ezl

Tech (is that our industry?) is not unique in it's practice of hosting happy hours, especially after conferences.

People like drinking. We could ask more conferences to host 5k jogs as an alternative meeting event, and it would be novel and fun, but it likely wouldn't ever be as inclusive as a happy hour (Also, it's hard to get 5 people in a circle talking while on a jog).

Not everyone drinks or likes drinking, but as a practical matter, it's:

    1. convention
    2. inexpensive for organizers
    3. easy to organize
    4. likely to encourage mingling and conversation

I've offered higher amounts as well (200% of profits, 120% of sales) in order to incentivize people to try.

In my experience it's really hard to find qualified sales people and the time investment in finding good people is expensive so by being too cheap, you end up spinning wheels, making no money, AND wasting your time.

I'm actually using a similar browser based curve implementation (I'm using the bezier rendering thing instead of a quadratic) -- https://github.com/ezl/signature-pad/blob/master/jquery.sign...

The first pad is the original that just draws lines between the sampled points.

The second 2 actually take points and compute a cubic spline that runs through all the sampled points. The problem I have though is that it takes 4 points to compute a bezier curve, which means there are at least 4 sampled points worth of lag in determining what curve to render on the canvas.

For example, 4 sampled points on a line should render a totally linear segment between the points, but then if the 5th points goes off the line, it actually impacts the preceding points -- so you have to lag even further to make draw the right curve.

Even if you wait every 3 points to determine a quadratic that canvas's built-in can render, it creates some lag between the current mouse position and the rendered curve.

If you keep rendering quadratics every 3 points, you'll get funny cusps where you join each of the quadratics (solution seemed to me to compute the spline for the fully determined segments of the curve).

My janky solution is "draw linear segments until I have enough data, then restroke it with pretty curves". I didn't really understand the full implementation under the "responsiveness" section on Square's blog post here http://corner.squareup.com/2012/07/smoother-signatures.html so I glossed over it since it wasn't super critical.

But then when I saw this link, I couldn't help but think -- oh man, that's sexy...

I had some trouble with making signatures look nice on a library I used (mouse drawn signatures looked really choppy and jagged) so I had to do a little work to make it smooth itself out.

http://demo.rocketlease.com/site_media/signature-pad/example...

I use sendgrid, and I thought I was using mailgun, but now after seeing the pricing simplicity and ease I'm feeling like I should make the switch.

What reason would I rationally have at the <100k emails level for staying with sendgrid?

Additionally, for the lite plan with sendgrid, they don't include email open and click tracking (even though they DO for the FREE tiers).

Would love an explanation for why this is sensible.

"augment the human condition", "a huge number of people", and "a meaningful way" are really subjective and arguably VERY few people are doing things that meet those criteria.

those criteria aren't offensive, but the part that flips me was "it's not worth doing". Granted its 4 words in an otherwise insightful piece, but I have a problem with it when people tell others that their life's work is worthless.

People pursue all sorts of activities in their lives, personal and professional, that, by this metric aren't worth doing.

i'm aware, of course, that you've written opinionated pieces that narrowly define "startup" as well, so maybe all those things just aren't startups and don't apply.

1. Getting to ramen profitability with a team of 2 – 4 within six months to a year, AND

2. augmenting the human condition for a huge number of people in a meaningful way.

Well shit... if SV is a community of 2-4 person creating profitable products that augment the human condition every year...

i think @beachstartup's point is that the problem with treating this as a "lesson" is that you're imposing a value judgment on other peoples' value creation by saying that what they're doing, possibly their LIFE'S WORK, is NOT WORTH DOING just because they may not "augment the human condition for a huge number of people in a meaningful way".

For example, any failed venture could probably be said "not to augment the human condition for a huge number of people in a meaningful way". Goodbye scientists who are trying to cure cancer but haven't succeeded yet. No offense, patio11, but bingo cards? Come on... try to augment the human condition a bit.

It just comes off as judgmental and moralistic bs.

the article is about not using email.

no tool is perfect. you know what would be great? if hammers cured cancer. they don't though, so we just use them to hammer nails into wood.

speaking to people in public places is also a way to communicate, though equally bad for privacy. if there's nothing you can do to change the privacy attribute of "speaking to people in public places", does that mean you should never do it again?

or: use codes that only you and the other person know, hold hands and tap morse code into each others palms, find secure rooms.

people get upset when one tool doesn't do all the things they want, but its a weirdly tech centric thing.

"your startup doesn't do X so i'll criticize it". you can play the "need more features" game ad infinitum -- but nobody criticizes cast cups for their failure to keep drinks cold indefinitely or couches for failing to give them back massages.

Because a feature makes a tool better doesn't make it a requirement for its usage.

it doesn't have to be used for all communication.

assume a world where all your emails are archived in publicly accessible databases. you've lost privacy, but could it still be a useful tool?

send birthday emails. send your friends funny cat videos.

you don't have to use email for everything you used it for before -- you can just use it in different ways. i would still like to be able to near-instantly communicate with relatives across the world.

i know bacon clogs my arteries and making bacon has a terrible environmental footprint relative to eating only grains, but i love it.

NY was surprisingly low on the entrepreneurship index to me. My guess is:

* really high absolute entrepreneurship activity, but really high population * i'm biased b/c i erroneously think of NYC as New York State

some of the discussion notes here seem to center on whether the requirements of serving mormon missions is a driver for entrepreneurship, but i think the obvious real story here is that 2 years of truly focused, single minded dedication to a cause is the sort of tenacity that most people in (American) society never really experience.

Tenacity and focus seem to be huge drivers in startup success.

I don't know about "mission == ultimate startup accelerator" but I'd back the claim that it's the sort of mental training ground that I don't think much else in American life stands up against.

If the only reason people join is because they want to ride your rising stock, they're probably a brutal hire.

In some sales technique philosophies, sales people try to give prospects reasons to NOT buy, or ask them things along the lines of "why would you want to join this, given that I'm revealing $shitty_fact_x and $shitty_fact_y?"

You might lose some good people, but candidates who are willing to see that really want it, feel like its a great fit, and probably think of those problems as challenges where they can really make a difference.

2. I don't understand why people like to draw such a hard distinction. It doesn't upset me that some people prefer sushi to steak. People are entitled to their own lifestyle choices without judgment of those who make alternate choices. This isn't just a software/business/career choice issue. Paleo people love telling everyone else that their diet is the best. Many vegetarians often evangelize to others and imply there are serious moral imperatives at stake. Just because someone isn't doing what you're doing doesn't make them "lazy" or "unethical". On a side note -- I think "pursuing narrow arbitrage opportunities" is often something someone would say with disdain, but that's my flavor.

3. Most startup people aren't particularly making the world a better place anyways.

I'm sure a lot of that is written tongue in cheek, I loved it until the "narrow arbitrage opportunities" and "lazy/unethical" ending.

Best of luck. If you don't get flooded with requests, I'll take you up on your offer with a reasonable MVP spec.

So I tell them what I think they should do to get better responses from the people they want to recruit. Hopefully people don't think I'm selling out my kind (whatever that is).

Here is a recent interaction:

Recruiter:

...They are an auction house that is experiencing steady growth and are in need of a hands on Director of Technology. They need someone who is comfortable handling all of the development responsibilities and knows how to delegate when necessary. Ideally they would like this person to be strong in Python, Django, PHP, MySQL and PostGre SQL but are open to seeing someone who is strong with a couple and willing to learn the others....

Me:

Thanks for thinking of me, but I'm not looking for anything at this time.

Also, advice on your pitch to other tech people that will probably improve your hit rate:

1. asking for someone who is good at python and django is mostly redundant -- just ask for django, as it is a python based framework. asking for both makes it look like "credential bingo"

2. same, asking for python and php is a little crazy for single products -- its extremely rare for small companies to be using both in any meaningful capacity as they are basically replacements. this is like asking for a chef at a restaurant that is an expert at japanese cuisine and italian cuisine. sure they exist, but its improbable that you'll use it at the same restaurant.

3. MySQL and Postgres -- same thing -- these are replacements. (a) most people who are good enough at one will figure out the other, (b) the meaningful differences here only manifest themselves at extremely deep levels, where DATABASE expertise is what you are looking for, not a CTO.

Consider it friendly advice from someone who has recruited a lot of tech folk, feel free to ignore.

people short unshortable assets in finance all the time by getting the bank or a marketmaker to take the other side in an "over-the-counter" (OTC) agreement.

You just make up the rules and there's a signed document.

i.e. "bets backed up with legal documents".

And... I, for one, would probably take the other side of the bet against Tim Ferris in the short term.

A good reason for being a creationist is that you think God (or some being) created life and the universe.

Thinking it's a better story is not a particularly good reason to call yourself that.

The fact that science and pseudo science have conflicting hypotheses and theories doesnt make creationism right either.

for May 2013: $5660 - $2377.23 - $1808 = ~$1500, is that right?

I was wrong. This is incorrect. the 2377.23 is the sales - the cost of reports, so its

    +$5660   Total Sales
    -3282.77 Cost of reports and stripe transaction fees
    -1808.08 Trailing average monthly fixed costs
    ---------------
    ~570     Leftover to the business

However, the real growth trajectory is probably between 0 and the trailing history that seems to be adding about 600/mo.

If I linearly add 600/mo to my gross profits, the breakeven will happen between about 17 months from now.

I have no delusions that i have any ability to predict the growth trajectory though, so for now my plan is "keep doing anything I can to grow it as fast as I can".

I personally would also like to see more transparency among founders.

I think there's a fear among entrepreneurs that if they post their data publicly, one of two things will happen:

(a) they'll be judged if they're not succeeding wildly -- its easy for startup founders to seem glamorous when there's a fantasy that they're just living the startup dream (which, at least in my experience, most of us aren't just rolling in rooms full of gold coins). without the certainty that they're not succeeding wildly, founders can bask in the adoration of their unknowing peers and reap the rewards of semi-fame without the actual success.

(b) if they ARE succeeding wildly, that competitors will know how much money they're making/losing -- this information has never helped anyone. knowing that RL makes $X doesn't immediately make my competitors make $X. RL has succeeded, I think, mostly because I'm willing to work hard, and not because I'm tricky or smart or have some magic silver bullet.

I, for example, would like to have sex with Heidi Klum. Finding out that Seal is having sex with Heidi Klum does not confer upon me the privilege of doing so. Knowing that a startup is making money won't make it true for you.

Has been a pleasure working together with you as well

I don't think its fair for me to assume steady growth at my previous 4 months trajectory. I would love that, of course, because, uh, i like money, but it seems improbable.

So the next best thing: last month, RL made ~$1500.

I try to track every dollar I spend, so I just grepped my expenses sheet for every dollar ever spent that is tagged with RL.

$95,225.20

So, at 1500/mo, I'll break even in 63 months, assuming a cost of capital of 0%. :)

However, that number is really tagged based on what my accountant tells me is valid for the purposes of IRS reporting -- meaning, whenever I have drinks or dinner with other founders and we talk business, marketing, strategy, when I park in a parking lot and have to pay a fee, purchases that can be attributed to the business, etc. so the total invested number is probably non-trivially lower than 95k.

I spend my time doing marketing and bizdevy stuff. However, I'm still really involved in any major development efforts, we regularly at least 3 times a week discuss code, I still contribute code, and we often pair program.

My contracted developer, Henrique, is really not just a "contracted developer". He's a CTO caliber amazing architect and I consider him a partner in the project.

The current codebase is the 3rd-ish iteration on the same theme. The first and second iterations were built primarily by me, so I had a pretty good sense of how I wanted everything built for the future (incidentally, my "pretty good sense" was totally garbage, and if i started over again, it'd be totally different... again...)

Even the early versions of the current iteration were largely a collaborative code effort between me and Henrique, either hitting milestones by "divide and conquer" or by pair programming.

As the product began maturing, I have been slowly shifting away from code to marketing and CEO/CMO-y stuff. Basically, I am not good at being a heavily involved CTO and marketing. My perspective here is that development CAN be outsourced, though it may not be easy, but good marketing and bizdev can NOT. However, we try to be analytics driven, so Henrique is also deeply involved in the marketing and analytics, but we just have a focus on our own individual domains.

2. Looks like you're now making a profit but a really small one... for May 2013: $5660 - $2377.23 - $1808 = ~$1500, is that right?

Correct.

3. Sounds like your revenue vs costs/expenses scale linearly as well, but more business = more margins, is that right?

In principle, I can squeeze out a little more edge once I get to bigger scale, but there's a floor on the cost of reports, so I'm more interested in growing the audience size than optimizing the costs here. I'm also below the threshold where reporting companies really want to cut me breaks, so I'll have to wait a little further before that.

The "cost of reports" component scales linearly, but I expect the fixed costs to be pretty static for very large ranges of total users/applications. It'll be stepwise-ish, but I'll probably flat until at least 10x more sales from here.

personal trainers don't make you stronger/skinnier, either -- they're just cheerleaders and a convenient source of immediate feedback which accelerates the task.

arguably, sitting in classes in college was really just reinforcement for self learning as well.

reminds me of the scene in good will hunting: "you dropped 150 grand on an education you coulda got for a $1.50 in late charges at the public library" -- kind of true, but a lot of us need the handholding. (or maybe just me, but i definitely didn't have the focus to learn much without undergrad to help me).