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fun2haveon Failing the startup game at Unbabel

Before you started working together, did you discus what would happen if things did not work well? Was your salary closer to that of the norm in Sweden, or that of the Portuguese? The difference is substantial. Did they think you where amazing at first and had too high an expectation? If you salary was closer to the Swedish norm then they may have thought that 2 weeks pay was a very substantial amount.

In Portugal, I believe, that unless you let people go before the trial period is over, then a whole lot of protective measures kick in.

For anybody looking to hire anybody abroad it is having the conversation about what happens when things don't go well.

It would be good to hear the Unbabel side of the story.

[Disclosure] Two of the founders are what I would call acquaintances of mine.

fun2haveon Ketamine 'exciting' depression therapy

The test was only done on 28 people and only 8 showed some improvements. The Improvements where self reported. What I wonder is the statistical error on such a small study. From this small study they are generalising to say that it is "exciting" and "dramatic"!

fun2haveon CrowdProcess

I think you are kind of been unfair. How do you know that there is not any market for something like this? Have you gone out there and tried to market a smiler product? Also you state that AWS is cheaper. Can you give us some numbers? Could you explain why AWS is cheaper, than Crowdprocess? On the Ethical issue I think they require an opt in.

fun2haveon Ask HN: What's the best place in Europe to live and work cheaply?

I would go for Lisbon. It has very good and cheap flight connections to the rest of Europe (not good to the West Coast of America). Easyjet, and RyanAir fly out of Lisbon, and the national airline TAP is very good and only slightly more expensive. Very nice weather. We still have not turned on the heating yet.

You can live cheaply and well. It may not be the cheapest cheapest in Europe, but is good value for money. For example at a restaurant opposite our office for only 5€ you can have a freshly grilled Sea Bass or a steak. Office rents are cheap as well. Expect to pay from 6€ to 10€ per m3. So you can out source the cooking and even the driving cheaply. A taxi to the airport will set you back just 8€.

Somebody I know just rented a two bed apartment in the centre of town for 440€ per month.

There is a vibrant Start Up Community. Some really good people.

For us the decision was more than just cost, but also standard of living.

You can find more details here in why we decided to open an office here: http://blog.webnographer.com/2010/10/an-rd-office-in-lisbon/

fun2haveon Ask HN: Who is hiring? (August 2013)

Software Creator at Webnographer in Lisbon, Portugal

We are wanting good Javascript people.

Webnographer is a technology company that believes that data can help businesses make better products. We help companies understand the data that drives their business, and help them to gain a greater understanding how their customers use their website. We do this by using the online tool that we have developed in-house to understand online user behaviour.

apply here: http://jobs.webnographer.com

fun2haveon The Exodus of Tech from Portugal

If you are in Portugal and want to work for a fun innovative start up. Come and work for us. So far we have grown from 2 person to over 12 person in a year been here. http://webnographer.theresumator.com/ for a bit more background here on why we did it http://blog.webnographer.com/2010/10/an-rd-office-in-lisbon/

fun2haveon Julian Assange loses appeal against extradition

The issue is that rape trials are held not in public in Sweden. There is still a record of the trial kept, but the public and press are chucked out. See http://www.thelocal.se/31908/20110208/#

fun2haveon Iran forged the wrong SSL certificate

Does this apply to ad networks as well?

fun2haveon Building a startup overseas. An acquisition and 100's of employees later.

Be very careful of Generalizations. Some have said in the comments that crime could be an issue. In some countries crime is far worse than the USA, in others crime is far lower, again in some countries some people are late for meetings, in others people are early.

It all depends. The only generalization that you can make is that it will be different. In the other words everywhere has advantages and disadvantages. As a start up "pilot" you have to maximise the advantages and minimise the disadvantages.

fun2haveon Google Admits Handing over European User Data to US Intelligence Agencies

I don't understand why you think that the Patriot Act seems to trump the EU law. The companies have separate subsidiaries in Europe. What the Patriot Act seams to be doing is Piercing the corporate veil. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piercing_the_corporate_veil. Making the EU company break EU law.

fun2haveon The Words "Facebook" And "Twitter" Are Banned From French Airwaves

We just got the following response for an Ad trying to recruit for this job http://webnographer.theresumator.com/apply/ie1n7s/Remote-Use... in Portugal from a French internet site.

The response........

Unfortunately we can not publish it for the following reasons: - It is illegal in France to publish a job written in a language other than French

Meanwhile France has a high youth unemployment, etc etc

fun2haveon Google Translate API is now deprecated.

All I can say is give Micorsoft a try: http://www.microsofttranslator.com/dev/

fun2haveon Twitter sued for ‘breaking’ UK super injunction. Oh yes.

It looks like it http://eu.techcrunch.com/2011/02/24/twitter-starts-hiring-sa...

But I wonder if they will start getting cold feet about having an office in London now.

fun2haveon Twitter sued for ‘breaking’ UK super injunction. Oh yes.

More details here on legal aspects of the UK courts chasing a us company. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/8526865...

fun2haveon Twitter sued for ‘breaking’ UK super injunction. Oh yes.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13477811 It is about half way down that you get the clarification

fun2haveon Twitter and users sued over UK injunction breaches

Yes, but surely the Securing the Protection of our Enduring and Established Constitutional Heritage Act applies. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPEECH_Act_of_2010

fun2haveon Twitter and users sued over UK injunction breaches

Could Twitter use the First Amendment?

This has to be very weirdest case. In effect Twitter is been sued by unknown person as their is an injunction in the UK against naming the Footballer.

fun2haveon More, better, faster: UX design for startups

This comes from the firm saying that programmers are lunatics. The founder wrote a book called "the lunatics are running the asylum"!

Lean is the opposite of what they preach. They are very much the big up front design. That is what pays their bills.

fun2haveon I have seen the future and I am opposed

In Portugal he could have gone to any newsagent (there are still 1,000´s) got a SIM card and have access to the internet for a euro a day.

fun2haveon The European startup ecosystem arrived

As you have lived out of Portugal for more than 5 years you would probably qualify for the non habitual tax status, which means you would only pay 20% income tax if you moved back here. You would definitely get a standard of living boost.

http://www.allbusiness.com/legal/tax-law-tax-treaties-agreem...

The more contacts I have the better so yes please get in touch.

fun2haveon The European startup ecosystem arrived

Come and join us. Read our post about opening our R&D office in Portugal. http://blog.webnographer.com/2010/10/an-rd-office-in-lisbon/

Portugal salaries maybe lower but if you have not lived in Portugal for 10 years you can apply for non-habitual status which means you pay a flat rate of tax of just 20%!

Also you have the sun!

fun2haveon Beware of those who say they help entrepreneurs

It's better in the UK to a degree. (shame about the weather...

Maybe worth trying out Portugal. (nice weather) and

Except for startups the main expense is the cost of living of founders (most of which turns out to be taxes...).

Portugal has a new tax regime for non-habitual tax residents. Which is a a flat tax rate of 20%. You can apply for the regime if you have not lived in Portugal for the last 5 years, and your job consists of a high-value-added activity of a scientific, technological or artistic nature. And the benefit lasts for 10 years. See: http://www.ibc-madeira.com/Tax_Regime_for_Non-habitual_Resid...

The main expense is the cost of living of founders

The cost of living in Portugal is lower than that of the UK, or Austria.

fun2haveon Why exams mean nothing out of context

The experiment was later reproduced by Stephen J.Ceci and Antonio Roazzi. See “The effects of context on cognition: postcards from Brazil” Stephen J. Ceci and Antonio Roazzi, in “Mind Context” Sternberg R. J. and Wagner K. eds. (1994), page 78

fun2haveon Why exams mean nothing out of context

Very good point that I had not thought about. This is the challenge of business schools, they are teaching out of context. It may be a reason why so many MBA fail at been an entrepreneur.

fun2haveon Ask HN: Why are web startups slow to expand abroad?

You can export the data to the USA as long as 1) the receiver is registered with one of the Data Protection Agencies in Europe or 2) as signed the model contract or 3) has signed up to the safe harbour. It is well worth looking through http://ec.europa.eu/justice/policies/privacy/docs/internatio...

fun2haveon Ask HN: Why are web startups slow to expand abroad?

The easiest way of covering the basics of EU privacy law is to register in one of the countries of the EU. If you are registered in one you are covered by all. This is far simpler then going down the safe harbour route. The UK is quite simple to register with. http://www.ico.gov.uk/

fun2haveon Products For People Who Make Products For People

ISO defines usability as "the extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of use.

So your right with the number of clicks, but you also have to make sure that the user can complete the task (effectiveness), and that they are happy (satisfaction). From our own research the three; effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction are very highly correlated together.

fun2haveon Products For People Who Make Products For People

Well Copper designed the first prototype of Visual Basic. I think that explains lots. When you combine Zed's argument that "Nope, because the tools they've given you are again controlled by some corporation with a certain design ideal. If it's Microsoft then the things you have to work with are Microsoft looking and feeling. "

How many unusable software products came about because of Visual Basic? I can rant and rant about Copper.

fun2haveon Ask PG: Why do you think Africa cannot produce global scale start ups?

There are some success stories like http://softtribe.com from Ghana. This story gives some of the http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/it/the-african-hacker background. The opportunity that SoftTribe went for was unique. In Africa every country has different pay roll taxes, and it is too expensive for the likes of the multi nationals to keep up with each country, SoftTribe fills this niche.

I worked with them for a year. I was the only non African. There where challenges like fending off kind hearted westerners who had less skills then the Ghanains and wanted to come over and be boss. Competing against NGO for staff (Western NGO's have the highest salaries).