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darrenwestall

127 karma · joined February 4, 2018

CEO of www.paiger.co, previously CTO at www.broadbean.com

Email me: Darren _at_ Paiger _ dot _ co

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darrenwestall··on Tuple: Pair Programming Tool for macOS
On the flip side, I don’t think it’s pricey, $25 per user, per month for something that will make developers more efficient is well worth it. Sent to my Tech Lead to see if he wants to sign up.
darrenwestall··on Perl Turns 34 Today
I’m a Perl developer and have built a $2m ARR business that runs on Perl!

If anyone reading this is looking for a new challenge and loves Perl, do give me a shout.

Happy Birthday my old friend!

darrenwestall··on Ask HN: Own .com for 7 years, a new company trademarked my name registered .NET
https://nissan.com/ Seems relevant here :)
darrenwestall··on Show HN: A job ad landing page builder
Pop me a connection request on LinkedIn, it would be good to chat. I’m UK based too & am heavily involved in this space.
darrenwestall··on Show HN: Video Generation from a Text
Do you offer an API? I’m about to build this myself for my company and would rather not have to.
darrenwestall··on Show HN: Monitor websites for changes. Get alerted by Email, Slack and Telegram
It’s something I’d bundle in my own product if you had an API, something where I can create/remove trackers and then get alerted to changes via webhook.

If you ever build that let me know, as you say it’s something we could build but I’d rather not deal with everything you described :)

darrenwestall··on Show HN: A simple time conversion site for developers
You don’t need GPT-3 for that, you need Perl ;)

https://metacpan.org/dist/Date-Manip/view/lib/Date/Manip/Exa...

darrenwestall··on Ask HN: How to convince your manager to let you continue to WFH.
Productivity. Prove it with numbers if you can :)
darrenwestall··on Looking for alternative ways to find first 50 users
Own it. Incentivise it.

“Be amongst the first people to try Moodshare, the only app where groups are led by real therapists.

We’re looking for people based in Georgia that want to work on their mental health, and give us feedback along the way.

The best part, as an early adopter you’ll get free access for the next 12 months, and so will your friends if you invite them*

*limited space, invite them ASAP!”

Turn your weakness into a strength

darrenwestall··on Ask HN: I built it, nobody came, now what?
I completely agree with this. I’d use this (and so would my CFO) if I didn’t need to use any dev resource
darrenwestall··on Ask HN: What is a good replacement for CGI.pm?
Have you tried Dancer? I’m a fan
darrenwestall··on Show HN: 95 people voted for me to make this voting platform
I like the idea, but a heads up - the typewriter on the homepage meant the copy kept jumping around when reading on my phone. It made it incredibly frustrating, I’d recommend pausing that on mobile or when it’s out of view.
darrenwestall··on LinkedIn Is Down
API is definitely down:

Status: 500 Headers: Content-Type: text/plain Client-Date: Tue, 23 Feb 2021 19:29:05 GMT Client-Warning: Internal response Content: Server closed connection without sending any data back

darrenwestall··on Is it just me that feels stuck in annual SaaS Contracts?
“at least for most prospects”

I guess the answer is to negotiate hard to get what you want.

It’s absolutely a POC but with shared risk and a real concentration on onboarding/implementation - I’ve done this for lots of the software we use internally and it works well for us.

darrenwestall··on Is it just me that feels stuck in annual SaaS Contracts?
Don’t ask for a shorter term, instead ask for a break clause to be added on the 3rd month that can be exercised for any reason.

They still have a 12 month contract, but you know you can walk away with 30 days notice in month 3 if implementation is poor.

That’s meeting in the middle and usually accepted by most businesses if you push.

If they say they risk not making a profit if you leave, offer to pay a setup fee that is entirely refunded if you stay past the 3rd month.

It means you’ll lose some more money if the implementation goes bad, but not as much as the whole 12 month term.

darrenwestall··on Show HN: Link Preview (Unfurl/Expand) API
I’m an iframely customer, how does this compare?
darrenwestall··on Show HN: Convert Any Email into a Webpage
I’d use this to easily share emails with team members and discuss them over Slack - but I won’t do it without security.

I’d want to introduce the tool across the company but I don’t trust people to remember that it shouldn’t have sensitive information sent to it.

darrenwestall··on Show HN: Convert Any Email into a Webpage
On the security side, can you not store a password per link and return it as a GET Param on the link?

It would mean people can’t simply guess the link?

Not perfect I know.

darrenwestall··on DigitalOcean user portal loads twenty third-party trackers
In B2B, users don’t have the same email for Facebook usually.
darrenwestall··on DigitalOcean user portal loads twenty third-party trackers
In order to exclude your current customers from your retargeting adverts, you can include the tracking inside your app and then exclude from your audience on FB, Google, Quora etc anyone that has visited logged in URLs.

That way you’re only spending money retargeting website visitors who aren’t already customers.

We do this at Paiger for this very reason, and I imagine DO is the same.

Edit:

20 is extreme though.

darrenwestall··on Ask HN: What are the problems you're facing with Intercom?
I’m a very happy Intercom customer and it’s embedded into everything we do from sales to support.

I’ve only got one feature I wish they had and that’s onboarding checklists for new users. We use their product tours, in app messages and email drip campaigns for new users, but a different bit of software for the checklist. I’d love it all in one place.

darrenwestall··on Pricing a SaaS product (2019)
We put our prices up by 50% to new customers this month, we’ve see no difference in the amount of customers we’ve earned - just a higher revenue per customer.

Charge more.

darrenwestall··on Ask HN: As a German startup, how do you approach tech recruiting?
I’d recommend Thryve (I’m a customer) - they’re a recruitment agency that specialises in Germany.

I know that’s not the answer you wanted, but it’s worth it for the right talent and allowing yourself to concentrate on other things.

darrenwestall··on Tell HN: 19yo, bootstrapped SaaS, 250k ARR after 10 months
Happy to chat anytime, email is in my profile. We’re going to hit £1m ARR this year and I’d love someone to chat with too.

It can be a weirdly lonely place at times.

Im UK based so TZ should work well, plus I’m a frequent visitor to NL (Pre CV) so it would be great to chat over a beer when we can.

darrenwestall··on Ask HN: What are the minimum metrics to monitor when launching a SaaS product?
Revenue.
darrenwestall··on Show HN: EyeLevel – add chat to almost any kind of marketing
Just tried your chat demo but when I put my UK mobile number in it said it was invalid and I couldn’t get passed that.
darrenwestall··on Show HN: Build a wall of testimonials with videos/tweets/text. Here is mine
A very happy customer here. The software is great, but the support is even better.

Very proud to support a solo founder.

If you’re running a SaaS and want to get more testimonials from your customers this has been a game changer for us - it’s simple and effective.

darrenwestall··on Ask HN: What are your goals for 2021?
- Hit $1.5m ARR - Grow and advance the careers of my team - Use that growth to stop being involved in every little thing - Be a better Dad/Husband

I really hope I can finish this year with the successful business I’ve always wanted, while being better at home - they’ve been patient with me on this journey, I want this year to be the year it was all worth it.

darrenwestall··on Show HN: Candymail – Email Automation for Node.js
The developer in me doesn’t disagree, but it does lead to a significant amount of inbound leads that would have been lost otherwise (We tested it).

Our market is marketers though, not technical people - if it were, I suspect the results would differ.

darrenwestall··on Show HN: Candymail – Email Automation for Node.js
You can do this sort of thing in Intercom - only send an email if they haven’t accessed X for example.

That’s what we do at Paiger and it’s a fantastic way to ensure people reach the “Aha” moment.

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