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MailChimp’s founders built the company slowly by anticipating customers’ needs

nytimes.com

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Re: MailChimp’s founders built the company slowly by anticipating customers’ needs

#151

Post by ethbro »

s_baby wrote: post #74
hehheh wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How's the political climate? It doesn't look so great from my initial Googling: Georgia is one of the states suing over the transgender bathroom issue. Per Wikipedia Georgia doesn't include sexual orientation in their laws against employer discrimination. Anything else folks from SF might be concerned about?

Atlanta has the 3rd largest LGBT population behind SF/Seattle and is pretty diverse in general. It's the other parts of Georgia that can seem backwards. Same goes for North Carolina. A person from SF would feel at home in Asheville or Raleigh despite everything going on in the news.

As the snark goes "the worst thing about Atlanta is that it's in Georgia."

The rest of the state also has a proud tradition of hating public transit and attempting to defund MARTA (public rail & bus transit) in various ways. Punchline: no operational funding from state, but state historically limited how MARTA could spend its own sales tax revenue on operations. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Atlanta_Rapid_Tra... and http://saportareport.com/a-marta-story-why-the-state-never-a... for some hilarious political hijinks.

Cobb County (immediately west of the city) also (a) is unwilling to contribute to MARTA, (b) has a terrible traffic problem, (c) is currently burning money to build an overpass over 30 miles of existing interstate to solve the problem forever (see: http://www.ajc.com/news/local/mile-reversible-toll-lane-what... ), & (d) refuses to even consider rail.

Re: MailChimp’s founders built the company slowly by anticipating customers’ needs

#152

Post by michaelcampbell »

SwellJoe wrote: post #117
echelon wrote: post #37

The Atlanta tech scene is blossoming, just like our film industry. We have a couple of incubators, including a few that are funded/supported by Georgia Tech. The cost of living here is super cheap, and there are brilliant and talented people everywhere. We have satellite offices for tons of major tech companies, so there are traditional tech jobs too. Earning $200k here while the cost of living is so low is phenomina…

As a counterpoint: My family is in Atlanta (well, just outside of it), and it's probably my least favorite major American city. The traffic is out of control (and has possibly the rudest drivers in the whole country), McMansions and suburban sprawl are a way of life (my brother-in-law has an hour long commute to his near-downtown office, and keeps an office in his house so he doesn't have to drive down every day), an…

> and has possibly the rudest drivers in the whole country)

There are 2 truths I've found, having lived outside Chicago, Manhattan, Atlanta (in 3 different areas), Orlando, Tampa, and Los Angeles:

1. Wherever you are, people think the drivers there are worse than other places.

2. Wherever you are, people think the weather changes more frequently there than other places.

I have NEVER lived, and rarely visited places (including Europe), where someone hasn't used the "if you don't like the weather, wait an hour" joke, non-ironically.

As to your point I quoted, the drivers in Orlando are orders of magnitude worse than Atlanta. And I'm wondering if you've ever been to south Jersey or Boston, if you think Atlanta drivers are rude.

Your other points about McMansions and SUB-urban sprawl are spot on. And, everything IS 30 minutes away, and unreachable by mass transit.

re: casual racism... Dunno, maybe. At least it's not overt racism like I've seen in many other places, but I'm guessing that's not what you were getting at.

Re: MailChimp’s founders built the company slowly by anticipating customers’ needs

#153

Post by zeendo »

lgleason wrote: post #115
zymhan wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I beg to differ. I work for Pindrop. We have a unique product and we're growing steadily, with serious funding to boot. https://www.pindrop.com/about-pindrop-security/ https://www.pindrop.com/what-we-do/ We're also hiring: http://grnh.se/iwk5m4

One or two companies out of a city of 5+ million does not make a startup ecosystem.

It's (a little) more meaningful than your example-free claim.

Your description of the startup scene here is literally the startup scene everywhere.

Re: MailChimp’s founders built the company slowly by anticipating customers’ needs

#154

Post by michaelcampbell »

piptastic wrote: post #145
SwellJoe wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a counterpoint: My family is in Atlanta (well, just outside of it), and it's probably my least favorite major American city. The traffic is out of control (and has possibly the rudest drivers in the whole country), McMansions and suburban sprawl are a way of life (my brother-in-law has an hour long commute to his near-downtown office, and keeps an office in his house so he doesn't have to drive down every day), an…

Agreed. I have to fly into Atlanta from the West Coast 3-4 times a year and it is also my least favorite major American city. There are nice places there (Top Golf, Bourbon Bar, tons of good restaurants)... But there are nice places everywhere and they certainly don't make up for Atlanta's other shortcomings. I can't articulate all the reasons for my distaste, but it just looks dirty and depressing. The traffic is ho…

> We refer to it as Shitlanta

clever. Come up with that all on your own?

Re: MailChimp’s founders built the company slowly by anticipating customers’ needs

#155

Post by cglace »

piptastic wrote: post #145
SwellJoe wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a counterpoint: My family is in Atlanta (well, just outside of it), and it's probably my least favorite major American city. The traffic is out of control (and has possibly the rudest drivers in the whole country), McMansions and suburban sprawl are a way of life (my brother-in-law has an hour long commute to his near-downtown office, and keeps an office in his house so he doesn't have to drive down every day), an…

Agreed. I have to fly into Atlanta from the West Coast 3-4 times a year and it is also my least favorite major American city. There are nice places there (Top Golf, Bourbon Bar, tons of good restaurants)... But there are nice places everywhere and they certainly don't make up for Atlanta's other shortcomings. I can't articulate all the reasons for my distaste, but it just looks dirty and depressing. The traffic is ho…

Dirty? What parts of Atlanta? One of my favorite things about Atlanta is how green it is. After living on the west coast for awhile it felt amazing to come back and actually see something green.

Re: MailChimp’s founders built the company slowly by anticipating customers’ needs

#156

Post by jasonjei »

ryguytilidie wrote: post #143
echelon wrote: post #37

The Atlanta tech scene is blossoming, just like our film industry. We have a couple of incubators, including a few that are funded/supported by Georgia Tech. The cost of living here is super cheap, and there are brilliant and talented people everywhere. We have satellite offices for tons of major tech companies, so there are traditional tech jobs too. Earning $200k here while the cost of living is so low is phenomina…

I always see posts like this on HN. Whether its Portland, NYC, Chicago, Philly, Atlanta, Austin, etc etc etc. Why do people feel like they need to "convince" others else to move to the place they live or that the startup scene is "more real" than they currently believe?

I live in SF (from Phoenix, AZ), but I agree, I don't think a particular locality really matters. The Internet has made remote development possible for most startups. In fact, if Kernel.org (Linux) was considered a startup, it's a project founded by people not from a single city.

I understand to some degree the reasons startup people want people within 20 miles of them. But if somebody is happy living in Anchorage, AK, why should I convince this person to move where I am, as long as GH issues are being punched out?

That said, I love SF, motorcycling to Marin, and I don't think I'll move anywhere else for the distant future.

Re: MailChimp’s founders built the company slowly by anticipating customers’ needs

#157

Post by lgleason »

omarchowdhury wrote: post #142
lgleason wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The difference was that WhatsApp was about execution with a small team. The Atlanta way would have been to hire 2 engineers and then a army of marketing people to sell it. It's a shame because there is a lot of potential, but the leaders concentrate on the marketing of the community instead of actually developing a better community. Lots of cargo culting with incubators etc., but not a lot of large wins. There are po…

Who you know and your image... so basically every business community?

There will always be an element of who you know in any community, but Atlanta goes a bit further than the norm to the point of ignoring/devaluing the pieces that are at the soul of successful tech startups.....namely the tech.

Re: MailChimp’s founders built the company slowly by anticipating customers’ needs

#158

Post by jessaustin »

sndean wrote: post #144
irishloop wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to work for a company based in Conyers, GA, and would hang out in Atlanta when I traveled there. It is a great city. However, there is a huge cultural shift outside of Atlanta for people used to Silicon Valley or NYC, because the rest of Georgia is definitely... different.

It's the same for Washington DC as well. You can easily drive 20 miles southwest and get stuck behind a tractor while driving past corn fields. It's pretty similar for every city I've been to (including Atlanta). Drive an hour away and it's a completely different place.

Haha you could still be within a mile of DC after driving 20 minutes. It takes a little longer to find a corn field.

Re: MailChimp’s founders built the company slowly by anticipating customers’ needs

#159

Post by michaelcampbell »

rebelidealist wrote: post #127
echelon wrote: post #37

The Atlanta tech scene is blossoming, just like our film industry. We have a couple of incubators, including a few that are funded/supported by Georgia Tech. The cost of living here is super cheap, and there are brilliant and talented people everywhere. We have satellite offices for tons of major tech companies, so there are traditional tech jobs too. Earning $200k here while the cost of living is so low is phenomina…

How is the weather in ATL?

Hot in the summer, mostly pleasant the rest of the year. It snows every other year or so, but doesn't stick, generally. There are short spring and fall seasons, but they do exist.

Between 7 and 11 rain days per month. We actually get more rain than Seattle, but on fewer days.

Any complaints of "bad weather" generally equate to "it's too hot" or "I don't like it". For general human living, it's quite moderate.

Re: MailChimp’s founders built the company slowly by anticipating customers’ needs

#160

Post by michaelcampbell »

oftenwrong wrote: post #81
echelon wrote: post #37

The Atlanta tech scene is blossoming, just like our film industry. We have a couple of incubators, including a few that are funded/supported by Georgia Tech. The cost of living here is super cheap, and there are brilliant and talented people everywhere. We have satellite offices for tons of major tech companies, so there are traditional tech jobs too. Earning $200k here while the cost of living is so low is phenomina…

Is it practical to live in Atlanta without a car?

Not like it would be in NY or London, no. You can do it, and many do, but it's more work than most would consider "practical".

Uber is pretty good though when you need it.

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