Why a federal high-tech start-up is a money loser

Post by em3rgent0rdr » Thu, Nov 03, 2016, 7:15 AM UTC

wpietri wrote: post #78

ProAm wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

18F is another money grab. A bunch of SV people said to themselves, here is an easy few years to make money and if nothing comes of it we can say "Ah well start up culture...lol". I never had high hopes of this, it's sad that it was touted as a startup. 99% of start ups fail over the course of 5 years....

If it's a money grab, it's a badly designed one. I interviewed with 18F and would have had to take a pay cut even on a cash basis. (Government salaries are strictly limited by law.) They certainly don't give stock, and (gasp) you have to buy your own meals. So financially it's not a good deal at all.

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Nov 03, 2016, 7:17 AM UTC

rndmize wrote: post #107

lsmarigo wrote: post #10

Activities that can’t be billed to other agencies are another drain. One example is staff time totaling 727 hours on a logo change. The old logo was a blue square with 18F in the lower-right-hand corner. The new logo, a black square with 18F centered and a different font, wasn’t worth the time and doesn’t look as good. for anyone else curious: (new) Black Logo: https://18f.gsa.gov/assets/img/logos/18f-logo.svg (old)…

From the actual report - "18F Branding – Staff spent 727 hours (valued at an estimated $140,104) developing the 18F brand. An example of one of their branding projects is the 18F logo change, seen below in Figure 8." Pretty poor journalism. Brand development strikes me as a much bigger category than a single logo change.

Post by dj-wonk » Thu, Nov 03, 2016, 7:32 AM UTC

dchichkov wrote: post #84

jonstewart wrote: post #34

Hi Silicon Valley! Thanks for visiting our nation's capitol! kisses, DC -- Seriously, this shouldn't be surprising. It's a noble effort, the work is probably worth the so-called "losses", but the reason the government is the government and not Silicon Valley is that in government, there are a bajillion rules to keep you from screwing up too badly. There's been a fetishization in DC of Silicon Valley techniques, but 1…

It is people that make the difference, not the place or techniques.

Post by dsfyu404ed » Thu, Nov 03, 2016, 7:45 AM UTC

setpatchaddress wrote: post #75

cloakandswagger wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want government sites and buildings to look like archaic disasters, because it at least implies that my tax dollars aren't being pissed away on frivolous opulence. Google can spend ten billion dollars changing their logo because they're profitable and they answer to their board & shareholders. I don't remember anyone asking me if I wanted to contribute money to a government tech startup.

Do tell. What do you think about paying the salary of FBI agents who interfere in presidential elections?

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Nov 03, 2016, 8:00 AM UTC

wpietri wrote: post #67

guessmyname wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ha ha ha this Americans and their political correctness. I cringe every time I see things like this and the HN community doesn't escapes from it, in fact, I have seen more "political correctness" towards sexism here more than in other communities on the Internet (at least the ones I visit) . I still do not understand why people pay so much attention to these things. I can only imagine how people would react in countr…

> I still do not understand why people pay so much attention to these things. Quite a lot of people who respond as you do actively don't want to understand. But in case you're one of the ones who is actually curious: Historically, sexism has been a problem. For millennia, women were basically property. The last couple hundred years, we've been unwinding that. E.g. less than 100 years ago, women finally got to vote. T…