HNHacker News
TopNewBestAskShowJobs

rolandal

44 karma · joined September 23, 2010

Verifying my Blockstack ID is secured with the address 1KVZb9bV8WfD5eCEp93nVU1g99x2oBhy7D https://explorer.blockstack.org/address/1KVZb9bV8WfD5eCEp93nVU1g99x2oBhy7D
submissionscomments
rolandal··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (March 2019)
Come work with us in sunny San Diego!
rolandal··on Job Hunting 101 for Coding Bootcamp Graduates
The 3rd rule is something we look directly for when hiring. If there is a direct passion (ex. Edtech) to draw from, it makes the candidate stand out from all the other "iOS dev" "DevOps" etc
rolandal··on What sucks about your company's dev environment/philosophies?
- Product Management: style/agile/waterfall

- Iterations: how often do they ship/what does QA cycle look like

- Pair Programming/Code Review: how does the company keep everyone in the loop?

rolandal··on Minbox: Dropbox sharing made simpler
So how do we get the beta code invite?
rolandal··on Google Now on your iPhone and iPad
Have you heard of or taken a look at Gimbal SDK? http://www.gimbal.com - it consumes about 3% battery for always on GPS/location...
rolandal··on Ask HN: What is your daily reading list?
I'm really surprised that no one has mentioned http://www.launch.co - @jason's news ticker.

Switching to just that has been the most productive thing for my time, and still feel comfortable I'm not missing any relevant news.

rolandal··on The Confessions of an Arrogant Startup CEO
Classy response/apology.

I would have also personally tried to find a unique/obvious subject line in the same direction as Francis took to get Mark Cuban's attention.

rolandal··on Ask HN: How do you prepare for PM interviews?
PM as in Project or Product Manager? (there is definitely some overlap though)

I look for a couple things, and ask questions that help evaluate their:

1) Technical background

2) Product instincts & creativity

3) How they've earned leadership

4) Ability to channel multiple points-of-view

5) Ship-ability

rolandal··on Ask HN: Ethics behind getting offers to figure out your "market value"?
For companies that are trying to "recruit" you away from your current employer, they are already aware I would assume.

Also, it seems like it would be make sense to deny an offer/opportunity if it's less than what you're currently making and/or vesting value.

I do agree that the counter offer strategy is not always a guaranteed win - I was more curious about people using this as a way to find out their "market value" (what someone is willing to pay/offer you)

rolandal··on Ask HN: Ethics behind getting offers to figure out your "market value"?
Depends - I would go back to the current place and see if they were willing to match.

Also, if that were the case, it would mean that:

* I under-valued, or under-negotiated my current compensation

* The current company doesn't value my skill set (either due to non-optimal performance or company structure)

rolandal··on Rejected by Kickstarter; Lumawake opts to Selfstart
It's understandable why Kickstarter has enabled and are enforcing their new project guidelines & rules. It's a shame however when good products that are fully functional and prototyped are tossed into the photo-realistic renderings or simulations bucket.

I think the Lumawake team is doing the right thing by using the http://selfstarter.us open source framework.

rolandal··on Show HN: Circular, an open source clone of Buffer
I'm curious to see how Joel, Leo, and Tom perceive this open-source version effecting their business.

I'm a long time buffer user, and paying customer, and think that this would actually help the sales pipeline for them. The MVP of Circular is so narrow (given only 1 dev), that it would make me wish for more, and with the attribution Julien gave to Buffer hopefully users will click-through.

Since the Buffer guys have a referral system already in place, maybe you can use Circular to generate some lead gen/affiliate income for you Julien. I would suggest reaching out to them, they are all really cool guys!

Just an idea - best of luck!

rolandal··on Exec launches professional cleaning service
Does anyone else on HN think this is a growing trend?

- Services/Startups that start really wide and then begin to pivot by narrowing in scope/niche (ex. An exec for all things -> building an Uber for cleaning service)

rolandal··on Ask HN: What startups are highly profitible but VCs won't touch?
What about APIs/SDKs like Betable? I know it's a UK based company, but does this allow others outside of UK to legally use it (ex. in the US?)
rolandal··on Ask HN: What startups are highly profitible but VCs won't touch?
There is a grey area that also exists for "dating" applications (ex. Grindr) etc that could be used for other purposes.
rolandal··on Show HN: From an idea to the Valley in less than a month
I like this product - and could see myself using it.

I'm curious if you are using native region monitoring for iOS?

I'm do Product & Business Development for Gimbal (http://www.gimbal.com) - and think I have a solution that you can use to help you on the geo-fencing side.

Feel free to email me and I can give you some use-case examples and intro you to one of my engineers that can help you integrate/test out our SDK.

rolandal··on Want to learn Rails? Start here.
I think the real take-away is to give yourself an actionable/completable project, that you can devote significant blocks of time to, and then feel good when you complete them.
rolandal··on Ask HN: How did you hack the press when you launched your startup(s)?
I've actually employed this exact strategy.

I created targeted hit-list of bloggers that wrote about my competition or similar competition.

I also created a field that had sentiment analysis, so I read the previous article they wrote to see if the were PRO our type of tech or CON against our type of tech.

This would then allow me to send a more personalized email, and either give them fodder to support their PRO stance, or reasons to persuade them away from their CON stance.

In addition to this, there are different ways to reach out to them, wether it be via email, or other methods. I often find that starting some dialogue on twitter non-related to the subject and getting them to respond to you before "pitching" them works incredibly well.

rolandal··on Ask HN: How many of you have sold your startup?
I think that your #2 - traveling - is something that is highly valued as an activity that people want to do/do more of by insiders in the tech industry. It's interesting that even though you now have infinite ability to travel, it even wore off after only 6 months.

Was it because you visited all the places you wanted (bucket list), were you traveling alone or with a partner/companion and it became boring, or the fact that you don't really have a "homebase" when you're traveling.

The reason I'm curious because I see myself working as hard as I can to be able to achieve the freedom to travel whenever/wherever I wish - and hope that it lasts a lifetime and not just for a short 6 month period.

rolandal··on Ask PG: Is There A Startup You Regret Not Funding? (Like Fred and AirBnB)
I feel like this is a common problem - we all get presented with many opportunities to join startups that become great.

I remember reading a similar post that was about how an engineer felt about turning down the opportunity to be a 1-10 employee at Facebook

rolandal··on Retickr: A Year In The App Store
It's great to see the labeled points on the graph relating to the timeline of events/mentions. I think it's worth to note that all startups should keep careful track of what types of events/mentions work well, and which don't.
rolandal··on Ask HN: A new kind of forum
I think a lot would hinge on cost, especially for the larger forums. What is your idea here to monetize?
rolandal··on Yahoo returns acquired startup to founders
Tranfer the Koprol domain and trademark back to the founders - the code they are trying to sell back to the founders...
rolandal··on Yahoo returns acquired startup to founders
Unfortunately Yahoo is asking for a lot of money to get their code back. So right now it's just the trademark and the domain.
rolandal··on Yahoo returns acquired startup to founders
This was already in the works pre-Mayer...
rolandal··on I ruined my credit. Will VCs count this against me?
Probably the best reply/answer you could have hoped for!
rolandal··on Ask HN: Freelancer? Seeking freelancer? (July 2012)
SEEKING FREELANCER -

Looking for a UI/UX for iOS/iPhone for a series of applications that we will be writing.

This will be in the music/tech/band space - and looking to start immediately.

Would prefer in the west coast region (SF/SD), but will consider all.

Please email me a link to your portfolio/dribbble/scoutzie/forrrst.

rolandal··on Ask HN: Help price my SDK?
Looking for any kind of input...
rolandal··on Show HN: Discover books, movies, apps and songs from your Twitter Feed
I signed up - definitely interested to see what types of discoveries you will find through my feed.

I agree with getting a small taste right off the bat, maybe as part of the email confirmation stage? (Where is the double opt-in btw?)

I wonder if you could expand this to include some entry fields on the web back end where you can specifically select what you want to monitor for?

rolandal··on Show HN: Paul Graham Says
Let me know when you've deployed next round! @rolandal
Page 1 of 2Next →