mikekarnj

I used those numbers as an example. Not to be taken literally.

We promised Ed Nacional we would never publicly release the rate but I can say that the the majority of the $5K was spent on both the brand identity and URL.

While I was going through the process of selecting a designer, I went through a very long list of portfolios and selected Ed who was an up-and-coming designer at the time. He's much more expensive today as his portfolio and design skills have matured.

Great point. We still have that list to this day and we keep adding to it.

We even structured our whole company around solving problems. We assign major problems to our teams, they come up with a solution, we pick the best one collaboratively, and those turn into tangible projects.

@swombat Gotcha. That makes sense. I originally wrote the post in 20 minutes after watching "The Inside Job" so that's probably why it seems like I'm one of the "reddit-style omg banking is evil" type."

Yes, I wrote such a broad generalization, which I will definitely not include in future posts. So, thanks for the clarification. Learn something new everyday.

Will look into the CSS. Have no idea why it didn't load for you?

Have had a couple of posts get upvoted before so this isn't the first one: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2503064 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2250554

I agree. All companies should dream big and then break it down into actionable and realistic steps.

If you can clarify why this post is a "piece of trash", it would help me understand how to write better articles. I already changed my post from "zero" value to "arbitrary" value to make it more clear. I also linked to the Rolling Stone article for people that want to dive deeper into the topic. And yes, I shouldn't have generalized an entire industry and refer actually to a specific piece. It's also my opinion, which a lot of people may agree/disagree with it.

The derivatives market is an arbitrary market where money just moves from one place to another.

Real engineers build things like bridges and websites. Bankers build dreams and leverage the shit out of it to put the whole country in debt.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-great-american...

I actually presented all 193 slides in less than 15 minutes. The format was a huge hit with the audience.

Starting a company is really easy. Building a company is really hard.

I'm going to have to steal that phrase!

So true. I think the overarching problem with that scenario is that the engineer is building the product for himself, and not for the team and end users. Rather than caring about what's best for the product, he/she thinks about his personal ego.

Totally true. The hardest part of the whole process is cutting features out. For me, I imagine that our sink is shipping and we just have to throw things overboard to stay afloat just a little longer. This allows us to throw things out that aren't exceptionally vital for the product.

The funny thing is that once you throw out the feature that you really really thought you needed, you actually don't even think about it anymore. Strange how that works.

That's an interesting insight. In New York, there seems to be an increasing trend that values both product (design) and engineering.

I'm assuming that companies only higher rockstars right? Why else would you add someone to your team?

I think you can say the same for people that aren't successful.

It might not be as bad as the housing market crash but keep in mind that more people will be going to college in the future and take out student loans. I think higher education loans will grow at a staggering rate which will ultimately crash. If it crashed on its own, it wouldn't be devastating. If it happened right after the housing market crash, it could destroy our economy.

Scary thing is that the government will be the sole backer of educational loans. We all know how slow and antiquated they operate. I don't know if this is going to be a good or bad thing for the economy.

I second the vote for the article. Would love to read it.

I think most people got mortgages because it was a sure thing investment that appreciates over time. That didn't hold true.

I'm arguing that a college education doesn't exactly equate to a higher salary these days.

What do you guys think of taking calculated risks as an entrepreneur?

Sorry about that guys. Just increased the font on the article.

No comment :)

Great points about poker.

Poker is kind of like rock, paper, scissors. At the beginning levels, you know the other person is probably going to throw rock on the first throw. So your best move is to throw paper (since scissors is thrown 30% of the time on average). This works well as a strategy against beginners.

If you're playing against a pro player, or something that is knowledgeable about the game, this is where being "several levels deep" will come to your advantage and this is the level that professional poker players will play in games. "Is he going to throw rock, or does he think I'm going to throw rock, or does that mean I should throw scissors, etc etc."

I think in beginner games, 3-betting on the turn is an easy fold, but you'll have to start second guessing yourself when playing in a higher-stakes game (as most people try to bluff you on the turn). This is why a lot of people lose a lot of money in high-stakes games. What worked in the lower stakes won't necessarily work in higher stake games, which is why you have to play in a comfortable bankroll. You'll make a lot of mistakes.

Just because you sell your company doesn't mean you want to invest all of the money into your own startup. It seems like he wanted to make sure Carbonmade had a proven model before he invested additional time or money into the idea.

Pushing that aside, I think a lot of the advice he gives is very relevant and applicable to bootstrapping startups.

The article mentioned that your past decisions got you to the point you are today. It's about to you make decisions on where you go in the future. There's no such thing as perfection, but if you make the best decision, there's nothing really else you can do. Good luck with school again.

I agree. The financial collapse was the worst and best thing that could ever happen.

Just to clarify, I did NOT write this post as a "East Coast versus West Coast" thought-piece. I wanted to give a 50,000 feet view from what is happening in New York City to document the momentum of the ecosystem that's being created as we speak. I'm a huge supporter of entrepreneurship in every city, and this is a model that should be shared and replicated in every community. If we take what works in NYC, Boston, SF, Seattle, New Orleans, etc -- we just might be able to get somewhere.

“I’m not a businessman I’m a business, man Let me handle my business, damn”

That has to be one of the best lines of all-time from Jay-Z. Great post. Thanks for sharing.

I think the financial collapse has a role in what's happening in New York City. You're seeing a huge shift from people "thinking" about starting something to "doing" it. When you see most of your friends getting laid off from jobs, you realize nothing is guaranteed, so you might as well swing for the fences. This has a ripple effect through the community.

“Greenwich Village 60s … Venice Beach 70s … London 80s … Silicon Valley 90s … Blogosphere 00s … NYC now…”

Great point on the technical founder. Actually, really good point. Will add it to our notes.