!

[0] http://jsonresume.org/

[1] https://github.com/hacksalot/HackMyResume

This is a fantastic idea @trevyn, love it! Reminds me a bit of the Awesome Foundation [0], a community of independent chapters around the world that give $1k to interesting people and projects with absolutely no strings attached. No tax breaks, no catches, some people just want to sponsor cool stuff. Good on you!

[0] http://www.awesomefoundation.org/

HashtagCharity is a good source of dev-centric volunteer opportunities (https://hashtagcharity.org/).

If you don't mind wading through non-tech opportunities, you might get lucky at Reddit /r/nonprofitprojects (https://www.reddit.com/r/nonprofitprojects), Idealist (http://www.idealist.org), or VolunteerMatch (http://www.volunteermatch.org/).

If you want to focus on helping early stage, tech-driven nonprofits, I'd recommend searching through the portfolios of Fast Forward (a nonprofit accelerator) and the YC nonprofit program and reach out directly to any nonprofits you find interesting. Fast Forward: http://www.ffwd.org/tech-nonprofits/. YC Nonprofits: https://github.com/smartergiving/open-data/blob/master/v0/fu...

Personally though, I've found getting to know a local nonprofit can be most rewarding. In my experience, almost all nonprofits can use a soundboard for general web development...feedback on an agency's statement of work, integrating 3rd party donate buttons, assessing new CMS's, etc. If you have the time to do the work yourself, all the better.

Good luck!

YC-funded Kimono Labs might have the SEC API covered:

http://blog.kimonolabs.com/2015/04/27/unlock-sec-data-sec-ap...

In case anyone happens upon this in the future, I was missing one:

W15 SIRUM

The short story is you're likely looking for a payroll provider that offers an "internationally-based employee" feature, but (correct if I'm wrong payroll SaaS service providers!) I can't think of one that does. A few offer a US-based employer / different state employee offering, but with a foreign employee you need a highly specialized offering. Insurance is a whole other story, but easier...just give them a stipend for their local insurance rates (if any).

This may sound ridiculous, but Basecamp (formerly 37Signals) has likely had this problem in the past/present, so consider just reaching out and asking them. In the past I've contacted [insert name you know here] with a very specific, quick-answer type question a few times and they've been super responsive and awesome.

Here's a reasonably recent list of production Meteor apps: http://www.quora.com/Which-startups-use-Meteor-in-production

IMHO, one of the often overlooked use cases for Meteor is rapid-prototyping. If anyone remembers DHH's video 10 years ago demonstrating Rails' scaffolding [0], Meteor is the 2015 version.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gzj723LkRJY

I'm simply suggesting people are good at filling in the blanks.

And yes, anyone with a manager like the one you describe should absolutely run for the hills :)

As a manager I love seeing people have side projects. I've also learned it's pretty easy to figure out where their priorities lie. So, I think letting them know is generally a good thing, just be prepared to let them know everything if you do.

Anyone happen to know the other two nonprofits besides http://democracyos.org/ ?

A direct answer to your question is 'anything is possible these days', but I'd like to leave you with a quick thought:

Stop trying to

>[come] up with a business model for the investors

and really drill in on

>we aggregate quality data

In my experience, the times we focused on what the investors 'might' have wanted we failed. The seven figure seed rounds came when we focused on innovating around [insert secret sauce here].

GroupTalent (https://grouptalent.com/welcome/) used to be circling around a similar pain point (helping co's hire teams of developers that have worked together in the past).

Haven't checked them out in a few years (not sure what to make of their expired SSL cert), but I thought the model was interesting nonetheless.

In my past experience with hiring the first few engineers at tiny startups, I viewed Github profiles valuable for the same reason Facebook, Stripe, et al didn't need product managers for their first [x] years: full-stack developers with product minds are tremendously valuable for startups. An active Github profile is a great way to flush that trait out.

I haven't checked in quite some time, but AngelList used to do a great job at this.

Huge fans of the work GiveWell does. For those that share GiveWell's outlook on the world, keep an eye on their Open Philanthropy Project: http://www.openphilanthropy.org/

Appreciate the kind words and the great feedback...thanks so much for taking the time.

> Food for thought...

Stay tuned :) https://kyn.me/coinvest/y_combinator_all_time

Looks nice and clean...good work. Reminds me of Telescope (built with Meteor): http://www.telesc.pe/

I only use Rapportive for occasional prospecting (e.g. the 'hack' where you keep trying an email combo until the person's LinkedIn profile appears, thus verifying the email address).

If this isn't available via your new add-on, would love to see it in there.

For those suggesting an LLC for liability protection purposes, just a quick note to be careful here. Depending on your state, a single-member LLC might not actually provide any legal protection. For those interested, do a quick search for "piercing the corporate veil".

tl;dr the courts may see through the LLC "veil", determine the "company" is really just you, and may stick you with any liabilities/debts.

In my experience, the answer to this question largely depends on what your ultimate goals are.

Want to become a competent programmer and do that for a living? The advice in this thread is solid (particularly @CyberFonic's).

If you simply want to hack/glue-up/play around with some side projects, I once heard someone suggest you pick the language your close friends know best and buy them lots of beer.

In my case, I needed a newbie-friendly prototyping tool and JavaScript/Meteor has served me well.

So, give us an idea of your goals, and I'm sure the community here will be able to steer you in the right direction.

Fisher - thank you for taking the high road, for being brave and starting a great dialogue on what I think is an important topic, and a heart-felt congrats on your upcoming two year anniversary of sobriety. Good on you.

Don't have any direct experience with YC in a hardware context (only second hand), but in my experience the key to most hardware companies is the software (iPhones are great because of the App Store; Dropcam great because of their motion algorithms, etc). If I were to do the hardware startup I was involved in over again, I would have pushed for a greater focus on the software earlier on.

I could definitely see value in having equipment on site if there are still specialized tools you need for prototyping, otherwise if you're at a decently advanced prototype stage there are plenty of contract manufacturers within reach. Any top accelerator will be one or two degrees of separation away from them.

If you come from a primarily software background and are largely outsourcing the hardware side, I can see a hardware-focused accelerator being of particular value.

Just my $0.02.

Appreciate the insight @tlb. One of the most interesting things we found when we first embarked on this journey was the seemingly inverse relationship between the size of the check and the donor/beneficiary connection. Great to see innovators like Watsi and Zidisha (DonorsChoose, charity: water, etc) bringing that connection back!

Clickable links for folks:

Watsi: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8563558 (today's Universal Fund announcement)

Zidisha: https://www.zidisha.org/

Assuming you have a strong business-minded attorney and a good relationship with them, ask them in an email. Skip the meeting (expensive). The answer, like most legal items, is complicated, but a good attorney can help you wade through it with a two-line email response. You just need to ask it the right way.

In case it helps, here's the full email last time I had this issue:

> Quick question...should I bother to formally dissolve [company]? We've all moved on to other projects so I'm going to officially add [company] to the deadpool. No more work will be done on it (although we might open source a few components for the greater good), and there's $90 left in the bank account...probably enough to pay for this email :)