luckystrike

Great stuff.

I personally won't be able to apply for my edutech startup with them, but am sure it would encourage a lot of other hackers who give this space a pass due to all the challenges specific to this domain.

Another HN user covered them pretty very well in this comment - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1879171

--------

  Education systems have huge budgets, but they are always run by such [REDACTED] 
  people that the money is never used as a lever to get what they need. 

  Education systems are quite happy to spend millions of dollars on consultancies 
  and studies, but because the focus is on risk avoidance they never actually 
  achieve anything.

  (And yes, there are a few exceptions. Having destroyed myself trying to 
  achieve anything in that sector I applaud all the more for those 
  who have managed it.)

  For anyone considering doing a company in this space, read all the 
  warnings you hear about doing enterprise software, and then take away the 
  fact the most enterprises are at least rational (if slow).
 
  Then also remove the fact that enterprises pay people well, 
  so they are usually a few decent people who you can deal with. 
  Then add in politics, the election cycle, unions, teachers, lectures, 
  "duty of care" considerations. If you are still considering that sector, 
  then good luck!!

Since it's you, I'll definitely send this data.

It just has been my observation that you actively scan the new page here, and comment/upvote first on a lot of deserving posts that otherwise would sink without a trace. (Unless you have already written a bot for this purpose :-))

So it's a good time to say - Thank you. Just let us know in which format you need this data.

p.s. I do remember you working on a dup detector bot as well a while ago.

http://groups.google.com/group/delhi-hn-meetup/browse_thread...

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/72394/what-should-a-devel...

  Today, a couple of application developers can turn around a decent piece 
  of software for a BlackBerry or an iPhone in a weekend. 

Yeah, right. I think blanket statements like these are part of the reason many non-technical people think programming is an easy (& cheap) job, and their eyes spread wide when we tell them what it would take to implement their "awesome" idea.

"Oh, I thought we could do this in a week .."

</rant>

Related - http://stackoverflow.com/questions/209170/how-much-does-it-c...

  But it wasn't an overnight eureka, and it wasn't intentional. 
  I didn't just walk out of high school, pick up a Ruby book, meet Tom and PJ, 
  then launch the site GitHub. 

  Before GitHub came, in chronological order, Spyc, Ozimodo, my ozmm.org, tumblelog, 
  ftpd.rb, Choice, Err the Blog, acts_as_textiled, Cheat!, acts_as_cached, Mofo, 
  Subtlety, cache_fu, Sexy Migrations, Gibberish, nginx_config_generator, 
  fixture scenarios builder, Sake, Ambition, and Facebox.

  And that's just the stuff I released.

Discussion: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=282158

HN community has been absolutely wonderful all these years, but for startups every geographical region brings in its own set of challenges. If we need to spur on the innovation and startup culture in India, we would have to connect and help each other out whenever required.

For example, check out this link - http://hackernews.in/item?id=182

I never knew about some of these startups and especially who are the folks behind it. This thread would obviously have got lost had it been posted here.

I see the new site's value in setting up a platform for collaboration amongst hackers/entrepreneurs of India. It cannot replace HN for me, but can be a useful add-on forum.

It cannot be a replacement for HN, but I hope it does become a useful (add-on) forum in its own right.

P.S. Yes, the site's name should ideally be something else.

http://blog.templatemonster.com/2010/06/11/55-coming-soon-pa...

http://blogs.sitepoint.com/2009/05/14/design-a-successful-co...

I have braced myself up for enterprise'y' sales cycles, but one small advantage I might have is that am based in India. I personally see a huge opportunity in making a dent with educational institutes here that have not adopted technology too much and the enterprise 'rot' has not settled in them yet. Of course, that brings in another set of challenges, but hey I don't wanna die wandering without giving it a shot.

Thanks a lot for your comments. Really appreciate them.

But at the end of the day, if it is not working for someone, (s)he would have to find another way.

Have you tried using a reward strategy like I would only drink and chill out after a couple of days when task X is finished? Gradually you can then reduce your drinking days from 4 per week to 1 (or zero).

IMO, it is very difficult to get off alcohol or any other addiction suddenly. It is more effective to tone it down gradually.

I would be happy if I could do even half the things simultaneously, that you have listed out in your post. (Quality time with wife + 3 Kids, Bootstrapped Startup, 3-4 Consulting Projects, Being to the gym 5-6 times a week, 2 podcasts per week, ...)

If we rewind a bit to when you were just starting out after college, were you pretty efficient and disciplined then as well? I am just curious whether self-discipline and efficiency can also be cultivated and improved upon drastically, later in life as well.

Thanks for writing this post. It inspired me to utilize my time more efficiently.

  How could you possibly suggest that those doing this are doing it out of a secret 
  need to build their public profile. That's a pretty cynical worldview.

Case in example - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1839507

Sorry if I misunderstood this poster, but from a genuine offer to help in one thread, it quickly went to offering of services here. (I hope the person corrects me if that really isn't the case.)

There could very well be a cafe owner down the road who might exactly say the same thing about serendipity as PB did in this blog post. He could be happy with the choices he made in his lifetime and the chances he took that got him all that is good in his life (by his definition).

It all comes down to whether a person has a positive outlook or not. One can keep regretting the things that didn't work out, or choose to see the good things in his/her life.

Interesting. Can you share more details on the new perspective you got from being there?

As Gabriel mentioned in the blog post - "Identify people that would make good mentors, i.e. with the right domain experience." The site looks very generic from outside and forces me to signup without even giving me a peek of kind of people I can expect to see in the community.

I might be looking for a startup mentor in a particular domain, and may be there is none of that type on it right now. Or may be some people on it are providing mentor-ship on how to go about learning a specific skill like flying etc that I am interested in, but since I have no clue, I probably won't sign up.

You can think of highlighting a few profiles or at least a few categories helping a visitor understand whether (s)he should join this community or not.

Good luck, and hope it becomes a good success.

  Website:	visualwebsiteoptimizer.com
  Location:	London, United Kingdom

On a serious note, I know you really wanted VWO to be covered on TC. If you find time, please do write a blog post afterwards on what impact this coverage had for your business. (Traffic driven to your site from TC, inquiries, new signups etc )

I am sure you are pretty cool about it, but take it easy about the TC (or any other such blog's) (non-)coverage. You got paying customers and if this continues, relevant news coverage would follow soon.

Cheers.

  I'd like a simple, efficient, scalable HTTP server written in C ...

Sidenote: libebb's Ragel based parser is derived from Mongrel.

  A computer program that wrote other computer programs.