I could've written this exact post myself as I'm going through the process right now. So thank you for taking time to share and building the hound! Kudos.
As for the presently en Vogue hiring process for senior tech roles, I'd put a deserved blame on companies like Google, where this bookish and silly way of hiring was first codified by the founders and early employees who were fresh grads/drop outs from schools - and that's all they knew about how to judge who's better in class. And as more and more of people who went through that process leave and start their own companies, they follow the same process - thinking that's the best of breed way to hire.
As for age discrimination - it's very much alive and well - specifically in the SF Bay area. Which is a shame.
I've founded a startup with kick-ass people to build the future of Electronic Medical Records. And it looks very bright, transparent, intelligent, and automated :)
The said supreme quality products are made and marketed as such solely by people who understand the basic rich person need to have something to differentiate themselves from the economic classes lower than themselves. If there were no products, houses, cars, wines, restaurants, shoes, suits, hand bags, airline class, hotels, etc. that help a class to differentiate itself from the the lower one - what's the point of making money your only and sole objective in life?
Lost interest in the first 30 mins. What I saw was a contrived story timeline inconsistencies (people protesting 1960s style outside the building - really?), flying cars with drivers (who can drive and land badly - really?), stacks stored on spines (and only the richest can afford the cloud - really?), squaller living on the planet with rich living on the towers (not original by any stretch), one special living person better than everyone in the universe (again, original?, really?), a police department functioning like the 1990s, a woman detective have inexplicably drives Neo (sic) to the super villain and will inevitably be romantically involved with Neo? Please people - watch some Black Mirror and plethora of short Sci-fi films on Youtube for intellectual entertainment.
Thanks @boulos. Appreciate it. I'm unclear on what encrypted at rest means. For example - I'd expect the data in Google cloud store to be encrypted (or have an option to be encrypted) so that if someone were to get access to our DB admin account, they won't be able to see the JSON data in plain text. The only way to see the data would be through API access which can be configured for ACL (and by Google cloud store so we can index and query data which is encrypted at rest).
Is there a single person in HN that has profited more than $1M through Bitcoin? And I mean someone who has actually sold and now has $1M more in the bank?
If anyone's burning the programmers is the AI, Block chain programmers. Very soon, the industry will need/have a very small fraction of programmers than what we have today.
I know printing is not in Vogue anymore, but there are still requirements from customers that need printing. The CSS spec for printing is beyond dismal. No two printouts from different devices let alone browsers look alike or have the same page breaks.
I'm in Palo Alto and actually had seen their small office on Hamilton. I do know how it works and tried to myself but found it really cumbersome. The only explanation I can see is iPhone users who didn't have the benefit of Google maps a few years back that propelled Waze's use. As for the valuation - if they had even 10M active users, Google paid $100 for each of them, knowing that it was inevitable that they'll eventually get the iPhone users anyways.
Waze always baffled me. No one I know uses it and most never heard of it. Google had pretty sophisticated data/algo of their own when they paid $1+B for this thing. ELI5 - why should any one care about Waze?
The difference between companies like Blue Apron and Amazon is that one is created with a "I think I want to do a startup, any startup that's in vogue nowadays. I know people who can take me to IPO" mindset and the other "there is a clear business opportunity in bringing efficiencies in the retail books business. The time is right since all the underlying infrastructure (PCs, wide internet access, Credit cards, USPS/UPS, etc.) needed for such an opportunity to succeed are present; all it needs is a strong execution path and leadership to have a go at it" mindset.
If you think the project is still viable, has potential to make money, and you can find another non-tech partner - Draw up a contract rewarding him fairly with equity for the work done. Move on. A reasonable new partner should/will understand and appreciate your fair, mature way to get out of a difficult situation and pushing on and you both will stay out of future litigations.
M&A 101 - Inflated asset valuations, Transaction driven (legal fees, professional services fees, bonuses, write-offs, etc.), Top-line stuffing, and most importantly - Done with other people's money. M&A is not where you look for rationale.